Plan of Study

December 15

Have a first pass at the basic framework in place. Install several servers in a simulation network on one machine. Choose a distributed agent technology, build preliminary APIs for the server environment and write first test agents.

February 1

Round out server environment API, reevaluate and document (as a thesis chapter) the distributed agent framework. Build basic suite of agents; presence of people and activity of people and machines. Recruit first users.

March 1

Evaluate the use of existing agents. Build more agents from experience with first set. Incorporate user feedback and agent design experience into the structure of the server framework.

April 1

Document the agents, their design and use. Examine the behavior of the ecosystem. Discover interesting synergies between ecosystem and application and explore them.

May 8

Thesis due. Write up results: experiences with the ecosystem, general introduction and conclusions. Take readers out for a nice dinner.