This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies, MATES 2016, held in Klagenfurt, Austria, in September 2016.12 long papers and 5 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 28 submissions.MATES 2016 conference talks covered a broad area of topics of interest including MAS engineering and modeling, issues of human-agent interaction, collaboration and coordination, agent-based adaptation and optimization, and applications of MAS, in particular in the smart energy domain.

This book presents 10 chapters on various aspects of intelligent information agents contributed by members of the respective AgentLink special interest group.The papers are organized in three parts on agent-based information systems, adaptive information agents, and coordination of information agents. Also included are a comprehensive introduction and surveys for each of the three parts.

ThesearetheproceedingsoftheGermanconferenceonMultiagentSystemTe- nologies(MATES2003),whichwasthe?rstconferenceorganizedbytheGerman specialinterestgrouponDistributedArti?cialIntelligencetopromotethetheory and application of agents and multiagent systems. Its goals were to cover the whole range from the theory to applications of agent and multiagent technology and re?ect the national and international state of the art. The conference p- vided an excellent interdisciplinary forum for both researchers and members of business and industry to present and discuss the latest advances in theoretical work on and prototyped or ?elded systems of intelligent agents. Building on the sequence of agent-related events in Germany in the past, such as VDI 1998 (Chemnitz), VertIS 2001 (Bamberg), and KI 2002 (Aachen), MATES 2003 was exclusively devoted to agents and multiagent systems, and the cro- fertilization between agent theory and application. In addition, it built on the success of the past international workshop on "Agent Technology and Software Engineering (AgeS 2002)", and the international symposium on "Multiagent Systems,LargeComplexSystems,andE-Businesses"(MALCEB2002).MATES 2003 was co-located with the fourth international Net.ObjectDays conference in an exciting event held in Erfurt during September 22-24. The MATES 2003 conference featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. Among these were two k- notes, an invited talk and 18 paper presentations selected from 49 submissions.

These are the proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2004), held at the Fair and Congress Center in - furt, Germany, September 27–29, 2004. It was part of the multi-conference Net. ObjectDays 2004, and, in particular, was co-located with the 2nd German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies (MATES 2004). In today’s networked world of linked heterogeneous, pervasive computer systems, devices, and information landscapes, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere, by means of cooperative information agents becomes increasingly important for a variety of applications. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed data and information sources. It proactively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents, preferably just in time. In other words,itismanagingandovercomingthedi?cultiesassociatedwithinformation overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Cooperative - formation agents may collaborate with each other to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual preferences of their users, b- getary constraints, and resources available. One major challenge of developing agent-based intelligent information systems in open environments is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo? of leveraging them using information agents. Interdisciplinaryresearchanddevelopmentofinformationagentsrequires- pertise in relevant domains of information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internetand Web techn- ogy.

After two successful MATES conferences in Erfurt 2003 and 2004, the 3rd G- man conference on Multi-agent System Technologies (MATES 2005) took place in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2005, and was co-located with the 28th German Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (KI 2005). Building onotheragent-relatedeventsinGermanyinthepast,andorganized by the GI German Special Interest Group on Distributed Arti?cial Intelligence, the MATES conference series aims at promoting the theory and applications of agentsandmultiagentsystems.Incorporatingthe9thInternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2005), the topics of interest for MATES 2005 also covered the ?elds of intelligent information agents and systems for the Internet and the (Semantic) Web. As in recent years, MATES 2005 provided a distinguished, lively and int- disciplinary forum for researchers, users, and developers of agent technology, to present and discuss the latest advances of research and development in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Accordingly, the topics of MATES 2005 covered the whole range from the theory to applications of age- and multiagent technology. The technical program included a total of 24 sci- ti?c talks, and demonstrations of selected running agent systems, and both the MATES 2005 Best Paper and the CIA 2005 System Innovation awards.

