AGENTLINK UPDATE # 4 This is the email newsletter of AgentLink -- Europe's Network of Excellence for Agent-based Computing. IMPORTANT: If you are the technical contact point for your node, then it may well be that you are the only member of your organisation receiving the AgentLink update. Please take the time to distribute this mail to other members of your group who may not have received it. If you would like anybody added to this mailing list (not necessarily a member of AgentLink), then please send a request to AgentLink@qmw.ac.uk. If you have a group mail alias, why not ask for this alias to be added to the AgentLink update list? PLEASE NOTE that you cannot reply directly to this mail; send comments questions, etc to AgentLink@qmw.ac.uk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: * AgentLink @ Agents World * AgentLink WWW site * Three SIGs Confirmed * AgentLink summer school '99 * AgentLink Job! * AgentLink newsletter * AgentLink Calendar 1998-99 * Agent Products Database ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink @ Agents World It was great to see so many AgentLink members at the recent Agents World event in Paris. Hopefully, you saw the small stall and exhibition boards there, and also you should have received a copy of the leaflet we are distributing, to advertise the network. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink WWW site The AgentLink WWW site has been updated, and includes the new project logo (!), and information on all the network's current members. (You might want to check this information, to ensure that it was transcribed it correctly from your official forms!) The WWW site also contains all the project's public documents, including "back issues" of the AgentLink email update. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Three SIGs Confirmed One of the main outcomes of the management committee meeting held on 8 July was the confirmation of three special interest groups (SIGs). These were: * Agents for electronic commerce Coordinator: Carles Sierra (mailto:sierra@iiia.csic.es) * Software engineering/methodologies for agent systems Coordinator: Jan Treur (mailto:treur@cs.vu.nl) * Intelligent Information Agents Coordinator: Matthias Klusch (mailto:klusch@cs.cmu.edu) The purpose of these SIGs is not to support research directly, but to pump-prime communities in these areas. The hope (expectation!) is that these SIGs will result in new collaborations and projects between AgentLink members. To try to get these collaborations happening, SIGs will be funded to support primarily workshop-like meetings of interested parties. As much as possible, these meetings will be co-located with other existing events (see also the calendar below). The SIGs will each hold their kick-off meeting on 24 September in Brussels (precise location to be confirmed). The purpose of these kick-off meetings will be to map out territory and identify key issues; each SIG will be issuing a call for participation shortly, but in the meantime, please contact the SIG coordinators directly for informal feedback and information about participation. Following the 24 September meeting, there will be a "feedback" meeting, where SIGs present their initial results, and a management committee meeting. AgentLink is expecting each SIG to meet 2-3 times per year, with funds to support travel for a maximum of about 15 people per event. The basic rule is that the SIG meetings will be open to anyone interested (not necessarily AgentLink members), but funds will obviously only be available to AgentLink members. Moreover, support will only be provided to meeting participants playing an *active role* in the meeting, for example by presenting some work. SIGs will not have a formal membership list (they are emphatically *not* "projects within projects"). Membership will be defined by activity in the SIG! Full information about the 3 established SIGs will be online as soon as possible. We are still looking for more SIGs. If you are interested in running one, then have a look at the admin page on the AgentLink WWW site for information on how to apply. Please remember, however, that SIGs are not research projects: it is important to have a broad appeal in order to achieve a critical mass of the agents community, and it is also important to address a topic that has some chance of obtaining independent project funding within a few years! SIGs come in two types: research-oriented and industrially-oriented. Typically, we expect research SIGs to focus on technologies, and industrial SIGs to focus on application areas and their problems. Contact Yves Demazeau (mailto:Yves.Demazeau@imag.fr) for more information about research SIGs, and Donald Steiner (mailto:donald.steiner@mchp.siemens.de) for more information about industrially-oriented SIGs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink summer school '99 One of the main teaching and training activities of AgentLink is to be a summer school. At the recent management committee meeting, it was resolved that the best way of attracting first-rate teachers to this event would be to hold in immediately before the IJCAI-99 conference, which is being held in Stockholm. So the summer school will be held between 26-30 July 1999 in Stockholm. Gerhard Weiss (mailto:weissg@informatik.tu-muenchen.de) is collecting ideas for courses and teachers for this event. Why not let him know what speakers and subjects you would like to see covered there? Note that support will be available for students in AgentLink nodes to attend the summer school. Details are being finalised. