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International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents

CIA 1998: Cooperative Information Agents II Learning, Mobility and Electronic Commerce for Information Discovery on the Internet pp 160–171Cite as

Dynamics of an information-filtering economy

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1435))

Abstract

Our overall goal is to characterize and understand the dynamic behavior of information economies: very large open economies of automated information agents that are likely to come into existence on the Internet. Here we model a simple information-filtering economy in which broker agents sell selected articles to a subscribed set of consumers. Analysis and simulation of this model reveal the existence of both desirable and undesirable phenomena, and give some insight into their nature and the conditions under which they occur. In particular, efficient self-organization of the broker population into specialized niches can occur when communication and processing costs are neither too high nor too low, but endless price wars can undermine this desirable state of affairs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, P.O. Box T04, 10598, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

    Jeffrey O. Kephart, James E. Hanson, David W. Levine, Benjamin N. Grosof, Jakka Sairamesh, Richard B. Segal & Steve R. White

Authors
  1. Jeffrey O. Kephart
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  2. James E. Hanson
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  3. David W. Levine
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  4. Benjamin N. Grosof
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  5. Jakka Sairamesh
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  6. Richard B. Segal
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  7. Steve R. White
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Editor information

Matthias Klusch Gerhard Weiß

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kephart, J.O. et al. (1998). Dynamics of an information-filtering economy. In: Klusch, M., Weiß, G. (eds) Cooperative Information Agents II Learning, Mobility and Electronic Commerce for Information Discovery on the Internet. CIA 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1435. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0053682

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0053682

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64676-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69109-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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