OFFICE WORK SUPPORT WITH SOFTWARE AGENTS

People working in an office concurrently engage in two or more office activities, which can be classified into personal and group work. To i ncrease office productivity with a computer system, both personal and group work should be supported. However, currently available office wo rk support systems, such as a workflow management system or a software secretary, focuses on one or the other of these activities. In this p aper, an agent-based office system that supports both personal and gro up work is introduced. In this system, there exist agents for personal and group work, and they are mutually connected in a two-layered agen t network to work in cooperation. With the support of these agents, pe ople in an office can expect to perform both their personal and group work efficiently.