Agent-Oriented Information Systems 2001

Agent-Orientation is emerging as a powerful new paradigm in computing. Agent-oriented concepts and techniques could well be the foundations for the next generation of mainstream information systems. Information systems have become the backbone of all kinds of organizations today. Yet the inflexibilities in current technologies and methods have also resulted in poor performance, incompatibilties, and obstacles to change. As many organizations are reinventing themselves to meet the challenges of global competition and e-commerce, there is increasing pressure to develop and deploy new technologies that are flexible, robust, and responsive to rapid and unexpected change. Agent concepts, which originated in artificial intelligence but which have further developed and evolved in many areas of computing, hold great promise for responding to the new realities of information systems. The contributions to this book focus on how agent concepts and techniques will contribute to meeting information systems needs today and tomorrow.