After two successful MATES conferences in Erfurt 2003 and 2004, the 3rd G- man conference on Multi-agent System Technologies (MATES 2005) took place in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2005, and was co-located with the 28th German Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (KI 2005). Building onotheragent-relatedeventsinGermanyinthepast,andorganized by the GI German Special Interest Group on Distributed Arti?cial Intelligence, the MATES conference series aims at promoting the theory and applications of agentsandmultiagentsystems.Incorporatingthe9thInternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2005), the topics of interest for MATES 2005 also covered the ?elds of intelligent information agents and systems for the Internet and the (Semantic) Web. As in recent years, MATES 2005 provided a distinguished, lively and int- disciplinary forum for researchers, users, and developers of agent technology, to present and discuss the latest advances of research and development in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Accordingly, the topics of MATES 2005 covered the whole range from the theory to applications of age- and multiagent technology. The technical program included a total of 24 sci- ti?c talks, and demonstrations of selected running agent systems, and both the MATES 2005 Best Paper and the CIA 2005 System Innovation awards.

These are the proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2004), held at the Fair and Congress Center in - furt, Germany, September 27–29, 2004. It was part of the multi-conference Net. ObjectDays 2004, and, in particular, was co-located with the 2nd German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies (MATES 2004). In today’s networked world of linked heterogeneous, pervasive computer systems, devices, and information landscapes, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere, by means of cooperative information agents becomes increasingly important for a variety of applications. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed data and information sources. It proactively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents, preferably just in time. In other words,itismanagingandovercomingthedi?cultiesassociatedwithinformation overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Cooperative - formation agents may collaborate with each other to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual preferences of their users, b- getary constraints, and resources available. One major challenge of developing agent-based intelligent information systems in open environments is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo? of leveraging them using information agents. Interdisciplinaryresearchanddevelopmentofinformationagentsrequires- pertise in relevant domains of information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internetand Web techn- ogy.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, CIA 2006, held in Edinburgh, UK in September 2006. The 29 revised full papers presented together with four invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 58 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections.

These are the proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2003), held at the Sonera Conference Center in H- sinki, Finland, August 27–29, 2003. It was co-located with the 4th Agentcities Information Days. One key challenge of developing advanced agent-based information systems is to balance the autonomy of networked data and knowledge sources with the pot- tial payo? of leveraging them by the appropriate use of intelligent information agents on the Internet. An information agent is a computational software entity thathasaccesstooneormultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributeddataandinf- mation sources; proactively searches for and maintains relevant information on behalfofitshumanusersorotheragents,preferablyjust-in-time. Inotherwords, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information ov- load in the open and exponentially growing Internet and Web. Depending on the application and tasks at hand information agents may collaborate in open, n- worked data and information environments to provide added value to a variety of applications in di?erent domains. Thus, research and development of inf- mation agents is inherently interdisciplinary: It requires expertise in information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internet and Web technology. Initiated in 1997, the purpose of the annual international workshop series on cooperativeinformationagents(CIA)istoprovideaninterdisciplinaryforumfor researchers, software developers, and managers to get informed about, present, anddiscussthelatesthigh-qualityresultsinadvancementsoftheoryandpractice in information agent technology for the Internet and Web. Each event of this renowned series attempts to capture theintrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics.

As today's most complex computing environment, the Internet confronts IT researchers, system designers, and application developers with completely new challenges and, as a fascinating new computing paradigm, agent technology has recently attracted broad interest and strong hopes for shaping the future information society. Relating both, the Internet and agents, opens up a whole new range of advanced applications in vibrant subfields of information technology such as middleware, mobile commerce, e-learning, collaborative working, and intelligent information services. Many modern advanced systems are likely to exploit Internet agents - and exploiting Internet agents mostly means dealing with coordination models and technologies of various sorts. This monograph-like anthology is the first systematic guide to models and enabling technologies for the coordination of intelligent agents on the Internet and respective applications.

These are the proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, held in Modena, Italy, September 6-8, 2001. Information agent technology has become one of the major key technologies for the Internet and the World Wide Web. It mainly emerged as a response to the challenges of cyberspace from both the technological and human user perspective. Development of information agents requires expertise from di?erent research disciplines such as Arti?cial Intelligence (AI), advanced databases and knowledge base systems, distributed information systems, information retrieval, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The ?fth international workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA) continued the tradition by capturing the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the above research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with tradition, the workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. This year the topics of the talks are mainly on the challenges of information agents in the upcoming age of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. These challenges are in particular due to the necessity of an e?cient utilization, evolution, and trust management of information agents for user-oriented information search, pro- sion, and visualization in networked computing environments with small, mobile, and embedded devices. A di?erent issue concerns the potential of agent-based support of massive distributed data warehousing worldwide.

