Cooperative Information Agents III: Third International Workshop, CIA'99 Uppsala, Sweden, July 31 - August 2, 1999 Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1652)

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance. Cooperative Information Agents III Preface Program Table of Contents Agent Technology from a NASA Perspective 1. Introduction 2. Background 2.1 Introduction to Ground System Software 2.1.1 Planning and scheduling 2.1.2 Command Loading 2.1.3 Science Schedule Execution 2.1.4 Science Support Activity Execution 2.1.5 Onboard Engineering Support Activities 2.1.6 Downlinked Data Capture 2.1.7 Data and Performance Monitoring 2.1.8 Fault Diagnosis 2.1.9 Fault Correction 2.1.10 Downlinked Data Archiving 2.1.11 Engineering Data Analysis/Calibration 2.1.12 Science Data Processing/Calibration 2.2 Introduction to FSW (Flight Software) 2.2.1 Attitude Determination and Control, Sensor Calibration, Orbit Determination, Propulsion 2.2.2 Executive, Command Processing, Engineering and Science Data Storage, Communications 2.2.3 Electrical Power Management, Thermal Management SI Commanding, SI Data Processing 2.2.4 Data Monitoring, FDIR 2.2.5 Safemode 2.3 Flight vs. Ground Implementation 3. LOGOS (Lights-Out Ground Operations System) 3.1 Agents in the Goddard Context 3.2 Introduction to Agent Concepts 3.3 LOGOS (Lights-Out Ground Operations System) 3.4 LOGOS - Next Steps 4. Remote Agent 4.1 Remote Agent Design Approach and Architecture 4.2 The Deep Space One Remote Agent Experiment 4.3 Mission Scenario 4.4 RA Capabilities Demonstrated with DS1 RAX 4.5 RA Components 4.5.1 Planner/Scheduler 4.5.2 Executive 4.5.3 Diagnosis and Repair 5. Future Directions - Some Speculations 6. Acknowledgments 7. References Digital City Kyoto: Towards a Social Information Infrastructure Introduction Design Concepts for Digital Cities Human Interface in Digital City Kyoto Information Sharing in Digital City Kyoto Social Interaction in Digital City Kyoto Cross-Cultural Communication in Digital Cities Conclusion Acknowledgement References Autonomous Search for Information in an Unknown Environment? 1 Introduction 2 A model of the environment and of agent motion 2.1 A simple greedy algorithm 3 Motion with long term objectives in a static environment 3.1 Experimental evaluation of the SIHO Algorithm References Resource Management in Agent-based Distributed Environments 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation: Crisis Management Scenario 2 Agency-Based Architecture for Resource Management 2.1 The Agency Model 2.2 Agency Domain Knowledge 2.3 Agency Decision-Making and Negotiation Mechanisms 3 Agency-based Resource Management Model 3.1 The Resource Allocation Model 4 Review of Constraint Decompositions 4.1 Optimal Safe Decompositions 4.2 Split Decompositions and Resource Distribution 5 Distributed Agency Resource Protocol 6 Conclusions References A Multi-agent Architecture for an Intelligent Website in Insurance 1 Introduction 2 Application Domain: Insurance 3 A Multi-agent Architecture for Intelligent Websites 3.1 The Overall Architecture 3.2 The Software Agents 4 The Internal Design of the Software Agents 4.1 A Generic Broker Agent Architecture 4.2 Internal Design of a Website Agent and Personal Assistant 5 The Multi-agent System’s Behaviour 5.1 Information Used in the System 5.2 Behaviour Initiated by a User 5.3 Behaviour Initiated by the Website 6 Discussion References Formation of Cooperative Behavior among Information Agents in Web Repository Change Monitoring Service 1 Introduction 2 Distributed change monitoring 3 Resource management 4 Matchmaking among service agents 4.1 Request Object 4.2 Matching process 4.3 Decision making in matching process 5 Related work 6 Summary References GETESS - Searching the Web Exploiting German Texts 1 Introduction 2 Example Scenario 3 Architecture 4 Dialogue System 5 Gathering, Database Management and Information Retrieval 6 Natural Language Processing 7 Ontology 8 Related Work 9 Conclusion References An Agent Based System for Intelligent Collaborative Filtering 1 Introduction 2 Background 2.1 