Non-intrusive Lightweight Agents for Information Management

An information management system should reduce the workload of the user. It should also learn about user's preferences and reduce the e ort in managing information. We propose a non-intrusive approach to building information management systems, based on software agents. Software agents are programs that carry out actions on behalf of the user autonomously. We describe the issues involved in designing such systems. As an example, we design BMA (a Bookmark Management Agent). BMA is a non-intrusive, lightweight software agent that manages bookmarks (web browser pointers to favourite sites). Tests show that BMA is a useful tool in managing bookmarks. This shows that software agents are a promising approach to information management systems. It also demonstrates the feasibility of a non-intrusive agent.