Introduction
The Retsina Semantic Web Calendar Agent, RCAL, supports the browsing and tasking of information and
services on the Semantic Web, and integration with MS Otlook. Schedules and agendas, that may be
fragmented across the web, with references to speakers and locations defined in DAML and RDF are
combined to display coherent schedules that can then be imported. In addition, each of the concepts
displayed can be used to locate and invoke related services, through the use of discovery services.
RCal may be invoked from the Start Menu or from the icon that is placed on the desktop. On invocation,
the agent contacts the local implementation of Outlook to load the user's agenda and contact list. This
information is used for distributed meeting scheduling. Once loaded, the
Current Events Browser will appear on the screen, and
the RCal Agent icon will appear in the system tray. This system tray icon can be used to retrieve
the Current Events Browser (when iconified), and to access other browsers, such as the
Semantic Web Browser.
The agent utilises much of Outlook's Calendar functionality, without the need for running Outlook.
When executing, many of the Outlook modules are loaded and accessed by the agent. Thus the agent
can utilise many of Outlooks services, such as notifications and reminders, and the ability to
post mail and set personal appointments.
The first time the agent starts, agent registration information is requested by the agent (see opposite).
Agent registration is not necessary to use the agent, however, functionality is limited as
without retinstration, requests to other agents cannot be conducted. For example, registration
is not necessary for browsing Semantic Web Agendas that use the ICal ontology; however, translation
services and distributed meeting scheduling cannot be conducted without contacting these services
(which involves contacting Agent Registry.
Registering the agent simply involves providing a unique name to the agent and registering this
with an Agent Name Service (one is provided at www.daml.ri.cmu.edu on port 6677). RCal uses an email based scheme for naming agents - users
can construct the Agent name by appending "-CalendarAgent" to their email
address (note that the '@' character should be replaced by '_'). This
construction is performed automatically by typing the email address in
the email address form within the ANS Registration; as the address is
entered, the constructed agent name appears below.