Information Retrieval and Information Filtering 2.2 Collaborative Filtering 2.3 Agents 3 System Architecture 3.1 Motivations 3.2 Architecture Overview 3.3 Content Filtering 3.4 Collaborative Filtering 3.5 Typical scenario 3.6 Agent Collaboration 4 Results 4.1 Filtering engine 5 Conclusion References Inter-Agent Communication in Cooperative Information Agent-Based Systems 1. Introduction 2. Cooperative Information Agent-Based Systems 3. Message Communication in Cooperative Agent-Based Systems 4. Overview of the Unified Modeling Language 5. Brokered Communication between Distributed Agents 6. Inter-agent Cooperation in Agent-Based Electronic Commerce 6.1 Agent Support for Electronic Commerce Problem 6.2 Object Collaborations in Agent-Based Electronic Commerce System 7. Inter-agent Communication by Subscription and Notification 8. Negotiation among Information Agents 9. Conclusions 10. Acknowledgements 11. References Intention Reconciliation in the Context of Teamwork: An Initial Empirical Investigation 1 Introduction 2 Intention Reconciliation in the Context of Teamwork 2.1 The Problem 2.2 Sample Scenarios 2.3 Social-Commitment Policies 2.4 Incorporating Social Factors in Decision Making 3 Empirical Framework 3.1 Why Simulations Are Needed 3.2 The Basic SPIRE Framework 3.3 Social-Commitment Policy in SPIRE 3.4 Decision Making in SPIRE 4 Preliminary Results 4.1 Varying the Strength of the Social-Commitment Policy 4.2 Varying the Weight Given to FEI 4.3 Varying the Task Density 5 Related Work 6 Conclusions References A Similarity Evaluation Technique for Cooperative Problem Solving with a Group of Agents 1 Introduction 2 Notation and problems 3 Deriving external similarity values 3.1 Total support of binary relations 3.2 Standardizing total support of binary relations 3.3 Quality evaluation 3.4 Selecting relations using threshold value 4 Deriving internal similarity values 4.1 Internal similarity values for agents 4.2 Internal similarity between solutions 4.3 Internal similarity between problems 5 Virtual training environment refinement 6 Conclusion References A Computational Model for a Cooperating Agent System 1. Introduction 2. Cooperation Model 2.1 Dynamic Constraints in Cooperation 3. Operational Framework 3.1 Classification and Hierarchies 3.2 Task Representations and Dependencies 3.3 Pre, Post and End Conditions 4. Execution Model 4.1 Execution Scenario 4.2 Funcom Architecture 4.3 Funcom Activities and Primitives 4.4 Serialisation Rules 5. Correctness of Execution 5.1 Execution Characteristics 5.2 Operational Stability 6. Conclusion References Mobile Agents Behaviours: From Declarative Specifications to Implementation 1. Introduction 2. Backgrounds on Petri Nets 2.1 Informal Presentation of Petri Nets 2.2 Petri Nets and Multi-Agent Systems 3. The Routing Database 4. Automatic Generation of the Task Net 5. The Petri Net Interpreter 6. Related works 7. Conclusion References Maintaining Specialized Search Engines through Mobile Filter Agents 1 Introduction 2 Related Work 2.1 Specialized Search Engines 2.2 Searching for Scientific Articles 2.3 Employment of Mobile Agents 3 The Framework of a Domain Expert 3.1 Overview 3.2 Filter Agents 4 A Case Study in the Domain of Scientific Articles 4.1 Filter Algorithm 4.2 Experiments 4.3 Discussion 5 Notes about Efficiency: Employment of Mobile Agents 5.1 Dissemination of Mobile Agents 5.2 Measuring Network Load 5.3 Experiments 6 Conclusions References Execution Monitoring in Adaptive Mobile Agents 1 Introduction 2 Mobile agents for remote operation 3 An application scenario 4 Execution monitoring in adaptive mobile agents 5 Conclusions References Mobile-Agent Mediated Place Oriented Communication 1 Introduction 2 Agent Mediated Communicator 2.1 Overview 2.2 Prototype System 3 Implications of Place Oriented Communication 3.1 Security 3.2 Communityware 3.3 Adaptability to Physical Social System 4 Conclusion References Agents and Electronic Commerce: Mechanisms and Protocols (Abstract) 1 Terms 2 Discussion The Role of Agent Technology in Business to Business Electronic Commerce 1 Background 1.1 