The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents [1] (FIPA)   
   was established almost ten years ago to develop software   
   standards for heterogeneous and interacting agents and   
   agent-based systems.  It successfully developed and   
   published a very good set of standards for agent   
   communication, interoperability and infrastructure.  The   
   last several years has seen a gradual decline in paying   
   members, fewer technical people able to devote time and a   
   general loss of momentum.   
      
   This fall the FIPA board decided to close down FIPA as a   
   Swiss-based organization and find a sponsor to help maintain   
   and develop the FIPA standards.  The membership voted to   
   follow this course and discussions were held with a number   
   of candidate organizations.  The IEEE Computer Society   
   invited FIPA to become part of its family of standards   
   committees and working groups [2]. In March, the FIPA   
   membership voted to join as the "FIPA Standards Committee".   
   This committee will acting as a self-organizing body with   
   its own policies and procedures, dues structures, and bank   
   account within the IEEE. The IEEE Computer Society will   
   provide the umbrella organization, website maintenance,   
   voting support, and all the other benefits that a large   
   standards organization provides.   
      
   FIPA was an exciting experiment and perhaps a bit ahead of   
   its time. I think that joining IEEE's standards committee is   
   a good decision and am optimistic that this will provide a   
   new home for FIPA's ideas and standards to evolve as new   
   technologies appear and mature.  The agents vision is still   
   the right one, IMHO, and FIPA's good work will be needed   
   soon.   
      
   [1] http://fipa.org/   
   [2] http://www.computer.org/standards/   
      
   [ comp.ai is moderated.  To submit, just post and be patient, or if ]   
   [ that fails mail your article to , and ]   
   [ ask your news administrator to fix the problems with your system. ]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)