Agent-Based Intelligent Information Dissemination in Dynamically Changing Environments

This chapter presents an agent-based approach to intelligent information dissemination in dynamic environments. We will describe a prototype agent-based system, called the Anticipator, which enables an information dissemination system to adapt to changing information needs of users and provide the users with critical information relevant to those dynamic changes. The Anticipator models the information needs of each user with a dynamically adaptable profile that describes the current information needs of that user and how to adapt those information needs according to the changes in the environment. The Anticipator employs two types of agents, Profile Agents and Event Monitoring Agents. Profile Agents manage runtime user profiles. Event Monitoring Agents watch for interesting changes in the environment and report such changes to the Profile Agents such that the content and the frequency of the information sent to users can be adapted dynamically.