Social Abstractions for Information Agents

Abstract

Most of the modern applications of computing technology arise in large-scale, open, information-rich environments. Open environments are distinguished by fact of having a number of networked and interrelated, but heterogeneous, information resources. The applications include ubiquitous information access, electronic commerce, virtual enterprises, logistics, and sensor integration, to name but a few. These applications differ from conventional database applications not only in the nature and variety of information they involve, but also in including a significant component that is beyond the information system. An information system must inevitably perform its immediate duties: create, store, transform, use, and dispose of information. However, as the above applications suggest, there is a large world outside the realm of pure information where reside physical and economic objects and organizational processes that manipulate them.