AgentLink: The European Network of Excellence for Agent-based Computing

Call for Special Interest Group Proposals

An important activity of AgentLink is the establishment of a number of
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in the Industrial and Research
Workpackages. It is planned to initially have 2-3 SIGs for each of the
Industrial and Research Workpackages. For more information about SIGs,
please refer to the AgentLink technical annex (AgentLink document
1998-001.pdf).

With this message, we invite AgentLink members to submit proposals for
SIGs. We have designed the proposal mechanism to involve as low an
overhead as possible -- it really *isn't* much work!

A SIG proposal should include the following:

 - activity area (industrial or research)
 - provisional title
 - short description of the topic (LESS THAN 1/2 PAGE!)
 - short description of goals and expected results (LESS THAN 1/2 PAGE!)
 - members of AgentLink *who have agreed to participate*
 - potential *European* participants not already members of AgentLink
 - name and contact details of SIG coordinator.

The proposal should be submitted (in PLAIN TEXT format) by email to
the relevant coordinator:

Industrial SIGS		Donald Steiner	Donald.Steiner@mchp.siemens.de
Research SIGS	        Yves Demazeau	Yves.Demazeau@imag.fr

Some points to note:

* the aim of SIGs is to establish communities that show promise
  with respect to developing future projects and collaborations --
  this will be the main criteria against which SIGs will be evaluated.

* the aim of SIGs is to be INCLUSIVE rather than exclusive. You should
  aim to get everyone with a relevant interest involved, and not make
  it an exclusice club! 

* try not to pick topics that are TOO specific. As a guideline, we
  expect SIGs to have at least 12 members when up an running (although
  you need not start with that many, there should be potential for
  growth!) 

* if approved, funds will be made available to support approx 2
  meetings per year of the SIG - primarily the travel expenses of
  participants. The SIG will be encouraged to coordinate these
  meetings with other events, (e.g., AgentsWorld, MAAMAW, etc), to
  reduce costs, etc. There is likely to be a general AgentLink event
  in 1999 to which all SIGs will be invited.

* each SIG will have a single coordinator, with overall responsibility
  for managing the SIG. This coordinator will become a member of the
  AgentLink general management committee, and will be expected to
  attend AgentLink management committee meetings.

Sincerely,

Mike Wooldridge        	Yves Demazeau		Donald Steiner
General Coordinator    	Research Coordinator	Industry Coordinator
M.J.Woodridge@qmw.ac.uk	Yves.Demazeau@imag.fr	Donald.Steiner@mchp.siemens.de