Software Agent Augmented Portals

Abstract

The Internet was designed to connect distributed networks. It, however, provides a new way for people to interact. Connectivity becomes an important need. People feel uneasy while not being connected. The challenge for connecting people from different locations introduced a new concept of accessing resources and capabilities/utilities, the portal. Web portals have been successful in providing basic connectivity, for example, file archiving. On top of this, users start to expect the availability of a larger variety of services, more intelligent services, and more affordable services. New challenges emerge, however, and Web portals have limited capability to address them. It needs a significant enhancement of the mechanism of how services are provided. The software agent paradigm is a technology that is good at high level modelling and good at offering flexible and intelligent services. It has exhibited great potential to augment portals for addressing the new challenges. This article will review and discuss how agent technology can augment portals to provide desirable services.