Agents On The Semantic Object Web: Information Management for Coalition Operations

Coalition operations pose clear challenges for information sharing and for the integration of disparate information processes. ISX Corporation has been investigating the combined use of agent-based approaches to implement Information Management AgentsTM operating on a semantically organized Semantic Object WebTM to provide highly flexible means of delivering information services within a large, distributed and diverse enterprise. The techniques described demonstrate their particular suitability to rapidly standing up a “come as you are” organization of coalition partners whose information protocols, requirements, and processes might vary widely. The use of a Semantic Object Web provides an agent-navigable information substrate which can be used by service-provider agents to discovery relevant information or services, to map their own content into a shareable semantic space, and to exploit available content and services. Using agentbased techniques, the approaches described provide the ability to deconstruct information requirements to guide matching of source / consumer relationships within the enterprise, and then to compose, aggregate, and transform information from various sources to meet those requirements. In this vein, the techniques provide services registration, matching and brokerage, agent facilitation and control, and semantic matching and transformation necessary to compose the right information for the coalition force member. In addition, this work also addresses the dissemination and delivery of information. Information Management Agents provide the means to constrain and guide information access and delivery within the coalition means to implement selective information management business rules and policy server-imposed access and publication restriction. Together, these technologies promise the capability to support interoperability across coalition organizations while maintaining necessary policy and process-based constraints on information access and dissemination constraints.