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Software Agents and Soft Computing Towards Enhancing Machine Intelligence pp 100–115Cite as

Multi-agent matchmaking

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1198))

Abstract

Many important and useful applications for software agents require multiple agents on a network that communicate with each other. Such agents must find each other and perform a useful joint computation without having to know about every other such agent on the network. This paper describes Yenta, a matchmaker system designed to find people with similar interests and introduce them to each other. It describes how the agents that make up the matchmaking system can function in a decentralised fashion, yet can group themselves into clusters which reflect their users' interests. These clusters are then used to make introductions or allow users to send messages to others who share their interests. The algorithm uses referrals from one agent to another in the same fashion that word-of-mouth is used when people are looking for an expert. A prototype of the system has been implemented, and the results of its use are presented.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    L. Foner

  2. Intelligent Systems Research, Advanced Applications & Technology Department, BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, IP5 7RE, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK

    I. B. Crabtree

Authors
  1. L. Foner
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  2. I. B. Crabtree
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Hyacinth S. Nwana Nader Azarmi

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Foner, L., Crabtree, I.B. (1997). Multi-agent matchmaking. In: Nwana, H.S., Azarmi, N. (eds) Software Agents and Soft Computing Towards Enhancing Machine Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1198. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62560-7_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62560-7_40

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-62560-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68079-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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