These are the proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2002), held at the Universidad de Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, September 18–20, 2002. It was colocated with the Third Int- national Workshop on Engineering Societies in the Agents World (ESAW 2002). Since 1997 the annual CIA workshop series has aimed to provide an open forum for all parties interested in the research and development of intelligent infor- tion agents for the Internet and Web. Each event in this renowned series attempts to capture the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with its tradition, this year’s workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?elds related to information agent technology. These talks covered a broad area of topics of - terest, such as information agents for mobile computing environments as well as information gathering, exchange, management, and collaborative recommender systems. Other topics included agent interaction and communication, negot- tion strategies for purchasing relevant information, and agent-based distributed knowledge management.

These are the proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, held in Modena, Italy, September 6-8, 2001. Information agent technology has become one of the major key technologies for the Internet and the World Wide Web. It mainly emerged as a response to the challenges of cyberspace from both the technological and human user perspective. Development of information agents requires expertise from di?erent research disciplines such as Arti?cial Intelligence (AI), advanced databases and knowledge base systems, distributed information systems, information retrieval, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The ?fth international workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA) continued the tradition by capturing the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the above research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with tradition, the workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. This year the topics of the talks are mainly on the challenges of information agents in the upcoming age of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. These challenges are in particular due to the necessity of an e?cient utilization, evolution, and trust management of information agents for user-oriented information search, pro- sion, and visualization in networked computing environments with small, mobile, and embedded devices. A di?erent issue concerns the potential of agent-based support of massive distributed data warehousing worldwide.

These arethe proceedingsof the Fourth InternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents, held in Boston Massachusetts, USA, July 7-9, 2000. Cooperative information agent research and development focused originally onaccessingmultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributedinformationsources. Ga- ingaccesstothesesystems,throughInternetsearchengines,applicationprogram interfaces, wrappers, and web-based screens has been an important focus of - operative intelligent agents. Research has also focused on the integration of this information into a coherent model that combined data and knowledge from the multiple sources. Finally, this information is disseminated to a wide audience, giving rise to issues such as data quality, information pedigree, source reliability, information security, personal privacy, and information value. Research in - operative information agents has expanded to include agent negotiation, agent communities, agent mobility, as well as agent collaboration for information d- covery in constrained environments. TheinterdisciplinaryCIAworkshopseriesencompassesa widevarietyoft- ics dealing with cooperative information agents. All workshop proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence, Volumes 1202 (1997), 1435 (1998), and 1652 (1999), respectively. This year, the theme of the CIA workshop was ”’The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace”, a very ?tting topic as the use of agents for information gathering, negotiation, correlation, fusion, and dissemination becomes ever more prevalent. We noted a marked trend in CIA 2000 towards addressing issues related to communities of agents that: (1) negotiate for information resources, (2) build robust ontologies to enhance search capabilities, (3) communicate forplanning and problem so- ing, (4) learn and evolve based on their experiences, and (5) assume increasing degrees of autonomy in the control of complex systems.

These are the proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2003), held at the Sonera Conference Center in H- sinki, Finland, August 27–29, 2003. It was co-located with the 4th Agentcities Information Days. One key challenge of developing advanced agent-based information systems is to balance the autonomy of networked data and knowledge sources with the pot- tial payo? of leveraging them by the appropriate use of intelligent information agents on the Internet. An information agent is a computational software entity thathasaccesstooneormultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributeddataandinf- mation sources; proactively searches for and maintains relevant information on behalfofitshumanusersorotheragents,preferablyjust-in-time. Inotherwords, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information ov- load in the open and exponentially growing Internet and Web. Depending on the application and tasks at hand information agents may collaborate in open, n- worked data and information environments to provide added value to a variety of applications in di?erent domains. Thus, research and development of inf- mation agents is inherently interdisciplinary: It requires expertise in information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internet and Web technology. Initiated in 1997, the purpose of the annual international workshop series on cooperativeinformationagents(CIA)istoprovideaninterdisciplinaryforumfor researchers, software developers, and managers to get informed about, present, anddiscussthelatesthigh-qualityresultsinadvancementsoftheoryandpractice in information agent technology for the Internet and Web. Each event of this renowned series attempts to capture theintrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics.

