An agent-based digital self in a 24x7 Web services world: architecture and implementation

Intelligent agents have the potential to play an important role in meeting the challenge to provide tools and interfaces for people to productively interact with the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24x7). This paper describes a novel agent-oriented architecture called ShadowBoard with a novel user interface called ShadowFace. Both the architecture and interface draw on concepts from cognitive psychology. The architecture has been embedded in a software framework called ShadowSpaces, and has been used to develop a prototype lab manager for booking services and providing advice to potential users of the Interaction Design lab at the University of Melbourne. An overview of the architecture, interface, framework and implementation are all presented.