What's new with
Agents, KQML and Knowledge Sharing

May 1996

• Agent-Based Engineering, the Web, and Intelligence,Charles J. Petrie Stanford Center for Design Research, 1996. Abstract: We describe the use of KQML-like Agents and their compatibility with the World-Wide Web. One distinguishing characteristic of such agents is the necessity for a peer-to-peer protocol vs. the client-server protocol of HTTP. This is indicative of a major conflict between the web and agent paradigms that must be resolved for integration of the two technologies, both of which are useful for design and engineering applications. We also note that "intelligence" is not a necessary property of useful agents and is not helpful in distinguishing agents from other kinds of software. agent introduction web 5/31/96

• Several agent-relevant workshops will be held in conjunction with First International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management (PAKM), Basel, Switzerland, October 30-31, 1996. The workshops are:
  • Product Knowledge Sharing for Integrated Enterprises
  • Practical Applications of Information Filtering
  • Workshop on Adaptive Workflow
  5/30/96

• Ontology-Based Knowledge Discovery on the World-Wide Web. Sean Luke, Lee Spector, and David Rager. To appear in the AAAI96 Workshop on Internet-based Information Systems, 1996. Also available in Gzipped PostScript Format (.ps.gz). Abstract: This paper describes SHOE, a set of Simple HTML Ontology Extensions. SHOE allows World-Wide Web authors to annotate their pages with ontology-based knowledge about page contents. We present examples showing how the use of SHOE can support a new generation of knowledge-based search and knowledge discovery tools that operate on the World-Wide Web. paper web ontology 5/30/96

• The First IFCIS International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS'96) will be held in Brussels, Belgium on June 19th - 21st, 1996. The program brochure, preliminary program, and registration form are available on-line. Conference . 5/29/96

• SHOE or Simple HTML Ontology Extensions is a project of the University of Maryland at College Park's Parallel Understanding Systems Group. SHOE is a proposed small extension to HTML which allows HTML authors to annotate their web documents with formal knowledge-representation semantics. SHOE is meant to make real intelligent agents on the web possible. [web ontology] 5/27/96.

• Agent: Hitachi's ZooWorks automatically records and indexes each Web site and HTML document a user visits and captures this data in an easy to use personal index. 5/27/96

• Agent: DocuMagix's HotPage is a Netscape Navigator plug-in which helps users capture and organize the information from the Web. They say, " With DocuMagix HotPage, you can view saved Web pages off-line within the Netscape Navigator viewer, link back to the original site(s) without needing to remember the exact URL, organize Web pages intuitively, merge them with other Windows documents, search your entire cabinet for a particular Web page that contains reference(s) to a particular topic, forward a Web page document by fax or e- mail (inside your company), mark annotations on a Web document, or even add URL links to any Windows documents." A white paper "The Next Step In Internet Information Management" is available. 5/27/96

• Paper: The Role of Brokers in Electronic Commerce, Paul Resnick, MIT's The Center for Coordination Science (CCS) 5/27/96

• Group: Sandip Sen at the University of Tulsa heads a research group (DAI-hards) which is working on intelligent distributed scheduling and multiagent learning and adaptation. A number of papers are available on-line. 5/27/96

• Book: From Reaction to Cognition -- Multi-Agent World - MAAMAW'93, edited by Cristiano Castefranchi and Jean-Pierre Muller, Springer-Verlag (ISBN 3-540-58698-9). 5/24/96

• Technology: HORB is a free package that supports distributed Java programming -- e.g., remote object creation, remote method call, and object passing. HORB consists of the HORBC compiler, the HORB server (a kind of ORB, Object Request Broker), and the HORB class library. Java objects compiled by the HORBC compiler are ready to be used in distributed environments. HORB works with the Javac compiler, Java interpreter and Java system classes distributed by Sun. For details, see The Magic Carpet for Network Computing: HORB Flyer's Guide, HIRANO Satoshi, 1996/03/21 for HORB 1.2. 5/23/96

• Try the AgentWeb's new help agent (requires Java). 5/22/96 .

