Agent Technologies

Objective of Meeting

To make further progress following the previous meeting in Miami, FL in establishing a new working group or forum to assist organizations of all types and sizes with the development of enterprise applications for agent technologies. Again, the focus was on delivering solutions to real-world challenges. Agent technologies are not new, but are now emerging as a key development that will have a growing impact across all industry sectors and the aim is to enable high quality decision-making.

Summary

The following is a brief summation of the actions required and the agreed problem domains to be developed in preparation for the San Diego conference and to be completed by end-November 2006:

1. Articulate the problem to be addressed (Fergal Somers)
2. Identify which organizations will be interested (Peter Evans-Greenwood)
3. Prepare and publish forum position statements in connection with these problem domains**:
   1. Financial Services Industry (Venugopal Subbaroa)
   2. Logistics (Peter Evans-Greenwood)
   3. Field Services (Milhai Moldovan)
4. Achieve visibility (Chris Parnell) via:
   1. Personal Networking
   2. Press Coverage
   3. Speaking Engagements
5. Establish metrics for progress measurement (Chris Harding)

** Up to four examples to be quoted for each where agent technology has succeeded and other technologies have failed. Cases should also relate to Boundaryless Information Flow™.

The intention is that the foregoing items will be used to augment the current Agent Technologies Discussion Document and enable it to be converted into a draft White Paper on Dynamic SOA (or the Scaleable Solutions Work Group or the Enabling Technologies Work Group). The existing document will be made available as additional reading for now.

It is likely that the above problem domains will be used as the focal points for work areas that will be established within the new forum (or Work Group, as above).

Outputs

It was agreed to collaborate and work towards integrating agent technology into a conventional enterprise technology stack and development methodology. Rather than develop agent solutions that sit apart from existing enterprise applications, this group wants to find way to leverage the technology within core operational applications.

Attention will be paid to the relationships with activities in other areas of The Open Group, such as Service Orientated Architecture and Real-time & Embedded Systems (especially Architecting-to-the-Edge) plus, Knowledge Management, Composite Applications, and Role-Based Technology.

The aim is to launch a new forum at the San Diego conference in January 2007. It was suggested that it be called the Dynamic SOA Forum.
[Note that subsequent discussions with The Open Group executive management team have led to preferred alternatives, namely positioning this within the existing SOA initiative as either the Scaleable Solutions Work Group or the Enabling Technologies Work Group. Comments are invited asap.]

Next Steps

The Open Group will make available:

1. Online collaborative work tool, known as PLATO, for the development of documents (Chris Harding)
2. Email alias for forum participants to communicate amongst the group (Chris Harding)
3. Public facing web pages to share information with potential new members and others with an interest in the subject (Chris Harding)

During the San Diego conference Plenary (Monday pm):

1. Four presenters/double slot with interaction via Q&A panel (e.g., OSLO & STMicroelectronics/Capgemini & DHL)

2. Subjects dealing with scalability in Boundaryless Information Flow™ and SOA:

   1. The challenge of scalability in Boundaryless Information Flow™

   2. The potential/promise of agents

   3. The problems agents resolve

   4. User experiences

3. How agents interact on standard web service infrastructure, why we would choose to use agent technologies

During the San Diego conference Summit (Tuesday am):

1. Presentations to the Customer Council and Vendor Council

Links

See above.