The social aspects of agent design

Abstract

Web-based software agents have been the primary source of ecommerce innovation and development in the past decade. Yet, the fact that the empirical design and evolution of these agents are not only determined by technology but also by their social aspects is probably not much appreciated. No agent lives in a historical vacuum. Instead, Web-based software agents operate in a social environment. It is through this environment that they interact with their users, compete with peers, bring profit to agent maintainers, and undergo regulation by public policies. In other words, Web-based software agents are also social agents.