AGENTLINK UPDATE # 16 --- 12 May 1999 This is the email newsletter of AgentLink -- Europe's Network of Excellence for Agent-based Computing. The AgentLink WWW site is http://www.AgentLink.org/ IMPORTANT: Please take the time to ensure that every member of your group receives a copy of the AgentLink update. If you have a group mail alias, why not get this alias to be added to the mailing list? To subscribe/unsubscribe to this mailing list simply send a request to mailto:coordinator@agentlink.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: * AgentLink II -- PLEASE READ THIS! * Joint i3Net/AgentLink workshop on Human/Agent Factors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * AgentLink II -- PLEASE READ THIS! We hope to submit the proposal for AgentLink II to the IST programme in the near future. Hugo Brailsford (the AgentLink admin coordinator) will be emailing the technical contact person at each AgentLink node an admin form that must be completed and signed in order to participate in AgentLink II. The form is similar to the admin form you will have completed when you joined the network. ********************************************************************* * It is *very* important that the admin form is completed and * * returned promptly. We will enclose instructions on how to do this.* ********************************************************************* We hope to make a preliminary version of the AgentLink II project proposal available early next week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Joint i3net/AgentLink workshop on Human/Agent Factors SimHAF: (First) Special Interest Meeting on Human/Agent Factors Advance Notice & Call for Participation General Information: WHEN 29th June, 1999 WHERE Valencia, Spain [Co-located with MAAMAW'99] COST Registration is Free Programme Committee Jeremy Pitt (Imperial College, London) Cristiano Castelfranchi (NCR, Rome) WHAT The SIM will consist of a number of invited presentations from i3net and AgentLink members, and a panel session. BACKGROUND The long-term technological goal of the Esprit Long-Term Research pro-active initiative in intelligent information interfaces, i3, is to build novel human-centred interfaces for interacting with information, aimed at the broad population. The i3 initiative involves a supporting network of excellence, i3net, which includes a Special Interest Group on Agents. While this SIG appears to be dormant, judging by the i3-conference in Denmark, there is considerable interest in agent technology amongst the i3 community. It is the intention of AgentLink network of excellence to facilitate the transfer of agent technology, skills, standards and best practice from academia to industry. One requirement subsumed by this intention is the impact that intelligent agents can make on human-computer interaction. It is highly likely that i3 participants with an interest in Agents and AgentLink members with an interest in HCI have a shared interest: it therefore be in their interests to establish a common SIG. Accordingly, the aim of this Special Interest Meeting is to provide a forum for AgentLink and i3net members to exchange ideas on Agents and HCI. It is intended to help form a bridge between i3Net and AgentLink and cover mutual interests under the same span. This would provide an opportunity for i3 participants to tap into the latest agent developments, while AgentLink members could access a new domain of potential applications beyond electronic commerce and telecommunications. Purpose: Human Factors is concerned with the design of tools for different environments to suit the capabilities and capacities of their users. We propose Human-Agent Factors as specifically (1) the design of agents for different environments to suit the capabilities, capacities and requirements of their owner-users, and (2) the design of `tools' (interfaces, libraries, software, standards, middleware, etc.) for different environments to suit the capabilities and capacities of these agents. SIM Focus Advances in network and communications technology can enable highly featured and digitally integrated services on the basis of personal choice. However, in practice, digital technology and information delivery is highly unfriendly for users to understand and control. New techniques for interacting with functionality and content are therefore required, and, of course, agents are proposed as one of these techniques. Agents communicate asynchronously with other agents and the consequence of communicating multi-agent systems is that a society of agents is emerging. The concern of this SIM is how the society of agents impacts upon, and interacts with human society, at the individual, social, and organizational levels. Perhaps the key feature is that of ownership, by which we mean the explicit attribution of a human individual, group or organization (a human entity) that is legally responsible for the agent's actions and vouches for its 'good behaviour'. In this context, a number of important and pressing open problems and research opportunities are presented, for example in: * anthropomorphising the human-agent interface and manifesting ownership and social relations; * delivery of personal information and services targeted to user profiles (for which standardised representations, public access rights and usage rights are all issues of concern) * metaphors for engendering trust, metaphors for suggesting an attitude reflecting the content and use of the interface, legal aspects, etc. Underpinning this research is the need for interoperability between heterogeneous interfaces, and interaction mechanisms which can enable (human) electronic communities to be built on the society of agents. Furthermore, in order to model and support HCI and CSCW in organisations, the understanding of cultural, interpersonal, psychological, normative and structural aspects of interaction and cooperation is necessary. Probably some of those aspects must be partially handled by the agents if they have to support these interactions in a friendly and intelligent fashion. Goals and Expected Results The main goals of the SIM are to bring together recent advances in mixed initiative dialogues, personalization and profilization, and adjustable autonomy, in order to begin developing: * a roadmap for managing the migration from direct manipulation to delegation of responsibility, and from mere execution to collaboration; * a roadmap for managing the adaptive interaction between agent-owning and non-agent owning human entities; * a better understanding of the technical, political, social, economic and educational impact of the agent society on human society. Expected results would, in the short term, be in the interface and interactions which support concepts of ownership, ease of personalized service creation, ubiquity of access, self-configuration, and visualization of character, content and complexity. We would also anticipate longer-term results. In the past, a distinction has been drawn between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' of the information revolution, the so-called information rich and information poor. Similar distinctions are drawn today between those with cheap and convenient high-speed access to the internet, and those (individuals, organizations, communities and countries) without. It may be that in future a distinction will be made between those human entities who own agents and those who do not. The lasting significant contribution of the research of this SIM would be to narrow or even eliminate this divide. Organizational Details The SIM will be co-located with MAAMAW'99 and take place the day before the conference itself. There will be space for approximately 25 attendees. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration for MAAMAW'99 is not a pre-requisite for attending SimHAF. Please indicate whether you are an i3net or AgentLink member when registering. SIM Coordinator Dr. Jeremy Pitt Intelligent & Interactive Information Systems Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Imperial College of Science Technology & Medicine Exhibition Road, London UK SW7 2BT Email: j.pitt@ic.ac.uk Tel.: + 44 171 594 6318 Fax.: + 44 171 594 6274 END ------------------------------------------------------------------