ANKON: A multi-agent system for information gathering

Abstract

The global information management scenario requires support systems which help the user in discovering interesting information contained in heterogeneous sources spread through all over the world. In the present paper, we introduce the notion of hierarchical global concepts to support the flexible management of imprecise and heterogeneous representation of information. In particular, we show how the characteristics of a cluster hierarchy can be exploited in the query reformulation phase in order to comply with the user imprecise and uncertain information requirements. The technique has been implemented in a FIPA compliant multi-agent system, with a mediator-like architecture.