3.5.1Introduction

Information Brokering, agency and personalisation of information and services are powerful concepts, which all have one important presupposition in common: the availability of a solid (technical) basis to built upon. "Brokering", "Agency", and most of the other terms that have been introduced in this chapter, are concepts: they say only very little, or nothing at all, about the techniques that should be used to accomplish and built them and about the enabling groundwork they presuppose. This abstraction of the precise technical implementation is something that is inherent to their conceptual nature, and is one of their powerful features. Yet, this chapter would be incomplete if we did not have a look at the technical basis that will enable, or help accomplish, them.
Therefore, in this section we will have a look at techniques and methods that are readily available or emerging today, and of which it may be expected that they will substantially contribute to the realisation of this necessary and enabling groundwork.