Gossip
Gossip
Dateline: 12/30/99
Mobile agents are personal assistants that can "go out" on the Internet where they exchange information, access databases, acquire knowledge and "talk" to other agents. The key feature is mobility: it allows agent to work for you on the Net even when your computer is not on-line. Today's Artificial Intelligence is about new ways of connecting people to computers, people to knowledge, and especially people to people. Mobile agents can play an important role here, especially now when the hype surrounding agent technology is more or less over.
Tryllian B.V. is an Internet technology company focused on the development of such mobile agents. The company was founded in March 1998 and has established a marketing and sales presence in San Jose, California while maintaining its corporate headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The introduction of Gossip 0.9 (released in November 1999) makes them probably the first company to launch a commercial mobile agent application of this type. Made up of three basic components, Gossip is a knowledge management tool helping you find cool places, best buys and interesting contacts. The playground is your Gossip home base, loaded with five agents waiting for their assignments. The playground has a doorway to the Internet that you can open to send your agents out on missions. Agent is another key concept: it will talk to you and ask you questions. Wallets
are information containers used for storing links and information about your interests. Every time you send out an agent with a wallet, he fills it up with more info on that subject. The Marketplace is a server where agents exchange information and can browse through databases and search engines.
After download and a wizard-guided installation, a screen appears containing a number of colorful objects - larger moving figures representing your agents and smaller circles representing wallets. The first thing you'll have to do is to open a wallet, filling it with a subject, keywords relating to the subject, and related Web sites you know and like. These wallets will fit in the round holes in the agents, and after setting your agent's return time and opening a door marked "Internet", it will slide out right into the cyberspace. It will return after the time you have set for it has elapsed, carrying wallets loaded with interesting information.
It will take some time for your Gossip agents to learn your preferences. The system demonstrate a level of intelligence that surpasses that of traditional computer programs by using a sense-reason-act loop. Also, every time you rate the info an agent brings back, that agent will get to know your preferences a little better. The main point here is that agents will learn more quickly if you use them more often.
The final version of Gossip 1.0 will be available for free in late January. Gossip and other Tryllian agents are written entirely in Java2, which is provided with the Gossip installer. As of October 1999, stable versions of Java2 have been released for Windows 95/98/NT and Solaris. Other operating systems will follow as soon as Java2 becomes available for them and Tryllian has tested the Gossip application.
Besides agent applications, Tryllian also provides a complete mobile agent environment. This environment ensures a high level of security that guarantees that agents can't be cracked or changed. It also provides Marketplaces, Home Bases and the agents with transportation facilities, databases, directory services and other useful resources - all products are are based upon the Tryllian Agent Foundation Classes (TAFC). These classes form the basis of an overall mobile agent technology infrastructure and are available to the development community. Developers can use TAFC to develop mobile agent applications that are compatible with other agent systems and that can use the Tryllian agent infrastructure. Information on availability of the TAFC is available on request at [email protected].
For more information on Gossip and other products from Tryllian, visit their Web site or subscribe to their mailing list. Another great place to discuss mobile agent technology and other AI-related issues is our Artificial Intelligence Forum.