AGENTLINK UPDATE # 65 – 29th October 2004 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Agent Technology & Standardization Activities Wkshp - The Role of AgentLink (29th November, 2004 - Paris, France) * EUMAS (16-17 December, 2004 - Barcelona, Spain) * AGENTLINK III TECHNICAL FORUM 2 & Call for TFG Proposals (28th February, 2005 - Ljubljana, Slovenia) (Call Deadline: 31st December, 2004) * Call for Papers AAMAS-2005 Industry Track (25-29 July, 2005 - Utrecht, the Netherlands) * Agentlink III: Call for Research Event Support Proposals ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Agent Technology & Standardization Activities Wkshp - The Role of AgentLink The AgentLink III Work Package 2, which aims at contributing to European take-up of agent technology through the support of relevant and appropriate standardisation initiatives, organized a 1-day workshop on the topic: Agent Technology & Standardization Activities - The Role of AgentLink The meeting will be kindly hosted by France Telecom in Paris the 29th November 2004. The main objectives behind this initiative are: 1. To assess the importance of ongoing agent-dedicated and agent-related standardization activities. 2. To clarify how existing standardization bodies and groups relate and possibly contribute to the establishment of stronger liaison. 3. To understand and possibly position the role of Agentlink III for ongoing and future agent-dedicated and agent-related standardization work. We expect to animate productive discussions to clarify the importance of standardization activities for software agent technology, a topic relevant to many academic and industrial agent-oriented organizations. For any further information, please, contact: standardisation-activity@agentlink.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EUMAS, 16-17 December, 2004 - Barcelona, Spain THE SECOND EUROPEAN WORKSHOP ON MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS INTRODUCTION The aim of this second European Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems is to encourage and support activity in the research and development of multi-agent systems, in academic and industrial European efforts. For more information on topics of interest and how to submit, refer to: http://www.eumas.org/2004/ Invited speakers: Onn Shehory (IBM Haifa Laboratories) Frank van Harmelen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) For hotel and conference registration: go to http://www.eumas.org/2004/index.html IMPORTANT DATES Early Registration 15th November Late Registration 13th December ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AGENTLINK III TECHNICAL FORUM 2 AgentLink III is delighted to announce that the Second AgentLink III Technical Forum (TF2) will take place at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from Monday 28 February 2005 to Wednesday 2 March 2005. The AgentLink III Technical Forums are informal meetings of European researchers working on agent-related technologies, with the aim of promoting contacts, discussion and co-ordination of research activities. The first Technical Forum was held in Rome, Italy, in June-July 2004, and attracted over 100 participants from across Europe. TF2 in Slovenia will be hosted by a local committee chaired by Professor Matjaz Gams. Full details of the meeting will appear shortly on the AgentLink web-site: http://www.agentlink.org/activities/al3-tf/index.html Proposals to run Group sessions at TF2 are now welcome. Please see the web-page for further details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AgentLink III Second Technical Forum (AL3-TF2) - Call for TFG Proposals AgentLink III has established a periodic Technical Forum (AL3-TF), in which Technical Forum Groups (TFGs) meet to discuss issues of key interest. After the First AgentLink III Technical Forum (Rome, 30 June - 2 July 2004), the Second AgentLink III Technical Forum (AL3-TF2) will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 28/2/2005 to 1/3/2005, and host the meetings of the AL3 TFGs in form of either half-day or full-day events (longer durations to be negotiated on request). Again, TFGs will be selected on a "per event" basis, in response to *bids* for each Technical Forum: so, also AL3-TF1 TFGs have to present their bids again if they aim at carrying on their activity. Decisions will be made made in relation to links to related areas, industrial relevance and contribution to roadmapping. New areas that have no obvious forum for discussion of important issues will be prioritised. More precisely, AgentLink III will accept TFG of the following sorts: - Application-area TFGs, focusing on promising application areas for agent technology - Research-area TFGs, which are basically collections of AL3 nodes, working on closely-related advanced agent research (interdisciplinary themes favoured here) - Inter-network TFGs, promoting links to related networks of excellence and to related integrated projects. Details of the TFGs will be soon posted on the web-site at the following location: http://www.agentlink.org/activities/al3-tf/tf2/ Proposals for holding a TFG in the Second AgentLink III Technical Forum should be sent to the Forum Chairs through the AL3 Web site. Dates TFG Proposal Submission: 31 December 2004 TFG Preliminary Notification: 15 January 2005 AL3-TF2 Preliminary Program: 31 January 2005 AL3-TF2 Takes Place: 28 February - 1 March 2005 Contacts - Matjaz Gams, Andrea Omicini, Paolo Petta (AL3-TF2 Forum Chairs) tf2-chair@agentlink.org - Andrea Omicini (AL3-WP5 "Technical Forum" Coordinator) wp5@agentlink.org, Andrea.Omicini@agentlink.