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This page, (reflecting
the contents of Chapter 7) provides links to the different resources
that are available for consultation for more detail on the various
aspects of agent-oriented development, and on agent technologies
more generally. In a fast-moving field, web resources and other
sources of information and support can be critically important.
Fortunately, there are many possible places to seek further
information.
There are several
email lists that provide information relating to current and
forthcoming events in the area of agent-based computing, including
conferences and workshops, new books, resources, and so on.
DAI-List
The DAI-list is a
mailing list concerned with Distributed Artificial Intelligence,
now generally focused around the area of agent-based computing,
which includes agent-oriented software engineering. The list is
moderated, so that all mails to the list are filtered for relevance.
Submissions should be sent to DAI-List@ece.sc.edu
and requests to join the list DAI-List-request@ece.sc.edu.
AgentLink Email Update
The AgentLink Email Update is a regular monthly mailing that
provides moderated, edited information about the activities of
the AgentLink Network of Excellence for Agent-Based Computing,
including events, publications and resources. To join the list,
mail coordinator@agentlink.org.
Software Agents List
The Software Agents
Mailing List is concerned with all aspects of agents and agent
technology. Though it is a general list, it is restricted to
software agents as opposed to hardware (robots) and human agents.
It is currently run by the University of Maryland Baltimore
County. The list is also available in digest form, in which
messages are batched and sent periodically. To join the mailing
list send a message to majordomo@cs.umbc.edu
with subscribe agents or subscribe agents-digest in the body
of the message. Confirmation of the choice of lists then follows.
There is a significant number of events that focus squarely
on agent issues. Some of the most relevant
for agent-based software development are presented below. However,
these are by no means the only
ones, and agent research and development does not find exposure
in just purely agent related events.
Due to the large number of application areas in which agents
can be used, agent related results can be
found at conferences dealing with issues ranging from ubiquitous
computing and robotics to human computer
interaction and social simulation.
AAMAS The International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents
and Multi-Agent Systems series
was initiated in 2002 as a merger of three highly respected
individual conferences, ICMAS (International
Conference on Multi-Agent Systems), Agents (International Conference
on Autonomous
Agents) and ATAL (InternationalWorkshop on Agent Theories, Architectures,
and Languages). Its
aim is to provide a single, high-profile, internationally renowned
forum for research in the theory
and practice of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems.
The first AAMAS conference was held in Bologna, Italy in 2002,
and the second in Melbourne,
Australia in 2003.
IJCAI The IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial
Intelligence) series of conferences is
held biennially since 1969. It is the dominant event in artificial
intelligence. The amount of agent
papers being published in this conference have grown over the
years, a clear proof of the maturity
of agent research in the past 15 years, and it currently features
several tracks dedicated to agent
research.
ITA/WI The Intelligent Agent Technology conferences
started in 1999, focusing on agent-related research stemming from
the Asia-Pacific region, while the Web Intelligence conferences
started in 2001 focusing on the use of artificial intelligence
on and for the Web. The two events are now handled by the Web
Intelligence Consortium and are cosponsored by IEEE. Several
WI/IAT related books have been published or will be published
by Springer,World Scientific, CRC Press, and IOS Press.
ECAI The European Conference for Artificial Intelligence has
a history dating back to 1974. It is
organized by the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial
Intelligence and takes place
Agent Oriented Development Resources 189
biennially. The number of agent papers in the conference has
increased over the years, and a number
of the workshops attached to the conference deal with agent
subjects as well.
CIA The Cooperative Information Agents (CIA)
Workshops have been running for the past seven
years, with the proceedings published each year by Springer.
The focus of the workshops is on the
use of agent technologies for intelligent information application
for the Internet and theWorldWide
Web. The papers cover subjects such as mobile agents for information
management, intelligent
interfaces for information agents, agent-based knowledge discovery,
and advanced theories of
collaboration.
AOSE The Agent-Oriented Software Engineering
workshops have been taking place since 2000, and have quickly
gained reputation as an authoritative workshop in relation the
software engineering issues related to agent software development.
Past proceedings have been published by Springer.
MA Mobile Agent events have been running since
1997, starting out as workshops before turning into the current
Mobile Agent conference format sponsored, amongst others, by the
IEEE Computer Society. The proceedings of the events have been
published by Springer.
ESAW The Engineering Societies in the Agents
World workshop series has been running annually since 2000. The
focus is on the practical engineering issues that arise when dealing
with agent systems development in open, heterogeneous environments.
Proceedings have been published by Springer.
Coordination The International Conference on
Coordination Models and Languages has been running annually since
1999. It has become an active forum for the presentation of work
concerned with both theoretical and application-specific issues
on coordination models and component-based software. The conference
proceedings are published by Springer.
EUMAS The European Workshop on Multi-Agent Systems
was established in 2003, with the aim of providing a forum in which European researchers can present
work and promote activity in the
research and development of multi-agent systems, both in industry
and academia.
ISWC The International SemanticWeb Conference
was established in 2002 and takes place annually.