These are the proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2002), held at the Universidad de Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, September 18–20, 2002. It was colocated with the Third Int- national Workshop on Engineering Societies in the Agents World (ESAW 2002). Since 1997 the annual CIA workshop series has aimed to provide an open forum for all parties interested in the research and development of intelligent infor- tion agents for the Internet and Web. Each event in this renowned series attempts to capture the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with its tradition, this year’s workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?elds related to information agent technology. These talks covered a broad area of topics of - terest, such as information agents for mobile computing environments as well as information gathering, exchange, management, and collaborative recommender systems. Other topics included agent interaction and communication, negot- tion strategies for purchasing relevant information, and agent-based distributed knowledge management.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA''99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999.The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents - DAI Meets Databases, CIA-97, held in Kiel, Germany, in February 1997.The book opens with 6 invited full papers by internationally leading researchers surveying the state of the art in the area. The 16 revised full research papers presented were carefully selected during a highly competitive round of reviewing. The papers are organized in topical sections on databases and agent technology, agents for database search and knowledge discovery, communication and cooperation among information agents, and agent-based access to heterogeneous information sources.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'98, held in cognition with Agents World in July 1998 in Paris.The book presents nine invited contributions together with 14 revised full papers selected from a total of 54 submissions. The book is divided in parts on systems and applications; issues of design, querying, and communication; rational cooperation and electronic commerce; adaptive and collaborative information gathering; and mobile information agents in the internet.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999.The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance.

These arethe proceedingsof the Fourth InternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents, held in Boston Massachusetts, USA, July 7-9, 2000. Cooperative information agent research and development focused originally onaccessingmultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributedinformationsources. Ga- ingaccesstothesesystems,throughInternetsearchengines,applicationprogram interfaces, wrappers, and web-based screens has been an important focus of - operative intelligent agents. Research has also focused on the integration of this information into a coherent model that combined data and knowledge from the multiple sources. Finally, this information is disseminated to a wide audience, giving rise to issues such as data quality, information pedigree, source reliability, information security, personal privacy, and information value. Research in - operative information agents has expanded to include agent negotiation, agent communities, agent mobility, as well as agent collaboration for information d- covery in constrained environments. TheinterdisciplinaryCIAworkshopseriesencompassesa widevarietyoft- ics dealing with cooperative information agents. All workshop proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence, Volumes 1202 (1997), 1435 (1998), and 1652 (1999), respectively. This year, the theme of the CIA workshop was ”’The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace”, a very ?tting topic as the use of agents for information gathering, negotiation, correlation, fusion, and dissemination becomes ever more prevalent. We noted a marked trend in CIA 2000 towards addressing issues related to communities of agents that: (1) negotiate for information resources, (2) build robust ontologies to enhance search capabilities, (3) communicate forplanning and problem so- ing, (4) learn and evolve based on their experiences, and (5) assume increasing degrees of autonomy in the control of complex systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2007, held in Leipzig, Germany, September 2007, co-located with NetObjectDays, NODe 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on engineering multi-agent systems, multi-agent planning and learning, multi-agent communication, interaction, and coordination, multi-agent resource allocation, multi-agent planning and simulation, as well as trust and reputation.

These are the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2007), held at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, September 19–21, 2007. Intoday’sworldofubiquitouslyconnectedheterogeneousinformationsystems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available. One major challenge of developing age- based intelligent information systems in open environments like the Internet and the Web is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo?s of leveraging them by the use of cooperative and intelligent information agents.

These are the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2007), held at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, September 19–21, 2007. Intoday’sworldofubiquitouslyconnectedheterogeneousinformationsystems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available. One major challenge of developing age- based intelligent information systems in open environments like the Internet and the Web is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo?s of leveraging them by the use of cooperative and intelligent information agents.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies, MATES 2016, held in Klagenfurt, Austria, in September 2016.12 long papers and 5 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 28 submissions.MATES 2016 conference talks covered a broad area of topics of interest including MAS engineering and modeling, issues of human-agent interaction, collaboration and coordination, agent-based adaptation and optimization, and applications of MAS, in particular in the smart energy domain.

This book presents 10 chapters on various aspects of intelligent information agents contributed by members of the respective AgentLink special interest group.The papers are organized in three parts on agent-based information systems, adaptive information agents, and coordination of information agents. Also included are a comprehensive introduction and surveys for each of the three parts.

