FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL AGENTS

FOUNDATION FOR INTELLIGENT PHYSICAL AGENTS

Document title:		Resolutions of the 19^th FIPA Meeting - Sydney, 16-20 October 2000
Document number		f-out-00072	Document source:	FIPA Board of Directors
Document status:		Preliminary	Date of this status:	2000/10/25
Change history:
2000/10/25	Initial draft

Resolutions of the Sydney meeting
October 16-20, 2000.

FIPA recognises the resignation of

Richard Nicol (BT)

and the expiration of the terms of

Francis McCabe (Fujitsu), and

Donald Steiner (WebV2)

as members of the Board of Directors. FIPA thanks them for their valuable efforts in helping FIPA achieve its goals so far.

Geoff Arnold (Sun),

Bernard Burg (Motorola),

Robert Hadingham (Nortel Networks), and

Kyoshi Kogure (NTT),

are continuing their terms on the Board of Directors.

FIPA appoints

Heimo Laamanen (Sonera),

Francis McCabe (Fujitsu), and

Donald Steiner (WebV2)

to the Board of Directors as per vote by the General Assembly.

FIPA notes the report of the Board of Directors concerning

The election of the following officers and positions of the Board of Directors as per the FIPA Statutes:

President	Donald Steiner
Vice-President	Francis McCabe
Secretary	Bernard Burg
Treasurer	Francis McCabe
Chair, Finance and Audit Committee	Rob Hadingham
Chair, Membership and Nominating Committee	Geoff Arnold

The composition of the Finance and Audit Committee

Name	Affiliation	Country
Rob Hadingham (Chair)	Nortel Networks	UK
David Levine	IBM	US
Hiroki Suguri	ComTec	JP

The times and locations of the next 3 meetings in 2001:

Meeting	Dates	Location	Country	Host
20^th	Jan 29 – Feb 02	Phoenix	USA	Intel
21^st	Apr 02 – Apr 06	Tel Aviv	Israel	Sixth Element
22^nd	Jul 16 – Jul 20	Sendai	Japan	Comtec

All TC-specific mailing lists should be open for subscription to all members and non-members, unless otherwise explicitly requested by the TC Chair. TC Chairs retain the right to remove a non-member from the mailing list in case of objective violation of standard mailing-list etiquette.

The resignation of Hiroki Suguri as the Chair of the FIPA Architecture Board and the appointment of David Levine as his successor. Hiroki Suguri will continue to serve on the FAB, and the Board gratefully thanks him for his effort in getting the FAB established.

The establishment of the Ontology SIG (Chair: Francis McCabe)

The establishment of the PtP SIG (Chair: Donald Steiner)

FIPA approves the President's report of the previous year (f-out-000067).

FIPA approves the Secretariat’s report of the previous three months (f-out-000066).

On the proposal of the Finance and Audit Committee, FIPA approves

the 1999-2000 accounts (f-out-000068, f-out-000069)
the 2000-2001 budget (f-out-000070)

FIPA appoints KPMG as auditors for the 2000-2001 accounts.

Resolutions of Technical Committees, Working Groups, and Special Interest Groups

TC Architecture Resolutions

TC Architecture proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions.

To hold an interim meeting of TC Architecture co-located with OMG Dec 13/14 in Orlando, FL

To submit PC00001x to the FAB as an eXperimental specification.

To encourage the development of a workplan to develop a service model architecture.

TC Architecture extends its thanks and appreciation to Geoff Arnold, Michael Berger, Jeff Bradshaw, Monique Calisti, Stefano Compadello, Dominic Greenwood (ed), Heikki Helin, Heimo Laamanen, David Levine, Francis McCabe, Martin Purvis, Satoshi Nishiyama, John Shepherdson, Donald Steiner, Steve Willmott,

TC Agreements Management Resolutions

TC Agreements Management proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions.

