The grid, virtual organizations, and problem-solving environments

In collaborative and distributed systems additional complexities arise from pervasive heterogeneity and the dynamic nature of the distributed environment. The PSEs through which end-users interact with Grid resources must be intelligent enough to handle these complexities. The Semantic Web has been suggested as a way of allowing computers, users, and agent-based software systems to interact more effectively. The introduction of Semantic Web concepts into an intermediate layer between the Grid and problem-solving environments (PSEs) may provide one mechanism upon which intelligent PSEs can be based. Currently agents play quite a limited role in scientific Grid applications. However, the agent abstraction may play a more significant role in the future of the Grid.