Activities

MANAGEMENT AND INFRASTRUCTUREAGENTLINK II

This component of AgentLink's activities - and the general running of the network - is coordinated by Michael Luck.

The success of AgentLink will critically depend on the provision of a high-quality communications infrastructure. Therefore, the main aims of this workpackage are:

• to provide a communication infrastructure through which both members of AgentLink and other interested parties can communicate on aspects of AgentLink; and
• to provide a management infrastructure through which the work of the network can be effectively and efficiently carried out.
  

Dedicated WWW site for AgentLink

The most important single communication mechanism for AgentLink is a WWW site. The domain name AgentLink.org was registered for this purpose. The WWW site provides information both about all aspects of name: its purpose, mandate, organisation, mechanisms for entry to the network, work areas, reports, points of contact, and so on. In addition, it is the conduit though which all tasks intended to communicate information will flow. All network-specific documents for AgentLink are available via the WWW site, as is the newsletter, and a collection of maintained resources of value to the community. As indicated earlier, the goal is for http://www.AgentLink.org/ to become a ``portal'' site for agent-related activities.

Moderated, edited email list for AgentLink

An email list for AgentLink has been established, providing moderated, edited information about all issues relevant to the network. This email list, which is free to join, currently has about 600 subscribers. The list regularly provides up-to-date information on all aspects of AgentLink's activities.

You can ask to be added to the monthly AgentLink Update mailing list by sending a request to coordinator@agentlink.org.

Newsletter

Electronic methods for dissemination, while they are both cheap and fast, are not appropriate for some audiences. In particular, electronic formats are not appropriate for dissemination at conferences, trade fairs, and so on, and can create an unprofessional impression in industry. For these reasons, AgentLink has established a professionally typeset and printed newsletter, published at four-month intervals throughout the life of the project. In addition to containing details of what's happening in the network, the newsletter carries a range of articles including features, reports on conferences and workshops, informal descriptions of research results and new software, book reviews, short descriptions of projects, labs, and
companies, and so on. The newsletter is distributed free to all members of \oname, and is also distributed by way of promotion at conferences, workshops, and industrial events.

Annual report.

An annual report will be prepared by the management committee of AgentLink, summarising the activities of AgentLink (including financial and organisational matters, as well as reports on SIGs, workshops and
conferences supported, and projects in progress) throughout the preceding year. The report is expected to be formal, but will not require the professional typesetting and printing services required by the newsletter.

External and inter-network coordination

In order to both encourage cross-fertilisation of research and development activities and make the most efficient possible use of available resources, AgentLink will actively coordinate its activities with those of other relevant networks of excellence (such as compulog-net and erudit). In addition, AgentLink will coordinate its activities with external professional and academic organisations at both national and pan-European levels, as well as with relevant journals, seminars, conferences, and workshops (such as the International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, the International Conference on Autonomous Agents, the International Conference on Practical Application of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, and the many other established AI, HCI, and software engineering conferences). Finally, AgentLink will also coordinate with relevant funding bodies outside Europe: the most obvious example is the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA, who are initiating a major programme of agent research, and who have expressed an interest in coordinating their activities with AgentLink, to
support, for example, researcher exchange programmes.

Administrative support

The work of AgentLink cannot be carried out effectively without dedicated, full time administrative support. A qualified administrator will therefore be appointed, to be resident at the site of the coordinating proposer, in order to provide this support. The administrator will manage the communication infrastructure of AgentLink on a day-to-day basis, ensure that enquiries are directed to the appropriate persons, keep track of finances, and so on. The administrator will not have executive power within AgentLink, but will primarily assist the network and workpackage coordinators, and deal with any issues that do not require management input. The administrator will also provide support to the various SIGs and workpackages active within the network, by providing help and advice on organising meetings, issuing meeting calls to the appropriate parties, and so on.

Openness

It is intended that AgentLink will be an open network, in that any group sufficiently qualified should be able to join. This task will be directed at encouraging appropriate nodes to join; such encouragement will be given in part through industrial meetings, in part through awareness-raising activities, and in part by encouraging all members of AgentLink to actively promote the network at conferences, workshops, industrial events, and so on.

Development and Evaluation of AgentLink

As AgentLink develops, new problems and opportunities will arise for the communities it creates. This task will focus on ensuring that any problems which may arise are dealt with effectively (perhaps by modifications to the management or infrastructure), and that any opportunities are fully
exploited. Evaluation and feedback from members will be sought through a plenary session to be held at one AgentLink meeting, and through the annual distribution of a questionnaire for members to present their views. It is intended to explore the possibility of inviting external feedback from other networks through visits to AgentLink meetings. Information from all these
sources will be considered by the AgentLink management committee
in an annual review towards the end of each year.