Software agents and issues in personalisation: Technology to accommodate individual users

Abstract

This paper provides a background to the somewhat nebulous field of computing known as "software agent technology". It gives both an overview of some of the key issues faced by the field, and illustrates the context for the papers contained in the rest of the special issue. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the field and proceeds to survey existing work, showing where overlaps exist between agent technology research and interrelated fields such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI). The paper then alters focus to concentrate on applications to the personalisation of systems and services to individual users, and techniques which offer opportunities in this area. The other papers in the Special Issue then form the basis for a review of the current state of the art in the personalisation of Systems using agent technology. The paper concludes by offering some suggestions for future development of the technologies mentioned.