Using Relational Concept Knowledge to Improve Search in Referral Networks (Extended Abstract)

The notion of referral networks, as presented in the work of Singh and Yolum, and their application to knowledge management, lacks two fundamental aspects; the relation of concepts within a domain, and the ability of an agent to dynamically change their interests based on suggestions in the form of concept relations. This paper introduces the concept of an oracle agent, which is an agent with relational concept knowledge that can supply suggestions to a querying agent on how to adapt their interests. These new features allow agents to search in new ways so as to achieve superior results and as a consequence outperform agents in a traditional referral network. Categories and Subject Descriptor