Agent Software for Near-Term Success in Distributed Applications

Abstract

As the world moves rapidly toward the deployment of geographically and organizationally diversecomputing systems, the technical difficulties associated with distributed, heterogeneous computingapplications are becoming more apparent and placing new demands on software infrastructures. The notionof ?agents? is becoming increasingly popular in addressing these difficulties. However, there is no widelyaccepted definition for, or approach to, agents. The term is itself quite evocative of human problem solvingskills and is frequently used without definition, resulting in widespread confusion. This paper attempts todispel this confusion by describing and comparing three different, but related, views of agents ? agents asautomated personal assistants, agents as cooperating problem solvers, and agents as communicatingsoftware entities ? in light of two applications:?distributed information systems and informationcommerce. This paper explores the third perspective on agents, which suggests a unique opportunity fornear-term success in these and other application areas.