• Sandia's Virtual Reality/ Intelligent Simulation Laboratory is using scriptable agents and human controlled avatars in VR scenarios to train small team, close quarters operations. Their interest is in training a person to handle a specific situation or set of scenarios, rather than to perform a given task. 5/20/96

• The Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratory ( MERL ) is focused on exploring "social virtual reality", where the the emphasis is on the interaction among people in virtual environments, rather than on maximizing the perceptual realism of an individual experience using special input and output devices. "At MERL, we envision group learning environments where people learn from each other and teachers, and by interacting with computer simulations. We envision collaborative work environments where people at different locations interact with each other and shared, computer-simulated artifacts to design a machine, plan a large-scale disaster relief effort, or diagnose a complex equipment failure. We envision on-line play environments where people participate in distributed games, historical dramas, or create virtual microcosms for each other's entertainment." See Research on Social Virtual Reality: Diamond Park and SPLINE -- What's beyond head-mounted displays and combat games? 5/20/96

• Paper, Communication: Multi-Agent System Protocol Language Specification, Alejandro Quintero, MarAa Eugenia Ucr"s and Silvia Takahashi, Universidad de los Andes. Abstract: " ... The language described in this article allows the specification of different interaction protocols that may have entities which belong to a multi-agent modeled system. To show an application of the language, we show a system that models the interaction of a research group, where some specific members want to validate or dissolve a hypothesis formulated by an author. This mechanism is represented as a consensual knowledge base. Consensual knowledge bases are supporting tools to exchange ideas and knowledge between group members and/or different groups or entities (researchers, organizations, etc.). ... This language allows the formal design of the interaction protocols between agents, using modal logic operators, world state modeling, and actions' sequentiality and concurrency. 5/19/96

• Paper: Open Protocol in Multi-agent Systems, Gerard A. W. Vreeswijk, Limburg University, Belgium. Abstract: Protocols for intelligent agents are difficult to write. This is partially because intelligent agents accommodate their interaction to the situation that arises. As a result, the interaction among intelligent agents cannot be governed by a fixed protocol. In this paper I describe an open protocol paradigm for reasoning in a multi-agent system with decentralized control. An open protocol is a collection of rules of interaction that lies open to further alteration and adjustment. I explore the notion of open protocol, and show how it can be altered by rational claims. This may lead to further insights concerning the government of interaction among intelligent agents in multi-agent systems. (compressed postscript) 5/19/96

• Paper: Self-government in multi-agent systems: experiments and thought-experiments, Gerard A.W. Vreeswijk University of Limburg, Belgium. Abstract: This paper reports on research in self-modifying protocol games. A self-modifying protocol is a set of instructions, rules, or conventions, that can be changed by the systems that communicate with the help of that protocol. The concept is expected to be of great importance for the next generation of intelligent distributed computer systems, such as DPSs, and MASs. This paper tries to show by example that a self-modifying protocol leads to self-governmental behaviour in intelligent distributed computer systems. It further hints at the possible avenues future research might take, and indicates how theoretical results can be obtained. (Postscript) 5/19/96

• Resource: PC AI - Intelligent Agents page . 5/19/96

• Paper: Distributed Computing: Let Your Agent Handle It, Dan Richman, Techweb, April 17, 1995. Software agents will sweat the details when users lack the time and patience needed to tackle routine and repetitive business chores. 5/18/96

• Opinion: Voyager: Agents of Alienation, Jaron Lanier. "Here is the opinion: that the idea of "intelligent agents" is both wrong and evil. I also believe that this is an issue of real consequence to the near term future of culture and society. As the infobahn rears its gargantuan head, the agent question looms as a deciding factor in whether this new beast will be much better than TV, or much worse." 5/18/96