It is the main forum in which research and development relating
to Semantic Web issues is
presented. The participation of agent researchers in the conference
has been significant from the
start, reinforcing the links between the SemanticWeb research
and agent research and development.
UKMAS
The UKMAS (UK Multi-Agent Systems) workshops are organized by
the UK special
interest group on Multi-Agent Systems and have been running
since 1996. The aim is to bring
together people for academia and industry (mainly from around
the UK) to discuss relevant issues
and present new work. A collection of the best papers from the
past five years has been published
by Springer:
M. d’Inverno, M. Luck, M. Fisher, and C. Preist, editors.
Foundations and Applications of Multi- Agent Systems,
volume 2403 of LNCS, Springer, 2002.
Books that focus directly on issues relevant to agent-based software development include the following.
- G. Weiß and R. Jakob. Agentenorientierte Softwareentwicklung: Methoden und Tools, Xpert.press/Springer, 2004. [Written in German]
- F. Bergenti, M.P. Gleizes, F. Zambonelli (eds.). Methodologies and Software Engineering For Agent Systems: The Handbook of Agent-oriented Software Engineering, Kluwer Academic Publishing, 2004.
- L. Padgham and M. Winikoff. Developing Intelligent Agent Systems: A Practical Guide, Wiley, 2004
- S. Bussmann, N. R. Jennings and M. Wooldridge. Multiagent systems for manufacturing control: A design methodology, Springer, 2004.
The following books provide a good general
introduction to the area of agent technology.
- G. Weiss (ed.), Multiagent Systems: A Modern Approach
to Distributed Artificial Intelligence. MIT Press, 2000.
- M. Wooldridge, An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems.
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, 2002. 2002
- Although not an agent
book in the same sense, this book is a excellent general artificial
intelligence text, covering material relevant to agents, and with
an agent perspective.
S. Russell and P. Norvig. Artificial Intelligence:
A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition Prentice Hall, 2002.
In addition to these introductory texts, there are many other books that are
directed at more specialized audiences in focusing on particular
aspects of agents and multi-agent systems. The following books
can offer more details of particular aspects as a follow-up to
the material covered in this book.
- M. d'Inverno and M. Luck. Understanding Agent Systems (2nd edition), Springer, 2004.
- A. Garcia, C. Lucena, F. Zambonelli, A. Omicini and J.
Castro (eds). Software Engineering for Large-Scale
Multi-Agent Systems: Research Issues and Practical Applications.
Springer, 2002.
- S. Kraus, Strategic Negotiation in Multiagent Environments.
MIT Press, 2001.
- N. Jennings and M .Wooldridge (eds). Agent Technologies:
Foundations, Applications and Markets. Springer,
1998
- A. Omicini, F. Zambonelli, M. Klusch, R. Tolksdorf (eds)
Coordination of Internet Agents: Models, Technologies,
and Applications. Springer, 2001.
- T.Wagner, and O. F. Rana (eds.). Infrastructure
for Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Scalable Multi- Agent
Systems, International Workshop on Infrastructure
for Multi-Agent Systems, Revised Papers, volume 1887 of LNCS,
Springer, 2001.
M. Wooldridge. Reasoning about Rational Agents.
MIT Press, 2000.
UMBC AgentWeb
The UMBC Agent Web is probably the first dedicated portal to be
created specifically for agent technologies, beginning in 1995.
It provides a comprehensive set of links to agent-related material;
a new initiative is an attempt to provide a list of FIPA services
from around the world. The portal is maintained by the UMBC Laboratory
for Advanced Information Technology, with Tim Finin acting as
editor and Yannis Labrou as associate editor.
MultiAgent.com
The multiagent.com portal contains a comprehensive set of links
relating to multi-agent systems, such as conferences, groups,
companies, people, etc. It is maintained by Jose Vidal, of the
University of South Carolina, director of the Multiagent Dynamics
Laboratory.
Agents
Portal A recent addition is the Agents Portal, which
includes discussion forums. The site is maintained by Sehl Mellouli,
of Laval University, and Houssein Ben-Ameur a researcher of CIRANO
and Montreal University.
KTweb
KTweb is a European Commission funded project, under the Information
Society Technologies program, and aims to act as a community-building
and awareness service for digital content, media and knowledge
technologies. It publishes articles on issues related to knowledge
technologies, has an up-to-date news service for funding issues
from the European Commission, news related to knowledge technologies
and links to projects, people and products. KTWeb is run by ERIN
S.A., INBIS Group and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, through its
Division of Mathematics and Computer Science
SemanticWeb.org
The Semantic Web portal provides links to the majority
of resources related to Semantic Web issues, such as events, projects,
groups, companies, and so on. Many of these resources are also
tightly connected to agent development issues. The portal is managed
by the Onto-Agents and Scalable Knowledge Composition (SKC) Research
Group at Stanford University, the Ontobroker Group at the University
of Karlsruhe, and the Protege Research Group at Stanford University.
AgentLink AgentLink is the European Commission's Network of Excellence for
Agent-based Computing, which has been running since 1998. It offers
numerous links, just as the sites listed above but, in addition,
commissions and develops its own resources and reports, as well
as running events including an annual summer school.
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