Tabriz White Paper

Transforming Passive Networks into an Active, Persistent, and Secure Business Advantage


Executive Summary

The Internet--which includes the World Wide Web and corporate "intranets"-- has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the past 24 months. Interactive marketing, publishing, communications, customer support, and online commerce are all conducted over the Internet today. Yet today's Internet is still a passive network. It requires users to browse manually through mountains of information in search of the content they're interested in, or make repeated efforts to access a server that's frequently busy, or log on to a site daily to update information.

General Magic's Tabriz technology transforms the Internet from a passive network into an active business advantage where users can delegate tasks to agents. These agents can mine the Internet for information on a user's behalf, locating information, monitoring updates, and orchestrating information retrieval. They can search on virtually any Internet site, even while the user is off-line. Once an agents completes a task, the user can receive notification via email or even a pager. The user simply logs onto the Web site, goes to his or her personalized page, and views the requested information.

General Magic's Tabriz agent products, Tabriz AgentWare and Tabriz Agent Tools, facilitate the development and deployment of active, personalized network services. They deliver a combination of features and functionality that is absolutely unique in the industry. Three key attributes in particular set Tabriz agents apart: they are active, they are persistent, and they are secure.

This paper explores the business case for using Tabriz products to create and deploy Internet applications. It examines the competitive advantages of Tabriz AgentWare and Tabriz Agent Tools as a foundation for creating interactive Internet services, and provides an in-depth discussion of the underlying technology that delivers those advantages.

The Opportunity