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink job! A job is available, to act as administrative coordinator of AgentLink. The post will involve assisting with the running of the network, by helping to maintain the network's WWW site, organise meetings, keep track of finances and so on. The post will be based in the east London campus of Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. It would be ideal for a computer-literate graduate. This is a fixed-term appointment until the end of October 1999 in the first instance with a salary in the range GB pounds 17,596 to 25,375 per annum inclusive depending on experience. Further information on the Department, may be found at http://www.elec.qmw.ac.uk/ and informal enquiries may be made to Professor David Olver on +44 171-975-5345 or email a.d.olver@qmw.ac.uk. For further details and an application form please email coll-recruit@qmw.ac.uk or telephone our 24 hour Recruitment Line on +44 171-975-5171 quoting the Reference No 98123. Only application forms will be accepted and these should be returned by 30 July 1998. If you know of anyone who may be interested in this job, PLEASE encourage them to apply! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink Newsletter The first issue of the newsletter is currently in production -- thanks to everyone who contributed an article. We are already seeking articles for the second issue, which will appear later this year. Items of interest include (but are not restricted to): * agent workshop and conference reports * descriptions of agent labs and research groups * descriptions of major agent products or software packages * general discussion papers * informal summaries of research results Note that the newsletter is not an academic journal, so the style must be more relaxed and less formal than for academic publication. If you are interested, then please contact Mike Wooldridge (mailto:AgentLink@qmw.ac.uk). We are also still looking for someone to take over the editing of the newsletter. If you are interested, please get in touch! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AgentLink Calendar, 1998-99 One of the major tasks of the management committee meeting on 8 July was to map out in as much detail as possible the calendar for the next 12 months. One important decision taken was to hold a "general meeting" of AgentLink before the end of the first year, at which member nodes could attend and give feedback. Our preference was to co-locate this event with an existing event, so as to get the maximum value for money! Given the time constraints, it was decided that PAAM conference (to be held in London in April) would be the obvious candidate; we are currently negotiating with the PAAM organisers to see if we can reach some agreement about this. So, the current calendar looks like this: 1998 24 September SIG kick-off meetings (see above) location: Brussels 25 September AM: feedback meeting from SIGs PM: Management committee meeting 1999 December-January second meeting of SIGS 22 April SIG meetings [TO BE CONFIRMED] location: probably co-located with PAAM, London 23 April AgentLink plenary meeting [TO BE CONFIRMED] location: probably co-located with PAAM, London 26-30 July AgentLink summer school location: Stockholm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Agent Products Database One of the purposes of AgentLink is to establish a database of information concerning agent-related software and technology. This database will be made publicly available on the Web and will offer AgentLink members and the public at large ready access to information about European agent technology from research prototypes to products and solutions. This Request for Data (RfD) invites you as an AgentLink member to supply the information necessary to make such a database as comprehensive as possible. Please provide the industrial workpackage coordinator, (Donald Steiner, mailto:Donald.Steiner@mchp.siemens.de) with the following information, where applicable, and send your data to the AgentLink preferably with "AgentLink RfD" in the subject line. In the future, once the necessary arrangements are made, we aim to allow each member to make additions to the database automatically via the web. Thank you for your contribution! Input to AgentLink Technology Database 1. Name of Institution and Department 2. Name of Software 3. Type of Software (e.g. Environment, Tool, Application, ...) 4. Application(s) (e.g. Appointment Scheduling, Network Management, Info Retrieval, ...) 5. Associated Projects (e.g. ESPRIT, ACTS, ...) 6. Agent Architecture (e.g. mobile, BDI, ...) 7. Supported/Employed Techniques (e.g. cooperation, learning, user modeling, search, ...) 8. Implementational Status (e.g. concept, demonstrator, prototype, product) 9. Implementational Basis (e.g. C, JAVA, TCL, ) 10. Standards used (e.g. FIPA, KQML, KIF, CORBA, MASIF, ...) 11. Technical Contact (incl. E-mail) 12. Availability (e.g. restricted, public domain, beta-test, license fees, ...) 13. Marketing Contact (incl. E-mail) 14. Current Date 15. Expiry Date [at this time we will prompt you for an update] 16. Other