Comments on: So where are the agents? http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/ Weblog for the Mindswap research group at University of Maryland Tue, 2 Dec 2008 21:40:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.10 by: Denny Vrandecic http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20530 Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:13:06 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20530 Maybe I was born too late, but I never understood what all these agents were doing that the early papers on the Semantic Web were supposed to do. Yes, sure, I read the SciAm article, but why do I need an agent for what happens in there (besides them being very useful for a play we staged based on that scenario, but that's another story). If you mean with agent something that has believes, desires, intentions, isn't this overkill for the tasks described there? If I want to discuss a schedule to bring my mom to the doctor with my sister, I don't need more than meet-o-matic getting connected to my Google Calendar. If you mean with agent something like Henry is describing -- well, that sounds reasonable. In this case, they are there. So, what kind of agent are you referring to? And what do you want them to do for you? Maybe I was born too late, but I never understood what all these agents were doing that the early papers on the Semantic Web were supposed to do. Yes, sure, I read the SciAm article, but why do I need an agent for what happens in there (besides them being very useful for a play we staged based on that scenario, but that’s another story). If you mean with agent something that has believes, desires, intentions, isn’t this overkill for the tasks described there? If I want to discuss a schedule to bring my mom to the doctor with my sister, I don’t need more than meet-o-matic getting connected to my Google Calendar. If you mean with agent something like Henry is describing — well, that sounds reasonable. In this case, they are there. So, what kind of agent are you referring to? And what do you want them to do for you?

]]> by: Semergence » Blog Archive » I’m Squinting… But No Agents So Far http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20226 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:54:35 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20226 [...] Jim Hendler asks so where are the agents? More specifically, I’d like to ask What do we need before agents can be deployed? [...] […] Jim Hendler asks so where are the agents? More specifically, I’d like to ask What do we need before agents can be deployed? […]

]]> by: Henry Story http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20222 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:02:18 +0000 http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/03/08/so-where-are-the-agents/#comment-20222 What about all the blog reading agents, the blog editors and the blog aggregators? They are only using very simple data standards, but that should come as no surprise. Things have to start simple on the internet, which is a massively distributed learning tool. I think <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/beatnik_change_your_mind" rel="nofollow">Beatnik</a> would be a very simple foaf agent. What we have is very simple agents that deal with some limited vocabularies first. This is needed to solidify the use of those vocabularies, help people learn about the benefits of them, and get a feel as to when to trust source of information, and when not to trust them. What about all the blog reading agents, the blog editors and the blog aggregators? They are only using very simple data standards, but that should come as no surprise. Things have to start simple on the internet, which is a massively distributed learning tool.

I think Beatnik would be a very simple foaf agent.

What we have is very simple agents that deal with some limited vocabularies first. This is needed to solidify the use of those vocabularies, help people learn about the benefits of them, and get a feel as to when to trust source of information, and when not to trust them.

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