First Meeting of the AgentLink SIG on Intelligent Information Agents (I2A) Hotel Euroflat, Brussels September 24-25, 1998 Report Innes A. Ferguson, SIG co-coordinator (Matthias Klusch, SIG coordinator)

Overview SIG Meeting Agenda Facts & Figures Topics, Techniques & Concepts Application Areas General Observations Action Items

Meeting Agenda 2 panel/discussion sessions –communication, co-operation & knowledge management in open environments –adaptive information agents & virtual information spaces 2 “demo” sessions –information brokering, electronic auctions, groupware

Meeting Agenda (cont.) 1 invited talk –“Economics, Markets and Rational Information Agents” by Scott Moss (MMU, UK) 1 roadmap/planning session … packed but productive!

Facts & Figures 27 attendees, of which 17 from academia 4 from research labs 6 from industry Disciplines/Interests –AI, agents (most attendees), Databases (10), IR/Information Sciences (6), HCI (6), Distributed Computing (5), CSCW (5), Formal Methods (3)

Topics, Techniques & Concepts Top 5 –Information modelling: relevancy, quality, currency, reliability, trustworthiness actions: monitor, search, retrieve, filter, personalize –Agent architectures –Ontologies –Brokering, mediation –Databases (active, co-operative, federated, …)

Topics (cont.) Next 5 –Negotiation, co-operation, co-ordination –Interfaces (agent-agent, user-agent, agent- legacy); new metaphors (VR, avatars) –Heterogeneity/multiplicity of sources, devices –Interoperability –Metadata extraction & representation, document annotation

Topics (cont.) Others knowledge sharing, user modelling, communication languages, task allocation, adaptivity, mobility, security, distributed computing, formal specification and theoretical properties of agents, toolkits for behaviour modelling, groupware issues, uncertainty reasoning, planning, scheduling,...

Application Areas data/information management knowledge management virtual enterprises (distance) learning manufacturing public administration information brokering finance environment telecommunications medicine entertainment legal/professional services electronic auctions most attendees … and e-commerce! AreaNumbers

Observations SIG is AI-focussed but also highly multidisciplinary (e.g. DB, IR, DC, HCI, CSCW) … an opportunity and a challenge Predominantly problem- or application-oriented membership –“scruffy” vs. “neat” debate –some semantics & standards are key (e.g. for ontologies, metadata) but best let them emerge from the properties of the chosen application areas

Observations (cont.) Much interest in collaborations, co-operation –reduce duplication of effort –create synergy –fill “expertise gap” –e.g. co-supervise and/or provide funding for graduate students, share agent architectures, co- organize workshops, host future SIG meetings Interest in proposing specific projects for future EU funding (e.g. Fifth Framework)

Action Items Website & online resources –update and move to Germany –majordomo mailing list –provide access to members’ resources publications software (there’s lots of it on the WWW now) –agent name server, user agents (BSCW?) Promote SIG to related communities (e.g. HCI, CSCW, DC, DB)

Action Items (cont.) “Recruit” more industrial members Define “key” sub-topics to assist in focussing future I2A SIG activities Future meetings –discussion-oriented, around “key” (top 5?) sub- topics/workgroups –selected presentations (from collaborations between members, focussed on key sub-topics) –one in PAAM (London); one more, probably co-located with other SIGs (dates TBD)