Web Services and Information management

Arun and Gary, I agree with you in connection between Web Services and Information management.

I strongly believe that information is the key to the commerce world. For agents to be provide useful capabilities, they need to be information-aware. To make them information aware, we need

1. Information architecture: The information management will provide metadata so the information can be discovered.
2. Semantic web: The Semantic web will extend the traditional metadata to the next level to make sure that agents can find the most relevant information
3. SOA for Data: This covers using web services to decouple agents from information sources. I prefer using REST, when possible, because it is simple and is based on WWW standards.

In addition to above areas, I believe that research in agents can also benefit from work in data mining.

What do you think?