T7 - HALF DAY ================================================================== Theory and Practive of Agent Communication in the Semantic Web Era Tim Finin and Yannis Labrou ==================================================================== 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. =================================================================== 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. ================================================================== 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 ============================================================== 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.