Re: Difference between Agents and (Semantic) Web Services]

Hi Marin,

Within the W3C, the primary reference document for agents and services can
be found at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-ws-arch-20040211/


So, to your question: What are the difference(s) between software agents and
(semantic) Web services?

o  Web service -  a software system designed to support interoperable
machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described
in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact
with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP
messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in
conjunction with other Web-related standards.

o  The semantics of a Web service -  the shared expectation about the
behavior of the service, in particular in response to messages that are sent
to it. In effect, this is the "contract" between the requester entity and
the provider entity regarding the purpose and consequences of the
interaction. Although this contract represents the overall agreement between
the requester entity and the provider entity on how and why their respective
agents will interact, it is not necessarily written or explicitly
negotiated. It may be explicit or implicit, oral or written, machine
processable or human oriented, and it may be a legal agreement or an
informal (non-legal) agreement. (This is a slight simplification.)

o  Agents - programs that engage in actions on behalf of someone or
something else. For our purposes, agents realize and request Web services.
In effect, software agents are the running programs that drive Web services
‹ both to implement them and to access them.  Software agents are also
proxies for the entities that own them. This is important as many services
involve the use of resources which also have owners with a definite interest
in their disposition. For example, services may involve the transfer of
money and the incurring of legal obligations as a result.  In other words,
agents are autonomous computing entities that can act reactively and
proactively with their own thread of control.  The can act individually or
³socially² to accomplish their goals.


At the core of the concept of service is the notion of one party performing
action(s) at the behest of another party. From the perspective of requester
and provider agents, an action is typically performed by executing some
fragment of a program.

In the WSA, the actions performed by requester and provider agents are
largely out of scope, except in so far as they are the result of messages
being sent or received. In effect, the programs that are executed by agents
are not in scope of the architecture, however the resulting messages are in
scope.

Also, the Agents and Web Services Interoperability Working Group @
FIPA (http://www.fipa.org/subgroups/AWSI-WG.html) is alive.  If you are
interested in participating please contact FIPA-AWSI-Chair@ieee.org.  (And
if you have any problems, please feel free to contact me directly.)

Hope this helps.  Please contact me if you would like for clarification.


Regards,

Jim Odell
Chair, IEEE FIPA
www.jamesodell.com


------ Forwarded Message
From: "Elisa F. Kendall" <ekendall@sandsoft.com>
Organization: Sandpiper Software, Inc.
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:53:26 -0700
To: James Odell <email@jamesodell.com>
Subject: [Fwd: Re: Difference between Agents and (Semantic) Web Services]

in case you didn't see this and want to respond ...

Elisa

-------- Original Message --------
 Subject:  Re: Difference between Agents and (Semantic) Web Services
 Resent-Date:  Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:31:37 +0000
 Resent-From:  public-sws-ig@w3.org
 Date:  Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:25:12 +0200
 From:  Marin Dimitrov <marin.dimitrov@ontotext.com>
<mailto:marin.dimitrov@ontotext.com>
 Organization:  Ontotext Lab. / Sirma Group
 To:  Jyotishman Pathak <jyotishman@gmail.com> <mailto:jyotishman@gmail.com>
 CC:  Public-Sws-Ig@W3. Org <public-sws-ig@w3.org>
<mailto:public-sws-ig@w3.org> , Jyotishman Pathak <jpathak@cs.iastate.edu>
<mailto:jpathak@cs.iastate.edu>
 References:  <b6d82a810610250906j14c546e9l9172a0d9d827fee0@mail.gmail.com>
<mailto:b6d82a810610250906j14c546e9l9172a0d9d827fee0@mail.gmail.com>

Jyotishman Pathak wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Pardon me if this is a very naive question, but someone can please tell
> me crisply the difference(s) between software agents and (semantic) Web
> services? I have been trying to find out a comparison between them over
> the Web and came across the following:
> http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=873262, which unfortunately did
> not suffice my query to its entirety.
> 

there is an Agents and Web Services Interoperability Working Group @
FIPA (http://www.fipa.org/subgroups/AWSI-WG.html) and the presentations
at their site list some of the similarities/differences between agents
and (semantic) web services, but I'm not sure this WG is still active

hth,

 Marin

----
"...what you brought from your past, is of no use in your present. When
you must choose a new path, do not bring old experiences with you.
Those who strike out afresh, but who attempt to retain a little of the
old life, end up torn apart by their own memories. "





------ End of Forwarded Message