Regarding the Agent Configuration Management Specification:

Email interaction will proceed on the reflector: agree@fipa.org

An initial draft will be created by J. Dale & B. Burg by Dec 15 2000

Regarding the Service Level Agreements Specification

Email interaction will proceed on the reflector: agree@fipa.org

Prior art will be circulated

Analysis of bibliography

A close tie with TC Architecture will be maintained regarding Domains and Policies

Regarding the Service Description Ontology Specification

It is proposed to develop a Workplan (H. Kitajima) within Ontology SIG

Email interaction will proceed on the reflector: ontology@fipa.org

TC Agreement Management thanks TC Architecture for the fruitful discussion.

TC Agreement Management gratefully thanks: Laura Bacari (Sixth Element), Thierry Bouron (France Telecom), Phil Buckle (Nortel Networks), Bernard Burg (Motorola Labs), Jonathan Dale (Fujitsu Labs), David Evans (Simplex technology), Hironobu Kitajima (Fujitsu), Makoto Okada (Fujitsu Labs), Lin Padgham (RMIT), Jeremy Pitt (Imperial College), Stefan Poslad (QMW), Sidi O Soueina (Motorola Labs), Hiroki Suguri (Comtec).

TC Gateways Resolutions

TC Gateways proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions.

Accept the bit efficient concrete envelope syntax submission, jointly produced by Sonera and University of Helsinki, as the basis of the preliminary version of 'FIPA Agent Message Transport Envelope Representation in Bit-Efficient Encoding Specification' -With immediate effect.

Issue a revised Call For Technology by

- 27 October 2000

Discuss issues relating to definition, operation, and compatibility of a "gateway" with existing specifications with relevant parties within FIPA.

- With immediate effect

TC Gateways will assess the responses to the revised CFT, and produce specifications, as per the workplan dates (preliminary specifications by 07/01, experimental by 01/02).

TC Gateways E gives special thanks to Heimo Laamanen, Heikki Helin, Kari Koivuniemi, Michael Berger, Satoshi Nishiyama, Stefan Poslad, Phil Buckle, Stefano Campadello, Dominic Greenwood, Geoff Arnold, David Levine, Sidi Soueina, Laura Bacari and John Shepherdson.

TC C Resolutions

TC C proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions.

TC C has reviewed the FIPA Communicative Act Library (PC00037), and recommends that it be promoted to Experimental status. The following changes were made:

Many of the examples were updated to reflect the current syntax of FIPA-SL.

The description of the cfp CA was clarified to make clear that this version of cfp is applicable only to single-parameter proposals.

The description of the not-understood CA was clarified to include the use of the error message as a SL term.

TC C received a proposal by Stephen Cranefield about a new inform CA, and recommended resolving this proposal via content language means.

A significant error in the description of the cancel CA was corrected. The interpretation given in the existing formal model was judged by TC C to be the correct one. This error made several of the cancellable IPs problematic (see below).

Numerous editorial changes were made.

TC C has reviewed the Interaction Protocol Library. TC C recommends that the individual elements of this library (the interaction protocols) be promoted to Experimental Status, with the exception of FIPA-Subscribe.

TC C has reviewed the AUML specification. TC C believes that this specification will still require substantial work before being promoted to Standard; nevertheless, we believe that it is appropriate for Experimental Status. TC C thanks Jeremy Pitt for presenting his experiences with AUML.

TC C has removed the cancellable versions of the various protocols. TC C believes that substantial elaboration on each IP will be necessary in order to specify all cases that might occur in an actual agent interaction. Real world issues of cancelling actions, asynchrony, abnormal or unexpected protocol termination, nested protocols, and the like, are explicitly not addressed in the current IP specifications. Implementers are invited to specify more complete and robust interaction patterns, and submit them to FIPA for inclusion in the interaction protocol library.

TC C requests that TC Gateways consider the impact of the (newly-revised) definition of the cancel CA on the information flow in FIPA-Subscribe.

Numerous editorial changes were made to the Interaction Protocol Library Administration document (AUML), and the individual Library elements.

TC C wishes to extend special recognition and thanks to Hiroki Iciki of Fujitsu for his tremendous work in editing the Communicative Acts specifications.

