Software agents have come a long way in the last ten or so years. This paper looks at the practical challenges many software agent developers face including: interfacing to legacy systems; developing distributed systems; agent competence; and trust and privacy issues. Because it covers such a broad area, it will focus on how the problems and issues have changed over the years, and highlight some of the perennial problems.
Abstract: Software agents have come a long way in the last ten or so years. This paper looks at the practical challenges many software agent developers face including: interfacing to legacy systems; developing distributed systems; agent competence; and trust and privacy issues. Because it covers such a broad area, it will focus on how the problems and issues have changed over the years, and highlight some of the perennial problems.
