Software Agents (image)

Caption:

SOFTWARE AGENTS will be greatly facilitated by sematic content of the Web. In the depicted scenario, Lucy's agent tracks down a physical therapy clinic for her mother that meets a combination of criteria and has open appointment times that mesh with her and her brother Pete's schedules. Ontologies that define the meaning of semantic data play a key role in enabling the agent to understand what is on the Semantic Web, interact with sites and employ other automated services.
Steps labeled in the image:
  1. Lucy issues instructions
  2. Her agent follows hyperlinks in the request to ontologies where key terms are defined. Links to ontologies are used at every step
  3. After getting treatment info from Lucy's and Pete's computers, the agent goes to a provider finder service
  4. Lucy's agent and the finder service negotiate using ontologies and agree on payment for its service
  5. The finder service sends out its own agents to look at semantics-enhanced insurance company lists and provider sites
  6. Lucy's agent interacts with the selected individual provider sites to find one with suitable open appointment times, which it tentatively reserves
Source
The Semantic Web
by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila
photoillustrations by Miguel Salmeron
in Scientific American magazine
for May 2001 (volume 284, number 5), pages 34–43
image from page 41

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