ThesearetheproceedingsoftheGermanconferenceonMultiagentSystemTe- nologies(MATES2003),whichwasthe?rstconferenceorganizedbytheGerman specialinterestgrouponDistributedArti?cialIntelligencetopromotethetheory and application of agents and multiagent systems. Its goals were to cover the whole range from the theory to applications of agent and multiagent technology and re?ect the national and international state of the art. The conference p- vided an excellent interdisciplinary forum for both researchers and members of business and industry to present and discuss the latest advances in theoretical work on and prototyped or ?elded systems of intelligent agents. Building on the sequence of agent-related events in Germany in the past, such as VDI 1998 (Chemnitz), VertIS 2001 (Bamberg), and KI 2002 (Aachen), MATES 2003 was exclusively devoted to agents and multiagent systems, and the cro- fertilization between agent theory and application. In addition, it built on the success of the past international workshop on "Agent Technology and Software Engineering (AgeS 2002)", and the international symposium on "Multiagent Systems,LargeComplexSystems,andE-Businesses"(MALCEB2002).MATES 2003 was co-located with the fourth international Net.ObjectDays conference in an exciting event held in Erfurt during September 22-24. The MATES 2003 conference featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. Among these were two k- notes, an invited talk and 18 paper presentations selected from 49 submissions.

These are the proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2004), held at the Fair and Congress Center in - furt, Germany, September 27–29, 2004. It was part of the multi-conference Net. ObjectDays 2004, and, in particular, was co-located with the 2nd German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies (MATES 2004). In today’s networked world of linked heterogeneous, pervasive computer systems, devices, and information landscapes, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere, by means of cooperative information agents becomes increasingly important for a variety of applications. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed data and information sources. It proactively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents, preferably just in time. In other words,itismanagingandovercomingthedi?cultiesassociatedwithinformation overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Cooperative - formation agents may collaborate with each other to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual preferences of their users, b- getary constraints, and resources available. One major challenge of developing agent-based intelligent information systems in open environments is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo? of leveraging them using information agents. Interdisciplinaryresearchanddevelopmentofinformationagentsrequires- pertise in relevant domains of information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internetand Web techn- ogy.

After two successful MATES conferences in Erfurt 2003 and 2004, the 3rd G- man conference on Multi-agent System Technologies (MATES 2005) took place in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2005, and was co-located with the 28th German Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (KI 2005). Building onotheragent-relatedeventsinGermanyinthepast,andorganized by the GI German Special Interest Group on Distributed Arti?cial Intelligence, the MATES conference series aims at promoting the theory and applications of agentsandmultiagentsystems.Incorporatingthe9thInternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2005), the topics of interest for MATES 2005 also covered the ?elds of intelligent information agents and systems for the Internet and the (Semantic) Web. As in recent years, MATES 2005 provided a distinguished, lively and int- disciplinary forum for researchers, users, and developers of agent technology, to present and discuss the latest advances of research and development in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Accordingly, the topics of MATES 2005 covered the whole range from the theory to applications of age- and multiagent technology. The technical program included a total of 24 sci- ti?c talks, and demonstrations of selected running agent systems, and both the MATES 2005 Best Paper and the CIA 2005 System Innovation awards.

After two successful MATES conferences in Erfurt 2003 and 2004, the 3rd G- man conference on Multi-agent System Technologies (MATES 2005) took place in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2005, and was co-located with the 28th German Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (KI 2005). Building onotheragent-relatedeventsinGermanyinthepast,andorganized by the GI German Special Interest Group on Distributed Arti?cial Intelligence, the MATES conference series aims at promoting the theory and applications of agentsandmultiagentsystems.Incorporatingthe9thInternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2005), the topics of interest for MATES 2005 also covered the ?elds of intelligent information agents and systems for the Internet and the (Semantic) Web. As in recent years, MATES 2005 provided a distinguished, lively and int- disciplinary forum for researchers, users, and developers of agent technology, to present and discuss the latest advances of research and development in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Accordingly, the topics of MATES 2005 covered the whole range from the theory to applications of age- and multiagent technology. The technical program included a total of 24 sci- ti?c talks, and demonstrations of selected running agent systems, and both the MATES 2005 Best Paper and the CIA 2005 System Innovation awards.