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Call for Papers AAMAS-2005 Industry Track AAMAS-2005 INDUSTRY TRACK Utrecht, the Netherlands -- July 25-29 2005 http://www.aamas2005.nl/ INTRODUCTION The International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS) is the leading international conference in the theory and practice of software agents. The conference attracts delegates from many different backgrounds; from those developing agent-based software products and services to those working in the theoretical foundations of the discipline. The AAMAS-05 conference will be held in July 2005 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and will, for the first time, feature a track specifically intended for industrial participants: the AAMAS Industry Track. The industry track is being organised in cooperation with AgentLink, Europe's IST-funded coordination activity for autonomous agents and multi-agent systems (see http://www.agentlink.org/). WHAT IS THE INDUSTRY TRACK? The AAMAS industry track is a special track at the AAMAS conference that will run in parallel to the regular AAMAS scientific track. It will feature presentations and demonstrations from industrial participants, giving them an opportunity to showcase the state of the art in technology and industrial application of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems to AAMAS delegates and to publish associated papers in a high quality, formal proceedings. The industry track aims to foster mutually beneficial links between those engaged in foundational scientific research and those working to make autonomous agents and multi-agent systems a commercial reality. This enables industrially-based software agent developers and practitioners to participate in AAMAS in a meaningful way and to present their technology and applications to both their peers and the associated scientific community. HOW WILL THE TRACK BE REFEREED? Whereas in the regular conference track the overriding refereeing criterion is clearly scientific excellence, the industry track focuses primarily on the industrial relevance and technological significance of the contribution. Preference will be given to mature work demonstrating concrete industrial/commercial results and business value. Examples of an "ideal" paper might include: (i) a presentation of a particular kind of commercially available software agent technology, together with experience of how this was applied in a field-tested system; or (ii) a report on a field-tested agent-based system. We explicitly discourage the submission of purely speculative papers, proposals, and plans for future work/potential applications. Academic participation in the industry track is acceptable, but please note that we strongly discourage the submission of: (i) papers that merely appeal to potential applications, without demonstrating that they have been meaningfully applied; (ii) academic papers that work with highly abstracted versions of potential applications; or (iii) academic papers that describe software agent systems/platforms without either a real industrial link or genuine application. In general, if you believe that your paper makes a scientific contribution, you should think about submitting to the regular scientific track; whereas, if your paper is an overview of an agent technology, a "practical experience" paper, or similar, then you should probably submit to the industry track. HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE? The industry track invites developers, practitioners, and industrial researchers to submit high quality papers on agent technology and its applications. See the conference web site for paper formatting and submission instructions. Accepted contributions will be formally published in the "Proceedings of the Industry Track of AAMAS-05" and will be distributed at the conference along with the AAMAS-05 main conference proceedings. Selected publications will be encouraged to present their applications in the AgentLink newsletter. The contributions will influence the AgentLink Roadmap to be published in 2005. Note that the Industry Track is part of the AAMAS conference - there is no separate registration for the Industry Track. IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for Submission of Contributions - 28 February 2005 Notification of acceptance - 28 March 2005 Please check http://www.aamas2005.nl/paper_submissions.htm for submission details. CO-CHAIRS Michal Pechoucek -- Czech Technical University, AgentLink Donald Steiner -- Quantum Leap Innovations Simon Thompson -- BT Exact, AgentLink Programme Committee: David Allsopp -- Qinetic Fabio Bellifemine -- Telecom Italia Laboratories Jeff Bradshaw -- IHMC Sven Brueckner -- Altarum Monique Calisti -- Whitestein Technologies Jonathan Dale -- Futjitsu Ian Dickenson -- HP Mark Greaves -- DARPA Jon Himoff -- CEO Magenta Martin Hofmann -- Lockheed Martin David Kinny -- Agentis James Lawton -- AFRL Vladimir Marik -- Rockwell Research Center David Martin -- SRI Peter McBurney -- AgentLink Jim Odell -- Agentis Christ Priest -- HP Chris Reed -- Calico Jack, Dundee University Ralph Ronnquist -- AOS Australia Jeff Rosenschein -- Hebrew Uni David Sadek -- France Telecom Onn Shehory -- IBM Israel John Shepherdson -- BT Petr Skobelev -- CTO Magenta Niranjan Suri -- IHMC Simon Thompson -- British Telecom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Agentlink III: Call for Research Event Support Proposals (Call open March 2004 October 2005) The Agentlink III project is committed to supporting European Research activities in the area of Agent Technology and under its research coordination action is able to provide various types of support for research and scientific events related to Agent technology. The objective of this support is to pump-prime research in strategically important areas, support emerging new areas, encourage inter-disciplinary links and support access to leading events in particular for students from under-resourced regions. The call for support proposals is open from March 2004 and Agentlink therefore warmly welcomes proposals for support from the community Further information on event support can be found at: http://www.agentlink.org/activities/eventsupport/index.html