AIMS: Agent-based Information Management System

Information Management is an important component in the development of viable information sharing systems, such as JBI, where shared information may be manipulated to derive further information. The qualities of such derived information depend on qualities of the contributing information and of their sources. Determining information quality requires propagation of qualitative and pedigree data about such manipulations through successive generations of information. Such data enables application-dependent decision making and attributing confidence to those decisions. However, the cost of propagating such data increases as the volume of information increases through generations. In general, users of an information sharing system are satisfied with approximate and rapid assessments of qualities along with a brief derivation history of the information. However, not all assessments need to be performed in a time-critical environment and not all approximate and rapid assessments can satisfy every quality need. In this project, we are developing an Agent-based Information Management System (AIMS) that enables rapidly establishing approximate qualities and related provenance within satisfactory limits to save computation time and storage costs. Complementary mechanisms support establishing complete, more accurate qualities of information. Quantum Leap’s Virtual Information Chromosome enables propagation of the most representative provenance across generations for rapid quality assessment.