These are the proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2004), held at the Fair and Congress Center in - furt, Germany, September 27–29, 2004. It was part of the multi-conference Net. ObjectDays 2004, and, in particular, was co-located with the 2nd German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies (MATES 2004). In today’s networked world of linked heterogeneous, pervasive computer systems, devices, and information landscapes, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere, by means of cooperative information agents becomes increasingly important for a variety of applications. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed data and information sources. It proactively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents, preferably just in time. In other words,itismanagingandovercomingthedi?cultiesassociatedwithinformation overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Cooperative - formation agents may collaborate with each other to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual preferences of their users, b- getary constraints, and resources available. One major challenge of developing agent-based intelligent information systems in open environments is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo? of leveraging them using information agents. Interdisciplinaryresearchanddevelopmentofinformationagentsrequires- pertise in relevant domains of information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internetand Web techn- ogy.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, CIA 2006, held in Edinburgh, UK in September 2006. The 29 revised full papers presented together with four invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 58 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections.

These are the proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2003), held at the Sonera Conference Center in H- sinki, Finland, August 27–29, 2003. It was co-located with the 4th Agentcities Information Days. One key challenge of developing advanced agent-based information systems is to balance the autonomy of networked data and knowledge sources with the pot- tial payo? of leveraging them by the appropriate use of intelligent information agents on the Internet. An information agent is a computational software entity thathasaccesstooneormultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributeddataandinf- mation sources; proactively searches for and maintains relevant information on behalfofitshumanusersorotheragents,preferablyjust-in-time. Inotherwords, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information ov- load in the open and exponentially growing Internet and Web. Depending on the application and tasks at hand information agents may collaborate in open, n- worked data and information environments to provide added value to a variety of applications in di?erent domains. Thus, research and development of inf- mation agents is inherently interdisciplinary: It requires expertise in information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internet and Web technology. Initiated in 1997, the purpose of the annual international workshop series on cooperativeinformationagents(CIA)istoprovideaninterdisciplinaryforumfor researchers, software developers, and managers to get informed about, present, anddiscussthelatesthigh-qualityresultsinadvancementsoftheoryandpractice in information agent technology for the Internet and Web. Each event of this renowned series attempts to capture theintrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics.

As today's most complex computing environment, the Internet confronts IT researchers, system designers, and application developers with completely new challenges and, as a fascinating new computing paradigm, agent technology has recently attracted broad interest and strong hopes for shaping the future information society. Relating both, the Internet and agents, opens up a whole new range of advanced applications in vibrant subfields of information technology such as middleware, mobile commerce, e-learning, collaborative working, and intelligent information services. Many modern advanced systems are likely to exploit Internet agents - and exploiting Internet agents mostly means dealing with coordination models and technologies of various sorts. This monograph-like anthology is the first systematic guide to models and enabling technologies for the coordination of intelligent agents on the Internet and respective applications.

These are the proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, held in Modena, Italy, September 6-8, 2001. Information agent technology has become one of the major key technologies for the Internet and the World Wide Web. It mainly emerged as a response to the challenges of cyberspace from both the technological and human user perspective. Development of information agents requires expertise from di?erent research disciplines such as Arti?cial Intelligence (AI), advanced databases and knowledge base systems, distributed information systems, information retrieval, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The ?fth international workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA) continued the tradition by capturing the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the above research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with tradition, the workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. This year the topics of the talks are mainly on the challenges of information agents in the upcoming age of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. These challenges are in particular due to the necessity of an e?cient utilization, evolution, and trust management of information agents for user-oriented information search, pro- sion, and visualization in networked computing environments with small, mobile, and embedded devices. A di?erent issue concerns the potential of agent-based support of massive distributed data warehousing worldwide.

These are the proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2002), held at the Universidad de Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, September 18–20, 2002. It was colocated with the Third Int- national Workshop on Engineering Societies in the Agents World (ESAW 2002). Since 1997 the annual CIA workshop series has aimed to provide an open forum for all parties interested in the research and development of intelligent infor- tion agents for the Internet and Web. Each event in this renowned series attempts to capture the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with its tradition, this year’s workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?elds related to information agent technology. These talks covered a broad area of topics of - terest, such as information agents for mobile computing environments as well as information gathering, exchange, management, and collaborative recommender systems. Other topics included agent interaction and communication, negot- tion strategies for purchasing relevant information, and agent-based distributed knowledge management.