• Muds: Bots 'n the MOO: Conversational Robots, Susan Jacobson. 5/18/96

• Web: One of the biggest list of pointers to web robots, spiders, wanderers, indexers, etc. by Martijn Koster, m.koster@webcrawler.com. 5/18/96

• Web: Robots in the Web: threat or treat?, Martijn Koster, NEXOR,ConneXions, Volume 9, No. 4, April 1995. Abstract: Robots have been operating in the World-Wide Web for over a year. In that time they have performed useful tasks, but also on occasion wreaked havoc on the networks. This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of robots, with an emphasis on robots used for resource discovery. New alternative resource discovery strategies are discussed and compared. It concludes that while current robots will be useful in the immediate future, they will become less effective and more problematic as the Web grows. 5/18/96

• Agent: Stanford is transferring its SIFT internet searching service to InReference -- a Sunnyvale startup (1994) with a mission of enhancing the use of the Internet as an information dissemination, collaboration and reference resource. Under InReference, the service will search a 6+ month archive of more than 13,000 news-groups and a large (>1000 lists) archive of publicly-accessible mailing lists. In addition, more advanced search capabilities will be supported. The service will continue to be free. 5/17/96

• Paper, IR: Co-operative Information Retrieval in Digital Libraries. Michail Salampasis, John Tait, Chris Bloor, University of Sunderland, UK. Abstract: ... In this paper, we present an open agent-based hypermedia model for distributed digital libraries, but we mainly focus on a technique for using dynamic links, known as co-operative retrieval links, and the implication of this technique for the process and nature of distributed information retrieval.(Postscript). 5/17/96

• Knowbots and Interactive Television -- The Knowbotic-Interface-Project as challenge to AI. An abreviated version of a lecture, held within the context of a workshop on "Interactive TV" at the Institute for New Media, Frankfurt June 7, 1994 by by Dr. Gerd Döben-Henisch, Institute for New Media, Frankfurt. The task of the project is the automatic translation of natural linguistic texts into images of a pictorial world. This is made possible by using knowbots. Knowbots are intelligent programs which can be "educated". They live in virtual realities and are capable of accumulating knowledge about the world on their own. Relative to this knowledge, they are able to learn any natural language. 5/17/96

• Intelligent Systems: A Semiotic Perspective, October 20-23, 1996, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. 5/16/96

• Book: Afsaneh Haddadi, Communciation and Cooperation in Agent Systems: A Pragmatic Theory. Springer Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, No. 1056 Year: 1996 ISBN 3-540-61044-8. 5/14/96

• Project: ADEPT: Advanced Decision Environment for Process Tasks is a project of the DAI group at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London. It is modeling business processes as a collections of autonomous, problem solving agents which interact when they have interdependencies. A recent paper is: N. R. Jennings, P. Faratin, M. J. Johnson, P. O'Brien, M. E. Wiegand: "Using Intelligent Agents to Manage Business Processes", Proc. First Int. Conf. on The Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology (PAAM96),pp. 345-360. London, UK. 5/14/96

• Technology: ThoughtTreasure is a tool set developed by Erik Mueller for writing agents to process text on the Internet. Includes subagents for parsing words, phrases, ends of sentences, human names, usernames, email addresses, email headers, Usenet newsgroup names, Usenet attributions, communicons, times and dates, telephone numbers, titles of books/songs/films, product names. (MORE). 5/14/96

• Agent: InfoTicker is a realtime agent written in Java for extracting data (stock market quotes, weather, classified ad, ...) from web pages and Usenet groups. It was implemented by Erik Mueller (erik@panix.com). Users can add their own data sources using a simple language for specifying where to go to get data and how to parse it. 5/14/96

• Tom Hershenson, Marketing Communications Liaison of General Magic, points out that companies other that AT&T have licenced Telescript technology for commercial use. 5/14/96
  "In fact, AT&T does not have exclusive rights to Telescript technology, and recent developments underscore General Magic's continuing efforts to propagate Telescript technology and establish it as an open standard for mobile agents. In October, France-Telecom licensed Telescript for commercial use. In January of this year, General Magic announced and made freely available through our Web site the initial version of our Telescript Active Web Tools for developing Web-based Telescript applications on the Web. In February, the Dutch telecommunications provider PTT Telecom licensed Telescript (MORE) technology, becoming the second Europe network operator to do so. In March, NTT FAN began operations in Japan of its Paseo (MORE) online service, a trial network service based on Telescript."

