2nd CALL FOR PAPERS ================================================================== Special Double Issue of the International Journal on Cooperative Information Systems INTELLIGENT INFORMATION AGENTS: THEORY AND APPLICATIONS Guest Editor: Matthias Klusch Deduction and Multi-Agent Systems Lab German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Ltd., Germany ================================================================== http://www.dfki.de/~klusch/JCISspecial.html IMPORTANT DATES *************** - Submission of Manuscripts: NOVEMBER 25, 1999 - Notification of Acceptance: March 30, 2000 - Publication of Special Issue due to: End of the year 2000 SCOPE & TOPICS ************** This special double issue of the International Journal on Cooperative Information Systems is devoted to advances in theory and applications of intelligent information agents. Roughly speaking, an information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple, heterogeneous and geographically distributed information sources; it pro-actively searches for and maintains relevant information on behalf of users or other agents preferably in a just-in-time fashion. Such an agent is supposed to satisfy one or multiple of following requirements: * Information acquisition and management, i.e., it may monitor, update, and provide transparent access to one or many different information sources, retrieve, extract, analyze and filter data (including semi-structured or even unstructured data). * Information synthesis and presentation, that is, it is able to integrate heterogeneous data and to provide unified (and multi-dimensional) views on data. * Intelligent user assistance by being able, for example to dynamically adapt to user preferences, any kind of changes in information and network environment. It may provide convenient individual interactive assistance for everyday business on the Internet such as a life-like character, recommend sources and future work steps, etc. In other words, the agent helps to manage and overcome the difficulties associated with information overload. In part, there are many approaches and implemented solutions available from advanced databases, knowledge-bases and distributed information systems technology to meet some of these demands. The effective and efficient access to information on the Internet and Web has become a critical research area. Information agents technology emerged as part of the more general intelligent software agent technology around seven years ago mainly as a response to the increasing challenges of the cyberspace from both, the technological and human user perspective. It is an inherently interdisciplinary technology encompassing approaches, methods and tools from different research disciplines such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Advanced Database and Knowledge Base Systems, Distributed Information Systems, Information Retrieval, Cognitive Sciences and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Today, it can be seen as one of the key technologies for the actual and future Internet and worldwide Web. Topics are but not limited to: * Architectures of (Systems of) Information Agents General and specific architectures of information agents in different settings and environments. Approaches for communication and collaboration between (systems) of information agents. Service matchmaking and brokering. Inter-Agent Communication languages. * Advanced Database and Knowledge-Base Technology Interoperability in large-scaled, and uncertain information environments. Application of Techniques for Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in open, distributed and dynamically changing environments. * Methods of Adaptation and Learning for Systems of Information Agents Methods for automated uncertain reasoning for information agents. Computation and action under uncertainty and limited resources. Performance and measurement of adaptation of single agent or multiagent systems in uncertain information environments. * Mobility and Issues of Security in the Internet Architectures, Environments and Languages for Mobile and Secure Information Agents and Servers. Secure agent execution and protection of data servers from malicious agents. Cooperating Information Agents in wearable computers, hand-held and/or satellite-based control devices. * Rational Information Agents and Electronic Commerce Agent-Based Marketplaces, Coalition Formation, Auctions, Negotiations. Economic models of cooperative problem solving among rational information agents in open information environments. Methods for prevention and detection of lying rational information agents. Electronic Commerce with incomplete and uncertain informations. Standards for privacy of communication, security, and jurisdiction for agent-mediated deals. * Human-Agent Interaction Synthetic Agents, believable avatars, and 3-D multimedia-based representation of user information spaces in the Internet. Models and Implementation of Advanced Interfaces for conversation and dialogue among Information Agents and Users. * Systems and Applications Systems and Applications of multiple collaborating Information Agents on the Internet. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT ************************* The length of the contribution should not exceed 22 pages. For guidelines on manuscript preparation see the Web site of the International Journal on Cooperative Information Systems at: http://www.wspc.com.sg/journals/ijcis/ijcis.html SUBMISSION ********** Manuscripts are to be submitted by (electronic) mail to the Guest Editor (see below). Authors may suggest the appropriate persons to review/referee their paper, however, the Editor need not necessarily take up the suggestion. Authors may request that their identity be kept unknown to the referee. Camera-ready manuscripts are to be prepared according to the instructions provided, preferably using LATEX or TEX. Please submit your manuscript by E-Mail (printable POSTSCRIPT - A4 format- AND the original text file) to klusch@dfki.de XOR Mail (5 Hard Copies) to Matthias Klusch DFKI GmbH Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 66123 Saarbruecken, Germany. Phone: +49-681-302 5297 Fax: +49-681-302 2235 http://www.dfki.de/~klusch/ ................................................................