1. Course Policies
The course is based on lectures, lecture notes, and additional materials provided either electronically or in hard copy
There will be no exams. Instead:
Grading will be based on two projects
mid-term project (40%):
a survey on a class-related topic
development of an agent
business case for agent technology in an area
bigger final project (60%)

2. Example Projects: A. Projects involving programming
Write part of a Retsina information agent. The other, standard parts will be provided. NOTE: requires moderate knowledge and programming experience in PERL, or Webl or JAVA)
Implement agents that participate in an auction (e.g. sealed bid first price auction) NOTE: requires advanced programming skills in JAVA or C++
Given the Retsina matchmaker code, implement other types of middle agents. NOTE: requires advanced programming skills in JAVA.

3. B. Example Midterm Projects not involving programming
Comparative review of auctions (pros and cons)
Comparative survey of advanced e-commerce sites (i.e. not just simply listing a product or set of products)
Comparative survey of software tools for building agents, and what is missing.
Value added uses of agents in e-commerce.
Comparative survey of shopbots, issues raised by shopbots.
How would commerce change if everyone had personal agents available? Which types of personal agents would be useful?
Models of marketing on the Web, and use of agents in this endeavor.
Identify and document uses of agent technology in at least 25 top sites. Discuss trends. File sharing programs (e.g. gnutella)