President’s report

In the period 1st July 1996 to 30 June 1997 FIPA has moved from the idea of an Association devoted to the promotion of the success of emerging agent-based applications, services and equipment to an Association formally established with 34 corporate members, from 12 countries. In this period of time FIPA has succeeded in making real the bold attempt of writing technical specifications of interoperable agent technologies and of four applications of practical interest utilising FIPA agent technologies. All this in less than a year.

This was achieved thanks to an unprecedented degree of cooperation among FIPA members. It was barely 12 months ago when FIPA held its first formal meeting in Tokyo and produced a draft of the First Call for Proposals. Sixteen responses were received at the Torino meeting 3 months later and the first baseline documents produced. In a series of three meetings (Reston, VA in April; Cheju in June and Munich in October), the specification has undergone three revisions, all of them made publicly available for comments on the WWW.

It is a source of pride for FIPA members to know that FIPA 97 specifications have been accessed several thousand times and that even people we are completely unaware of have become proficient in our specifications. Also, several members have declared their intention to start to join in the field trials to validate FIPA 97 specifications.

The establishment of an organisational structure started at the October 1996 meeting. Currently FIPA has a Board of Directors and two advisory committees: Membership and Nomination, and Finance and Audit. Seven Technical Committees and one Special Interest Group have been established and their Chairs appointed.

FIPA has been established on the basis of a firm programme of work. The first work item, started in October 1996 has been thoroughly followed: this week FIPA 97 will be approved and we will be showing the world that FIPA not only promises but also delivers. Specification work on field trials has already started and from this meeting on will enter into an operational phase. The second work item is kicked off this week and we expect to publish FIPA 98 in a year’s time.

My association with you has been a pleasure and an honour. We have succeeded in making the transition of a technology so far in the academic domain to the industry domain.