------ CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Agentlink Technical Forum Group "Towards a Standard Agent to Agent Argumentation Interchange Format" Budapest, Hungary, 15th and 16th of September, 2005 http://x-opennet.org/aif/ ------ In recent years Argumentation has emerged as an important potential technology in the development of interacting Agent systems. However, while a number of well-known argumentation systems have been implemented and a wide array of theories developed, there is no common format for expressing arguments which might be exchanged by Agents - an Argumentation Interchange Format. Such a format could: * Provide a convergence point for ongoing research and development. * Make it possible for internet-deployed agents developed by different teams to exchange arguments. * Make it possible to exchange argument structures between tools developed by different teams. In order to encourage the development of such a format this Technical Forum Group activity aims to take some first steps by 1) calling for inputs from the community on possible requirements, technologies and use cases, and 2) through on and off-line discussion develop a first-cut, straw man interchange format document based on inputs received. This call for participation aims to encourage all interested parties to contribute either by sending submissions of opinion papers (see below), joining debate on the TFG mailing list or attending the TFG discussion event to be held in Budapest on the 15th and 16th of September 2005. BACKGROUND & MOTIVATION Argumentation theories provide a powerful framework for interacting agents making a decision, assessing the validity of a fact, or otherwise resolving a difference of opinion. Argumentation, in general, focuses on interactions where parties plead for and against some conclusion [Argmas2005], and is an essential ingredient of inter-agent dialogue, negotiation persuasion and collaborative decision making. The field of argumentation draws on a wide range of areas including philosophy, natural language, rhetoric, and logic, and has recently found in multi-agent systems a natural framework for implementing, studying and testing Argumentation models and scenarios. As a result of these developments, in recent years two significant workshops have chosen to investigate the area at the intersection of Argumentation and Multi-Agent Systems [Argmas2004, Argmas2005], and a 3 year EU IST project is funding research into the same domain [ASPIC]. Equally relevant, major developments in interoperability technologies such as the Semantic Web [SW] and Web Services [WS] offer for the first time the opportunity to deploy Argumentation Agents in open environments such as the public Internet. In this context, an Agentlink technical Forum group will meet in the context of the TFG III event be held in Budapest, Hungary from the 15th to the 17th of September ( agentlink.org) with the primary objective of: Proposing a first cut agreed notation or "Interchange Format" for argumentation and arguments which might be used as a convergence point for theoretical and practical work on argumentation technology. OBJECTIVES The plan for the TFG is structured around the following main outputs: * A collection of documents detailing requirements, recommendations and potentially full proposals for an Argumentation Interchange Format. * A draft AIF document specifying the syntax and semantics of the Argument Interchange Format. The results will take the form of either a single draft framework (if this can be agreed upon) or as a collection of flavours/options where multiple viable candidate solutions exist. * A mini roadmap defining steps towards the further development of the draft AIF specification - including open issues, possible further contributions, potential future meetings and implementation plans. The first of these results will be achieved on the basis of this call for input. The second and third through discussion at the TFG event itself as well as on the TFG email list (see below). TFG results should enable participants and third parties to identify how they might be able to better work together, which approaches to focus on, and where there are potential gaps in tools and understanding. Furthermore, the outputs of this effort should inform larger projects and initiatives on how they might be able to support the objective of developing an argument interchange standard. Last but not least, the results may also form a useful input for the Agentlink Roadmap. IMPORTANT DATES * Input Deadline 9th Sept * Mailing list discussion: 10th - 15th Sept * TFG Event 15th Sept - 17th Sept * TFG Final Results Nov 2005 FORMAT OF SUBMISSIONS The aim of the TFG is gather diverse opinions on the possible form of an Argumentation Interchange Format and promote discussion. Hence all relevant opinions are welcome. Submissions are welcome in the form of short position/opinion papers which address one or more of the following issues: * Requirements / Desirata for Interchange Formats on areas such as: * Syntax * Semantics * Compatibility with existing standards / formats / systems * Existing candidate technologies in any of the above areas, such as: * Syntax: XML, RDF, OWL, S-expressions, ... * Semantics: existing semantic models for use as a basis. * Standards: existing interchange formats which may be adopted or amended * Complete solutions: existing formats which may already function as Argumentation Interchange Formats. * Use Cases: detailing scenarios in which Interchange Formats may be usefully applied and which should be considered in the design of the format. (Including existing tools which already make use of Interchange Formats or could usefully apply them.) All submissions should include a title, contact details of the authors submitting and: * An abstract stating the opinion expressed and whether it refers to requirements, candidate technologies, use cases or several of these areas. * A main body which summarises the opinion and arguments for / against. * A set of references which point to relevant technologies, documents, tools etc. which are of relevance to the opinion. Submissions should be made in PDF format and should be between 1 and 5 pages in length (longer submissions are possible but please keep points concise given the limited time available for dicussion). All relevant submissions received by the deadline will be posted on the TFG web site for participants to view and consider. The authors of each input remain full copyright but are requested to indicate * Their willingness for the input to be made available on the web site. * Whether or not they will be able to attend the TFG event in Budapest to provide a short presentation. Submissions should be sent to Steven Willmott (steve@lsi.upc.edu) by email with a subject line starting [AIF-Submission] by the *9th of September 2005*. MAILING LIST Pre and post event discussion will take place on the TFG mailing list which all interested parties are invited to join. Details of how to sign up for the discussion group are provided at: http://x-opennet.org/aif/. EVENT STRUCTURE The TFG event itself will include: * Short presentations of submissions [5-10 minutes per input] * Discussion of submissions to classify and categorise them * Requirements listing in areas such as syntax, semantics, use cases. * Group discussions on each of the area (syntax, semantics etc.) to develop a straw man document for further discussion. MORE INFORMATION More information can be obtained at the TFG Web site http://x-opennet.org/aif/. Details of the event venue, the CEEMAS conference and of other TFG groups meeting can be found on the Agentlink TFG web site: http://www.agentlink.org/activities/al3-tf/tf3/tfg.html TFG ORGANISERS * Iyad Rahwan * Dave Robertson * Chris Reed * Nicolas Maudet * John Fox * Simon Parsons * Dan Grecu * Steven Willmott (contact person) TFG SUPPORTERS * Michael Rovatsos * Guillermo Simari * Carles Sierra * Jamal Bentahar * Maxime Morge * Iyad Rahwan * Dave Robertson * Chris Reed * Nicolas Maudet * Tsakou Ioanna * Gerard Vreeswijk * Henri Prade * Henry Prakken * Ivan Bratko * John Fox * Leila Amgoud * Martin Caminada * Martin Mozina * Michael Wooldridge * Sanjay Modgil * Trevor Bench-Capon * Peter McBurney * Simon Parsons * Dan Grecu * Sylvie Doutre * Paul Krause * Steven Willmott REFERENCES [ArgMAS04] Workshop on Argumentation for Multi-Agent Systems, organised in conjunction with the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS) July, 2004, New York, USA. [ArgMAS05] Workshop on Argumentation for Multi-Agent Systems, organised in conjunction with the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS) July, 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands. [ASPIC] European Commission funded research project “Argumentation Service Platform with Integrated Components”. http://www.argumentation.org/