Using user models in software agents: the Virtual Secretary

A user model contains knowledge of the user's past and present tasks and it is the key element in the construction of adaptive user interfaces. A less discovered feature of user models is their potential use in software agents. Through the transference of user models, we can construct software agents that both reduce the threats of software agents penetrating a local host and the amount of data transferred. The paper presents the Virtual Secretary, which is a user model based software agent system.