: Systems in which semi-autonomous problem solving agents communicate and cooperate with one another represent an exciting vision of future computing environments. However, if this vision is ever going to result in commercially viable systems then consideration must be given to the large software base which exists within many organisations. Success requires the ability to incorporate pre-existing systems alongside purpose built agents in a cooperating community. This requirement is vital because the former represent a substantial resource investment which companies cannot afford to consign to the scrap heap. This paper reports on our experiences of constructing cooperating communities which contain elements which were pre-existing and some which were developed specifically for incorporation into an integrated environment. The general purpose framework of ARCHON (ARchitecture for Cooperative Heterogeneous ON-line systems) provides the underlying technology which facilitates cooperative ...

The ARCHON Layer concepts described in this paper have been devised and implemented by