IEEE INTERNET COMPUTING

This magazine provides a journal-quality evaluation and review of Internet-based computer applications and enabling technologies. It also provides a source of information as well as a forum for both users and developers. The focus of the magazine is on Internet services using WWW, agents, and similar technologies. This does not include traditional software concerns such as object-oriented or structured programming, or Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) or Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) standards. The magazine may, however, treat the intersection of these software technologies with the Web or agents. For instance, the linking of ORBs and Web servers or the conversion of KQML messages to object requests are relevant technologies for this magazine. An article strictly about CORBA would not be. This magazine is not focused on intelligent systems. Techniques for encoding knowledge or breakthroughs in neural net technologies are outside its scope, as would be an article on the efficacy of a particular expert system. Internet Computing focuses on technologies and applications that allow practitioners to leverage off services to be found on the Internet. Agents are one technology for doing so, independent of claims about intelligence. In fact, most of the useful agent technology being deployed on the Internet is distinct from the multi-user agent technology developed in the AI world. The latter typically focuses on architectures supporting beliefs, intentions, and other human-like characteristics. Such characteristics are typically not relevant to Internet agents. More important are system engineering issues such as Internet mobility, shared protocols, ontologies, registration, and routing. Network software and hardware per se are not in the scope of this magazine. On the other hand, hardware that permits faster execution of a specific Web technology, such as Java chips, would be covered.