These are the proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, held in Modena, Italy, September 6-8, 2001. Information agent technology has become one of the major key technologies for the Internet and the World Wide Web. It mainly emerged as a response to the challenges of cyberspace from both the technological and human user perspective. Development of information agents requires expertise from di?erent research disciplines such as Arti?cial Intelligence (AI), advanced databases and knowledge base systems, distributed information systems, information retrieval, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The ?fth international workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA) continued the tradition by capturing the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of the above research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with tradition, the workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?eld. This year the topics of the talks are mainly on the challenges of information agents in the upcoming age of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. These challenges are in particular due to the necessity of an e?cient utilization, evolution, and trust management of information agents for user-oriented information search, pro- sion, and visualization in networked computing environments with small, mobile, and embedded devices. A di?erent issue concerns the potential of agent-based support of massive distributed data warehousing worldwide.

These arethe proceedingsof the Fourth InternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents, held in Boston Massachusetts, USA, July 7-9, 2000. Cooperative information agent research and development focused originally onaccessingmultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributedinformationsources. Ga- ingaccesstothesesystems,throughInternetsearchengines,applicationprogram interfaces, wrappers, and web-based screens has been an important focus of - operative intelligent agents. Research has also focused on the integration of this information into a coherent model that combined data and knowledge from the multiple sources. Finally, this information is disseminated to a wide audience, giving rise to issues such as data quality, information pedigree, source reliability, information security, personal privacy, and information value. Research in - operative information agents has expanded to include agent negotiation, agent communities, agent mobility, as well as agent collaboration for information d- covery in constrained environments. TheinterdisciplinaryCIAworkshopseriesencompassesa widevarietyoft- ics dealing with cooperative information agents. All workshop proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence, Volumes 1202 (1997), 1435 (1998), and 1652 (1999), respectively. This year, the theme of the CIA workshop was ”’The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace”, a very ?tting topic as the use of agents for information gathering, negotiation, correlation, fusion, and dissemination becomes ever more prevalent. We noted a marked trend in CIA 2000 towards addressing issues related to communities of agents that: (1) negotiate for information resources, (2) build robust ontologies to enhance search capabilities, (3) communicate forplanning and problem so- ing, (4) learn and evolve based on their experiences, and (5) assume increasing degrees of autonomy in the control of complex systems.

These are the proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2003), held at the Sonera Conference Center in H- sinki, Finland, August 27–29, 2003. It was co-located with the 4th Agentcities Information Days. One key challenge of developing advanced agent-based information systems is to balance the autonomy of networked data and knowledge sources with the pot- tial payo? of leveraging them by the appropriate use of intelligent information agents on the Internet. An information agent is a computational software entity thathasaccesstooneormultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributeddataandinf- mation sources; proactively searches for and maintains relevant information on behalfofitshumanusersorotheragents,preferablyjust-in-time. Inotherwords, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information ov- load in the open and exponentially growing Internet and Web. Depending on the application and tasks at hand information agents may collaborate in open, n- worked data and information environments to provide added value to a variety of applications in di?erent domains. Thus, research and development of inf- mation agents is inherently interdisciplinary: It requires expertise in information retrieval, arti?cial intelligence, database systems, human-computer interaction, and Internet and Web technology. Initiated in 1997, the purpose of the annual international workshop series on cooperativeinformationagents(CIA)istoprovideaninterdisciplinaryforumfor researchers, software developers, and managers to get informed about, present, anddiscussthelatesthigh-qualityresultsinadvancementsoftheoryandpractice in information agent technology for the Internet and Web. Each event of this renowned series attempts to capture theintrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics.