• The Institute of Sicentific and Industrial Research, Osaka University is looking for a Post-Doctoral Fellow. One of the reseach possibities is to work on "Ontology and Knowledge Reuse". MORE . 5/12/96

• We've added new sections to the UMBC AgentPages for introductory material , FAQs , employment opportunities , and agents and artificial life . 5/11/96

• Technology: Autonomous Agent Programming using Java. The Applied Internet Technologies branch of SAIC has developed a framework in Java for the development of autonomous agents. We have provided links to the documentation of the Framework. 5/11/96

• Technology: Java-To-Go - Itinerative Computing Using Java. Java-To-Go is an experimental infrastructure developed by William Li (wli@eecs.berkeley.edu) that assists in the development and experimentation of mobile agents and agent-based applications for itinerative computing (itinerative computing: the set of applications that requires site-to-site computations. Sites are usually traversed in sequence by a single mobile agent or in parallel by a group of agents). Agents are given the freedom to perform active computations (that is, computations are initiated by the agents at its volition) at one or more remote agent servers. In contrast, standard Java applets can only be invoked passively. 5/11/96

• Technology: Ftp Software has released the CyberAgent Software Development Kit which provides numerous agent classes designed to expedite the development of Java-based mobile agents. The CyberAgent classes include templates to create an intelligent agent, start an agent, stop an agent, define a travel plan, allow access to OLE-enabled applications, and support secure agent communications. You can also use the agent classes with various third-party Java integrated development environments (IDEs). 5/11/96

• Agent: ShopBot is an experimental prototype WWW shopping agent under development. It tries to shop for computer software or CD's. Fill in the name and manufacturer of the software product you're looking for, or the title and artist of the pop/rock CD, and let the ShopBot go to work. 5/11/96

• Technology: Oracle Web Agent is a generic procedural gateway, which seamlessly invokes Oracle stored procedures, and provides an object-oriented, user-extendible framework for producing dynamic HTML pages using Oracle's PL/SQL scripting language. The Oracle Web Agent is implemented using CGI, enabling it to function with any Web Server. 5/11/96

• Paper: Distributed Active Objects, Marc H. Brown and Marc A. Najork, DEC SRC Report #141a, April 15, 1996, 21 pages. Abstract: Many Web browsers now offer some form of active objects, written in a variety of languages, and the number of types of active objects are growing daily in interesting and innovative ways. This report describes our work on Oblets, active objects that are distributed over multiple machines. Oblets are written in Obliq, an object-oriented scripting language for distributed computation. The high-level support provided by Oblets makes it easy to write collaborative and distributed applications. 5/10/96

• Agent humor: FBI agent pizza call 5/9/96.

• Paper: Software Agents: An Overview, Hyacinth S. Nwana, BT Labs, to appear in Knowledge Engineering Review. Abstract: Agent software is a rapidly developing area of research. However, the 'overuse' of the word agent has tended to mask the fact that, in reality, there is a truly heterogeneous body of research being carried out under this banner. This overview paper presents a typology of agents. It places them in context, defines them and then goes on, inter alia, to overview critically the rationales, hypotheses, goals, challenges and state-of-the-art demonstrators of the various agent types in the typology. Hence, it attempts to make explicit much of what is usually implicit in the agents literature. It also proceeds to overview some other general issues which pertain to all the types of agents in the typology. This paper largely reviews software agents, and it also contains some strong opinions that are not necessarily widely accepted by the agent community. [42 pages] 5/9/96

