T7 - HALF DAY
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Theory and Practive of Agent Communication in the Semantic Web Era
Tim Finin and Yannis Labrou
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ABSTRACT OF THE TUTORIAL
This four hour tutorial will cover both introductory and intermediate
concepts of the theory and practice of Agent Communication Languages
in the Semantic Web era.
This tutorial will focus on software agents as autonomous, cooperating
processes which use rich agent communication languages to exchange
information and knowledge and to coordinate their activities. We will
present the general requirements of agent communication languages, their
theoretical underpinnings, current languages (and their semantics), their
realizations in software implementations, ongoing standardization efforts
and future trends. We will introduce the semantic web, the fundamental
concepts behind it, its languages and tools and we will explore
applications that seek to bring together semantic web technologies and
communicating agents.
The approach developed by the Knowledge Sharing Effort (KSE), including the
languages KIF, KQML and Ontolingua, will be described briefly. We will
discuss the various semantic efforts for agent communication languages
(including the semantics of FIPA ACL) and the current FIPA agent framework
and languages. We will also review efforts that are going to impact the
future of agent communication languages such as the integration of XML into
ACL frameworks, new "semantic web" languages (e.g., RDF, DAML, OIL), and the
role of shared semantic web ontologies in achieving mutual understanding.
The course will conclude with a review of agent-based projects which are
using some of the agent communication language and semantic web components
discussed.
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INTENDED AUDIENCE AND BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED
We assume that participants will have a working knowledge of computer
science and also have been exposed the basic concepts of software
agents and artificial intelligence.
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DETAILED OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. Agents and Agent Communication
3. Conceptual and Theoretical Foundation
o Speech act theory, BDI
o Knowledge Representation
+ Ontologies
+ Knowledge representation systems
+ Description logics
+ Semantics and model theory
4. Origins - Knowledge Sharing Effort
o KIF
o KQML
o Ontolongua
5. Standardization - FIPA
o FIPA ACL
o FIPA Agent Platform
o Agentcities
6. ACL Semantics
7. ACL's and the Semantic Web - Motivation
o Making the Web friendly for machines
o Semantic Web meets agents
8. Semantic Web
o History and the web today
o XML 101
+ XML Syntax
+ XML Schema
+ XML Namespace
o Semantic Web languages
+ RDF and RDFS
+ DAML+OIL
+ OWL
9. Applications
o Use of RDF in P3P and CC/PP and RDF Calendar
o RDF and DAML in FIPA
o DAML Services and DAML-S
o XTalks
10. Software tools and research issues
o Tools
+ RDF and DAML parsers
+ Reasoners in Jess, XSB, JTP
+ Editors (e.g. Protege)
+ Markup tools
+ Query languages: RQL, DQL, ...
o Issues
+ How will the semantic web be used?
+ What kind of KR is needed for the SW?
+ How expressive should SW languages be?
+ One ontology or many?
+ How does industry view the SW?
+ How do the web and agents paradigms fit?
11. Conclusions
12. Questions and discussion
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BIOGRAPHIES OF PRESENTERS
Timothy W. Finin (corresponding presenter)
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore MD 21250
mailto:finin@umbc.edu
voice: +1-410-455-3522
fax: +1-410-455-3522
http://umbc.edu/~finin
Dr. Timothy Finin is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has over 25
years of experience in the applications of AI to problems in information
systems, intelligent interfaces and robotics and is currently working on
the theory and applications of intelligent software agents. He holds
degrees from MIT and the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the UMBC,
he held positions at Unisys, the University of Pennsylvania, and the MIT AI
Laboratory. Finin is the author of over one hundred refereed publications
and has received research grants and contracts from a variety of sources.
He has been the past program chair or general chair of several major
conferences, is a former AAAI councilor and is currently serving as AAAI's
representative on the board of directors of the Computing Research.
Yannis K. Labrou
Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Inc.
8400 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 302
College Park, MD 20740-2496
mailto:yannis@fla.fujitsu.com
voice: (301) 486-1565
Fax: (301) 441-9676
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~jklabrou/
Dr. Yannis Labrou is a Researcher with Fujitsu Labs of America (FLA). Prior
to joining FLA, he served as the Director of Technology at PowerMarket Inc.
and before PowerMarket he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from
UMBC and a Diploma in Physics from the University of Athens, Greece. Dr.
Labrou has been actively involved in the broader area of software agents;
his current research interests also include the Semantic Web and Pervasive
Computing. He has served on a number of conference organizing committees,
program committees, and panels, and has delivered invited tutorials and
talks to conferences, research labs and universities. He is the author of
more than 30 publications in research journals, books, and conferences.
Prior to joining UMBC, Dr. Labrou worked as an intern at the Intelligent
Network Technology group of the I.B.M. T.J. Watson Research Center.