Software Secretary Kernel: An Extendable Architecture for Learning and Negotiating Personal Assistants

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bocionek, Siegfried

Affiliations: Siemens AG, ZFE ST SN 62, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81739 Munich, Germany. Phone: +49 89 636-48478; Email: bocionek@zfe.siemens.de

Abstract: Software secretaries are agents that provide assistance in managing some office-work (scheduling meetings, reserving rooms, processing purchase orders) in much the same way as human secretaries. This concept seems attractive, since it could provide secretarial assistance to everyone within an organization that is presently available to only few people. To maximize their usefulness, software secretaries have to be customized to users' and organizations' needs, they must be extendable for supporting new tasks, and they need capabilities to negotiate with humans and agents on behalf of their owners. The proposed software secretary kernel is the architecture for implementing such flexible personal assistance programs.

DOI: 10.3233/AIC-1994-73-401

Journal: AI Communications, vol. 7, no. 3-4, pp. 147-160, 1994