TC C gratefully acknowledges the work of Thierry Bouron, Monique Calisti, Stephen Cranefield, Mark Greaves, Marcus Huber, Hiroki Iciki, Frank McCabe, Makoto Okada, Jeremy Pitt, Martin Purvis, and Donald Steiner.

Upon acceptance of the specifications as Experimental, TC C would like to transfer responsibility for the FIPA Message Structure Specification, the FIPA Communicative Acts Specification, the FIPA Content Language Library, and the FIPA Interaction Protocol Library to the FAB.

TC C thanks FIPA for its support and, having completed its workplan, recommends that the FAB take steps to dissolve TC C.

TC C anticipates the formation of a follow-on technical committee to continue to maintain the current ACL specification set.

TC C also anticipates the formation of a new working group to explore advanced issues in FIPA ACL semantics and protocols.

TC C requests that the FAB encourage the formation of both of these new FIPA groups.

AgentCities WG resolutions

The AgentCities WG proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions:

To complete the point-to-point connections between existing Agentcities platforms (by meeting 20).

To complete federation of DFs between platforms (by meeting 20).

To develop an AgentCities Agent weather service as a test-case Agentcities service

To move to XML/RDF end to end (ACL, Content) as primary encoding (6 month timeframe for evaluation / transition).

To investigate on-line ontology/content for domains being addressed by Agentcities (6 month timeframe for evaluation)

Special thanks to the following for contributing to an interesting and productive meeting: Laura Bacari, Phil Buckle, Monique Calisti, Jonathan Dale, Alex Dardik, Stefan Poslad, Jeremy Pitt, Lin Padgham, Martin Purvis, Hiroki Suguri, John Shepherdson, Sidi Soueina

FIPA Architecture Board Resolutions

The FAB proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions.

Approve the TC-Gateway Call for Technology on mobile gateways (f-out-000063)
Assign TC-Gateway's Bit Efficient Envelope specification the number PC00088 for preliminary status.
Accept the TC-Communications Interaction Protocol (PC0000???) and Communicative Acts (PC00037E) libraries for review for experimental status
Accept the TC-Architecture Abstract Architecture PC00001G for review for experimental status.
Accept the Security SIG's Call For Information, f-out-000065 for review, preliminary to issuance.
Rejects the workplans:

f-in-00011 Query And Inform DF/AMs

f-in-00012 Information Agent Workplan

This is solely due to lack of support by the active membership. No judgement on the technical merit of the work is assigned.

This is solely due to lack of support by the active membership. No judgement on the technical merit of the work is assigned.

Requests a web page be added to the www.fipa.org site to report the current status of all work items currently under consideration by the FIPA Architecture Board.
Thanks to the membership for their contributions to the FAB's work this week

Ontology SIG resolutions

The Ontology SIG proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions:

To establish a new email reflector: ontology@fipa.org for the purposes of discussing a workplan and subsequent work
We wish to extend our thanks and appreciation to Thierry Bouron, Phil Buckle, Monique Calisti, Jonathan Dale, David Evans, Laura Bacari, Mark Greaves, Kitajima, Francis McCabe, Martin Purvis, Steve Willmott, Sidi Soueina

Security SIG resolutions

During this FIPA meeting, the Security SIG has reviewed a range of security-related issues that are related to the work of FIPA. It has identified the scope of work for a future security work-plan, and is drafting a Request For Information (f-out-00065). It intends to use the results of this call to develop a security work plan. It is hoped that initial work on this plan can take place at the Phoenix meeting.

The FIPA Security SIG proposes the following resolutions.

That the FIPA membership accept this approach to the area of security.

That when the Request For Information is completed (target: 2000/10/27), the FAB review and approve it in a timely fashion and make it available on the FIPA web site.

That a web page for the Security SIG be created on the FIPA web site, with the intention of transforming it into a Security Working Group page when appropriate.

That the reflector security@fipa.org be created.

That FIPA members interested in the topic of security provide comment and feedback on this reflector, or to the chair, Geoff Arnold, geoff.arnold@sun.com.

