I-X: Task Support on the Semantic Web

The coordination of resource and activity to achieve some common objective is a key task within modern virtual organisations. The Semantic Web initiative promises to increase the number of knowledge and information resources available, presenting more (and more varied) opportunities for interaction. However, as the number and complexity of these interactions increases, so too does the need for task support tools. This extended abstract describes our research into support for mixed-initiative (that is, involving both human and computer agents) collaborative tasks in distributed environments. At the heart of this approach is the I-X technology. This is introduced in section 2, while section 3 illustrates the nature of the task support it offers through the description of two applications. Section 4 outlines some future directions that this work will pursue and the final section provides a summary and some conclusions.