BioMen: an information system to herbarium

This paper presents the development of BioMen (Biological Management Executed over Network), an Internet-managed system. By using service ontologies, the user is able to perform services remotely from a web browser. The services are managed by means of a Multi-Agent System, i.e. an Input/Output system, which interacts with the web server. In addition, artificial intelligence techniques have been incorporated so that the necessary information may be obtained for the study of biodiversity. We have built a tool which will be of particular use to botanists and which can by accessed from anywhere in the world thanks to Internet technology. In this paper, we shall present the problems we encountered when building this tool and how we managed to overcome them. q 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.