Utilizing Semantic Web and Software Agents in a Travel Support System

Abstract

The use of Semantic Web technologies in e-business is hampered by the lack of large, publicly-available sources of semantically-demarcated data. In this chapter, we present a number of intermediate steps on the road toward the Semantic Web. Specifically, we discuss how Semantic Web technologies can be adapted as the centerpiece of an agent-based travel support system. First, we present a complete description of the system under development. Second, we introduce ontologies developed for, and utilized in, our system. Finally, we discuss and illustrate through examples how ontologically demarcated data collected in our system is personalized for individual users. In particular, we show how the proposed ontologies can be used to create, manage, and deploy functional user profiles.