Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Using interconnected networks
Patent
1997-07-22
1999-08-03
Maung, Zarni
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Using interconnected networks
709219, 709201, 709202, 709203, 707 10, 707102, 707501, 707515, 707513, G06F 1730
Patent
active
059319070
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and/or systems for accessing information by means of a communications system.
2. Related Art
The Internet WorldWide Web is a known communications system based on a plurality of separate communications networks connected together. It provides a rich source of information from many different providers but this very richness creates a problem in accessing specific information as there is no central monitoring and control.
In 1982, the volume of scientific, corporate and technical information was doubling every 5 years. By 1988, it was doubling every 2.2 years and by 1992 every 1.6 years. With the expansion of the Internet and other networks the rate of increase will continue to increase. Key to the viability of such networks will be the ability to manage the information and provide users with the information they want, when they want it.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an access system, for accessing information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network, the access system comprising a plurality of software agents such that a user can access information, using the network, by means of an agent, wherein each agent is provided with an intelligent page store, for storing summaries, together with associated data, of pieces of information accessible via the network, and multiple keyword stores for storing sets of keywords such that the agent can identify information for which an entry is made in the intelligent page store by applying either or both of first and second sets of keywords to entries in said page store.
In a useful configuration, the first and second sets of keywords may be associated with different respective users.
An agent might then be triggered to apply keyword sets to pages of information in (or being added to) the page store by different circumstances for different users. For instance, an agent might apply a first set of keywords in the course of a storage request from a first user. However, the agent might then apply one or more additional sets of keywords in order to notify one or more other users of the entry.
Preferably, a group of agents will share an intelligent page store, although there may be multiple intelligent page stores in or available to the access system as a whole. This sharing of a page store provides a way of enabling an agent to monitor new entries to the page store for notification to potentially interested users.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a distributed system of intelligent software agents which can be used to perform information tasks, for instance over the Internet WorldWide Web (W3), on behalf of a user or community of users. That is, software agents are used to store, retrieve, summarise and inform other agents about information found on W3.
Network systems such as W3 are known and are built according to known architectures such as the client/server type of architecture and further detail is not therefore given herein.
The present invention is not concerned with providing another tool for searching systems such as W3: there are already many of these. They are being added to frequently with ever increasing coverage of the Web and sophistication of search engines. Instead, embodiments of the present invention relate to the following problem: having found useful information on W3, how can it be stored for easy retrieval and how can other users likely to be interested in the information be identified and informed?
Software agents provide a known approach to dealing with distributed rather than centralised computer-based systems. Each agent generally comprises functionality to perform a task or tasks on behalf of an entity (human or machine-based) in an autonomous manner, together with local data, or means to access data, to support the task or tasks. In the present specification, agents for use in storing or retrieving information in embodiments of the pre
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Davies Nicholas John
Weeks Richard
British Telecommunications public limited company
Maung Zarni
Thomson William D.
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