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The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, FIPA, was formed in 1996 to produce software standards for heterogeneous and interacting agents and agent-based systems. When considering the body of standards that FIPA has produced (see http://www.fipa.org), it is clear that FIPA has achieved this goal. However, it is now time to move standards for agents and agent-based systems into the wider context of software development in general. In short, agent technology needs to inter work with non-agent technologies as a matter of course.
In this perspective, the IEEE Computer Society has invited FIPA to become part of its family of standards committees (http://www.computer.org/standards/).
In March 2005, the FIPA Board of Directors presented this opportunity to the entire FIPA membership, who unanimously voted to join the IEEE Computer Society. FIPA will soon be the eleventh standards committee in the IEEE and will be known as the FIPA Standards Committee. This transition will coincide with the closure of FIPA as a Swiss-based organization.
The IEEE FIPA Standards Committee will act as a self-organizing body with its own policies, 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.
The FIPA Board of Directors welcomes comments, suggestions and expressions of interest to join the IEEE FIPA Standards Committee. For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the FIPA Board of Directors at: board@fipa.org
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