That the following be thanked for their work in the Security SIG at this meeting of FIPA: Geoff Arnold, Laura Bacari, Jeff Bradshaw, Monique Calisti, Alex Dardik, and Stefan Poslad. (Apologies are offered to anyone whose name was omitted.)

Liaison SIG resolutions

The status of the following external activities were discussed: OMG, FIPA-OS, HMS, PtP, JCP, GRID Forum, DAML, OIL, UDDI, IEEE Upper Ontology.

Significant news includes the following:

The OMG Agent Working Group has dissolved, and a more formal group started: the OMG Agent SIG.

FIPA-OS has had in excess of 5000 downloads in the last 5 months.

Intel’s Peer-to-Peer Working Group (PtP) initiative has issued a CFP for Peer-to-Peer Architectures.

The Java Agent Services (JAS) process has formally been approved by the JAVA Community Process (JCP) committee, and will use an open source license.

DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) uses XML/RDF/OIL.

The IEEE Upper Ontology Initiative is a candidate for a FIPA ontology framework.

The Liaison SIG proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions:

To form a PtP SIG with the intent to respond to the Intel PtP CFP, further PtP liaison resolutions will be made from the new PtP SIG, chaired by Donald Steiner.

To add an 'interesting links' page to the FIPA web site, this will provide many of the external liaison links.

FIPA has resolved to invite DARPA and representatives of the Peer-to-Peer Working Group to the Phoenix meeting.

Notes from the Liaison SIG will be provided on the web site (f-out-000075).

Image Committee resolutions

The status of FIPA's marketing issues was discussed including: promotional devices, articulation of the vision, value statement, logo, slogan, audience, white paper, combined presentation and paper resources, press relationship, market analysis, FIPA book, FIPA game, future workshops and panels. A number of actions have been recorded and the full results of the Committee are available as f-out-000074.

The Image Committee would like to thank Fujitsu, and in particular Jonathan Dale, for extensive work on the new FIPA web site.

The Image Committee proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions:

To seek comments from the FIPA membership regarding promotional devices, 'simple visions', and slogans that evoke the FIPA spirit. Contributions will be 'professionalised'.

To plan a short white paper about FIPA technology.

To draw together FIPA presentations and papers.

To plan a workshop for the Phoenix meeting.

To write a workplan to instantiate an Image Working Group.

PtP SIG resolutions

The PtP SIG proposes that FIPA adopt the following resolutions:

To submit a proposal to the Peer-to-Peer Working Group’s Request for Proposals for a Peer-to-Peer Architecture by Dec. 4, 2000. The proposal will consist of at least a detailed cover letter with our positioning and contributions as well as the Abstract Architecture, PC00001x. If there is time, a white paper giving a high-level summary of the architecture will also be submitted.

To establish an internal e-mail reflector ptp@fipa.org to carry on further discussion for preparing the proposal.
The SIG graciously thanks for their contributions and valuable comments: Bernard Burg, Michael Berger, Jeff Bradshaw, Geoff Arnold, Jonathan Dale, Steve Willmott, Laura Bacari, Alex Dardik, Rob Hadingham, David Levine, Dominic Greenwood, and Donald Steiner

FIPA approves the report of the Image Committee (f-out-000074) and the Liaison Notes (f-out-000075).

FIPA thanks the following individuals for participating in and making valuable contributions to the FIPA Workshop:

Name	Affiliation
Dr. Andrew Lucas	Agent Oriented Software Pty Ltd
Dr. Ralph Ronnquist	Agent Oriented Software Pty Ltd
Prof. Lin Padgham	RMIT, Melbourne
Dr. Adrian Pearce	University of Melbourne
Dr. David Kinny	University of Melbourne

FIPA thanks Motorola and Octagon for offering FIPA excellent meeting facilities and friendly support in Sydney and for hosting its 19^th meeting, in particular: Justine Ellis of Octagon, and from Motorola, Bernard Burg, Dave Borth, Nicolas Demassieux, Peter Beadle, and Andrew Portus.

FIPA invites its membership and contributors to the FIPA process to its 20^th meeting, January 29 – February 2, 2001 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA to be hosted by Intel.