KQLM -- an agent communication language

Timothy Finin (Tim.Finin@cs.umbc.edu)
Thu, 4 Aug 1994 03:06:42 -0400

Members of this list might be interested in KQML (Knowledge Query and
Manipulation Language) -- language and protocol for exchanging
information and knowledge. It is being developed as part of a larger
effort, the ARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort, which is aimed at
developing techniques and methodology for building large-scale
knowledge bases which are sharable and reusable. KQML is both a
message format and a message-handling protocol to support run-time
knowledge sharing among software agents. KQML can be used as a
language for an application program to interact with an intelligent
system or for two or more intelligent systems to share knowledge in
support of cooperative problem solving.

Our goal is to develop a language that will be of use to researchers
working on agent-oriented systems and DAI and will support a wide range
of distributed architectures. We are very interested in getting all
interested parties involved to help specify a useful language.

We've put together a World-Wide-Web page on KQML

http://www.cs.umbc.edu/kqml/

which contains pointers to all of the basic information on KQML plus
links other informations sources at Unisys, EIT, Lockheed, Maryland,
Toronto and Stanford. It provides access to information on mailing
lists, available software, papers, etc. We hope that this will
provide a one-stop-shopping source for information on KQML and closely
related topics (e.g., KIF, ontology libraries, etc.) If you are
interested in KQML, take a look. Please let us know if you have any
comments or suggestions for additional things to add, or better yet,
join the mailing lists and help shape the language.