These are the proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2002), held at the Universidad de Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, September 18–20, 2002. It was colocated with the Third Int- national Workshop on Engineering Societies in the Agents World (ESAW 2002). Since 1997 the annual CIA workshop series has aimed to provide an open forum for all parties interested in the research and development of intelligent infor- tion agents for the Internet and Web. Each event in this renowned series attempts to capture the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of this research area by calling for contributions from di?erent research communities, and by promoting open and informative discussions on all related topics. In keeping with its tradition, this year’s workshop featured a sequence of regular and invited talks of excellence given by leading experts in the ?elds related to information agent technology. These talks covered a broad area of topics of - terest, such as information agents for mobile computing environments as well as information gathering, exchange, management, and collaborative recommender systems. Other topics included agent interaction and communication, negot- tion strategies for purchasing relevant information, and agent-based distributed knowledge management.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA''99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999.The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents - DAI Meets Databases, CIA-97, held in Kiel, Germany, in February 1997.The book opens with 6 invited full papers by internationally leading researchers surveying the state of the art in the area. The 16 revised full research papers presented were carefully selected during a highly competitive round of reviewing. The papers are organized in topical sections on databases and agent technology, agents for database search and knowledge discovery, communication and cooperation among information agents, and agent-based access to heterogeneous information sources.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'98, held in cognition with Agents World in July 1998 in Paris.The book presents nine invited contributions together with 14 revised full papers selected from a total of 54 submissions. The book is divided in parts on systems and applications; issues of design, querying, and communication; rational cooperation and electronic commerce; adaptive and collaborative information gathering; and mobile information agents in the internet.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Cooperative Information Systems, CIA'99, held in Uppsala, Sweden in July/August 1999.The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 46 submissions. Also included are ten invited contributions by leading experts. The volume is divided in sections on information discovery and management on the Internet; information agents on the Internet-prototypes systems and applications; communication and collaboration, mobile information agents; rational information agents for electronic business; service mediation and negotiation; and adaptive personal assistance.

These arethe proceedingsof the Fourth InternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents, held in Boston Massachusetts, USA, July 7-9, 2000. Cooperative information agent research and development focused originally onaccessingmultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributedinformationsources. Ga- ingaccesstothesesystems,throughInternetsearchengines,applicationprogram interfaces, wrappers, and web-based screens has been an important focus of - operative intelligent agents. Research has also focused on the integration of this information into a coherent model that combined data and knowledge from the multiple sources. Finally, this information is disseminated to a wide audience, giving rise to issues such as data quality, information pedigree, source reliability, information security, personal privacy, and information value. Research in - operative information agents has expanded to include agent negotiation, agent communities, agent mobility, as well as agent collaboration for information d- covery in constrained environments. TheinterdisciplinaryCIAworkshopseriesencompassesa widevarietyoft- ics dealing with cooperative information agents. All workshop proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence, Volumes 1202 (1997), 1435 (1998), and 1652 (1999), respectively. This year, the theme of the CIA workshop was ”’The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace”, a very ?tting topic as the use of agents for information gathering, negotiation, correlation, fusion, and dissemination becomes ever more prevalent. We noted a marked trend in CIA 2000 towards addressing issues related to communities of agents that: (1) negotiate for information resources, (2) build robust ontologies to enhance search capabilities, (3) communicate forplanning and problem so- ing, (4) learn and evolve based on their experiences, and (5) assume increasing degrees of autonomy in the control of complex systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2007, held in Leipzig, Germany, September 2007, co-located with NetObjectDays, NODe 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on engineering multi-agent systems, multi-agent planning and learning, multi-agent communication, interaction, and coordination, multi-agent resource allocation, multi-agent planning and simulation, as well as trust and reputation.

These are the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2007), held at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, September 19–21, 2007. Intoday’sworldofubiquitouslyconnectedheterogeneousinformationsystems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available. One major challenge of developing age- based intelligent information systems in open environments like the Internet and the Web is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo?s of leveraging them by the use of cooperative and intelligent information agents.

These are the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2007), held at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, September 19–21, 2007. Intoday’sworldofubiquitouslyconnectedheterogeneousinformationsystems and computing devices, the intelligent coordination and provision of relevant added-value information at any time, anywhere is of key importance to a va- ety of applications. This challenge is envisioned to be coped with by means of appropriate intelligent and cooperative information agents. An information agent is a computational software entity that has access to one or multiple heterogeneous and geographically dispersed data and infor- tion sources. It pro-actively searches for and maintains information on behalf of its human users, or other agents preferably just in time. In other words, it is managing and overcoming the di?culties associated with information overload in open, pervasive information and service landscapes. Each component of a modern cooperative information system is represented by an appropriate intelligent information agent capable of resolving system and semantic heterogeneities in a given context on demand. Cooperative infor- tion agents are supposed to accomplish both individual and shared joint goals depending on the actual user preferences in line with given or deduced limits of time, budget and resources available. One major challenge of developing age- based intelligent information systems in open environments like the Internet and the Web is to balance the autonomy of networked data, information, and knowledge sources with the potential payo?s of leveraging them by the use of cooperative and intelligent information agents.