A Conceptual Model of an Intelligent Meeting-Scheduler

This research proposes a conceptual model for an intelligent meeting-scheduler (IMS) [1,2] that is capable of assisting organizations in the scheduling of meetings. The IMS is an integrated software system. It combines scheduling tools and organizational knowledge to support various activities within the scheduling process, such as meeting-content planning and group composition. Our model is based on the notion of software agents [3] and consists of the following functional agents: communication manager, scheduling manager, and calendar manager. These agents are coordinated by a control manager and work in cooperation to assist a host and invitees in negotiating an acceptable time slot during a scheduling session. We also describe the knowledge architecture of the IMS, which consists of a set of knowledge-base agents supporting the above functional agents. We developed a prototype to explore the feasibility of the conceptual model. The prototype was used in 2 real-life case scenarios, and a simple questionnaire was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. Our architecture was found to be useful and innovative by the users; however, they raised concerns about several issues, such as calendar maintenance and privacy. Future integration of our model into real business organizations will need to address these concerns. In addition, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the model in such organizations is expected to be a major challenge.