Problems with Current Electronic Commerce Solutions 1.2 Enabling Technologies 2 A Layered Approach to Electronic Commerce 3 Agents for Business to Business Electronic Commerce 3.1 Types of Agents 3.2 Characteristics of Information Agents 4 Application Agents 5 General Commerce Activity Agents 5.1 Information Brokering Agents 5.2 Marketing and Advertising Agents 5.3 Personal Agents 5.4 Negotiation and Contracting Agents 6 Agent System level Support 6.1 Planning and Scheduling Agents 6.2 Translation and Partial Integration 6.3 Agents and Electronic Commerce Transactions 6.4 Security Agents 7 Concluding Remarks References An Agency-Based Framework for Electronic Business 1 Introduction 2 The Role of Agents in Electronic Business 3 Agent Architectures 3.1 Single Agent System 3.2 Multiagent Systems 3.3 Federated Architectures 3.4 Research Issues in Multiagent Systems 4 The Agency-Based Electronic Marketspace 4.1 Marketspace Executive 4.2 Order Request Broker 4.3 Financial Broker 4.4 Quality and Performance Evaluation Agency 4.5 Information Facilitation Agency 4.6 Information Interchange among Agents 5 Conclusions and Future Research References Appendix 1: A Survey of Agent Frameworks Secure Agent-Mediated Auctionlike Negotiation Protocol for Internet Retail Commerce 1 Introduction 2 Secure Agent-Mediated Auctionlike Negotiation protocol 2.1 Commercial actors in the protocol 2.2 Trading procedure 3 Analysis and evaluation 3.1 Fair, Open and Rational Negotiation Protocol 3.2 Performance and exibility 3.3 Security issues 4 Conclusion References Semantic Information Brokering: How Can a Multi-agent Approach Help? 1 Introduction 2 Information Overload: Impact of Heterogeneity and Globalization 2.1 Impact of Heterogeneity on Information Overload 2.2 Impact of Globalization on Information Overload 3 Information Brokering: Handling the Information Overload 3.1 Stakeholders and Beneficiaries in Information Brokering 3.2 Levels of Information Brokering 3.3 The Role of Facilitators on the GII 3.4 Relating Information Brokering to Other Approaches 4 Appropriateness of Multi-Agent Systems 4.1 Agents for Media Independent Correlation of Information 4.2 Agents for Inter-Ontology Interoperation 5 Conclusions and Future Work References Arbitration and Matchmaking for Agents with Conflicting Interests 1 Introduction 2 Trading Models for Electronic Commerce and RelatedWork 2.1 Fixed Price selling 2.2 Negotiations 2.3 Auctions 2.4 Arbitration and Matchmaking 3 Arbitration Protocols 3.1 Setting 3.2 Lies 3.3 Preference Selection 3.4 Deterministic Selection 3.5 Probabilistic Selection 3.6 Performance of Arbitration Protocols 4 Matchmaking 4.1 Extended Setting 4.2 Protocol Adaptation to Matchmaking 4.3 Performance of Matchmaking 4.4 Simulation of Lies 5 Conclusion References Enabling Integrative Negotiations by Adapitve Software Agents 1 Introduction 2 Related Work 3 Attribute Interdependencies 4 Generation of Proposals 5 Negotiation Strategies 6 Game Theoretic Approach 7 Negotiation Example 8 Conclusion References An Adaptive Conversational Interface for Destination Advice 1 Introduction 2 Two Approaches to Recommendation Systems 3 The Adaptive Place Advisor 3.1 Representation of Items and States 3.2 Dialogue Operators 3.3 Operator Selection and Search Control 3.4 A Graphical Interface for Conversational Advice 3.5 Modeling User Preferences 4 Related Work on Conversational Interfaces 5 Concluding Remarks References Anticipation Delegation, and Demonstration: Why Talking to Agents Is Hard 1. Introduction 1.1 A Cybernetic Model 1.2Desiderata for Human Agent Interaction 2. The Tandem Simulation 2.1 Trust, Error, and Uncertainty 2.2 Standalone TANDEM Experiment Method 2.3 Supporting Individuals vs. Teams Method Results 3. MokSAF Experiment 3.1 The Planning Environment: MokSAF 3.2 MokSAF Agents Method Results 4. InfoWrapper Acknowledgements References A Cooperative Comprehension Assistant forIntranet􀀀Based Information Environments Author Index

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999.
The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance.