Cooperative information agents IV

These proceedings capture the essence of the Fourth International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, from July 7-9, 2000. The focus of cooperative information agent research has evolved from accessing diverse, distributed information sources through methods like Internet search engines and application program interfaces to integrating this information into coherent models. This integration raises critical issues such as data quality, source reliability, and personal privacy. The scope of research has broadened to encompass agent negotiation, communities, mobility, and collaboration for information discovery in constrained environments. The interdisciplinary workshop series addresses a wide range of topics related to cooperative information agents. Previous proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. The theme for this workshop, "The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace," reflects the growing significance of agents in information gathering, negotiation, and dissemination. A notable trend at CIA 2000 was the emphasis on agent communities that negotiate for resources, develop robust ontologies to improve search capabilities, communicate for planning and problem-solving, learn from experiences, and gain increasing autonomy in managing complex systems.