An agent-based approach to manage negotiation protocols in flexible CSCW systems

Autonomous agents are often used to manage the complex situations arising in computer-supported collaborative activities. Anyway, agents are confined to accomplish only marginal tasks and cannot yet be considered integrated with CSCW systems. This paper describes CollAge, an agent-based CSCW system designed to promote the productivity of distributed meetings by means of agents. The system architecture assigns a personal agent to every meeting attendant and includes a project-manager agent and a resource-manager agent to deal with the activities related to arranging and managing the meetings.