• Project: ModelAge is an ESPRIT Basic Research Working Group focused on establishing a common formal model of the concept of agent. ModelAge is divided into specialist groups: SG1: Defeasibility of agent facets, SG2: Logics and models of action,SG3: Norm-governed interaction in organizations, SG4: Software Development Process, and SG5: Diagnosis, Repair and Industrial Control. 5/9/96

• Paper: New Fungus Eater Experiments, Thomas Wehrle, Université de Genčve, Switzerland. Adapted from: Wehrle, T. (1994). New fungus eater experiments. In P. Gaussier, & J.-D. Nicoud (Eds.), From perception to action (pp. 400-403). Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society Press. ABSTRACT: though there seems to be a high agreement among researchers that the concept of autonomous agents should also be applied in Psychology, especially in Emotion Psychology, most work did not exceed the theoretical level yet. One reason obviously is the lack of adequate tools for applying and exploring this concept. This paper describes, on the bases of an implemented software package, what such a tool could look like. This simulation package has already been used for several applications. As an example we discuss an application that implements the basic concepts of the Emotional (or social) Fungus Eater of Masanao Toda. 5/9/96

• Ontology tool: PIF -- Process Interchange Format -- is a common translation language that serves as a bridge among heterogeneous process representations and supports the exchange of business process models across different formats and schemas. 5/9/96

• RFC: A Standard for the Performatives in the Communication between Applications and User Modeling Systems is a draft Internet Request for Comments defineing the communication between end-user applications and user modeling systems on the level of communicative primitives called "performatives". These are essentially the same as those in KQML, and are grouped into four levels based on their presumed relevance for user modeling purposes. This draft is the outcome of two standardization workshops at UM94 and UM96. 5/8/96

• Project: SRI's The Open Agent Architecture project is developing an architecture and accompanying user interface for networked desktop and handheld machines. The system support distributed execution of a user's requests, interoperability of multiple application subsystems, addition of new agents, are served by a multimodal interface, including pen, voice, and direct manipulation. 5/8/96

• Workshop: Agent-Oriented Approaches to Knowledge Engineering, Track in Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, KAW'96, Banff, Canada November 10-14, 1996. Paper deadline: May 31, 1996. 5/8/96

• Dissertation: Autonomous Agents and the Concept of Concepts, Paul Davidsson. This thesis has two main themes, autonomous agents (a system capable of interacting with its environment via its own sensors and effectors in order to accomplish some task) and the representation and the acquisition of concepts. 5/8/96

• Workshop: Opening Forum on Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA), IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown, NY, USA - 24-26 June 1996. The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) is an international organisation with the goal of promoting the industry of Intelligent Physical Agents (IPA). IPAs are devices intended for the mass market, capable of executing actions to accomplish goals imparted by or in collaboration with human beings or other IPAs, with a high degree of intelligence. The group agreed on the need and timeliness of FIPA. The purpose of this FIPA Opening Forum is to: refine the list of basic agent capabilities candidate for FIPA specification; compile a first list of agent capabilities intended for specification by end 1997; and establish the first working groups. 5/8/96

• Conference: Conference on Agile and Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, October 2-3, 1996, Troy, NY. "... a two-day conference focussing on the design, manufacturing, planning, control and distribution aspects of agile and intelligent manufacturing systems." Papers on agile and intelligent manufacturing are sought on these topics: Supply chain integration and management; Design and manufacturing information integration; Design and planning integration for product realization; Planning and control systems; and Information infrastructure. Deadlines: June 7: letter of intent to participate and extended abstacts. June 25: notification of acceptance. August 9: full papers due. 5/8/96

• Book: Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Edited by: Greg O'Hare & Nick Jennings, John Wiley and Sons, 1-00675-0, 1996, 576 pp, Price $79.95/45pounds. "This is the first book to provide a comprehensive treatment of distributed artificial intelligence, a field that has seen an explosion in recent years. The tremendous and growing interest in this field has underscored the need for an up-to-date, integrated reference accessible to both researchers and graduate students." 5/8/96