Hidekazu Tsuji

Metadata representation in XML for Internet-based electronic XML application from business to government

In government-to-business Internet applications, as in business-to-business Internet commerce, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is attracting attention as a format for encoding information and services with meaningful structure and semantics that computers can readily understand. We propose a model for representing metadata about a set of application documents in a resource description framework (RDF). We then introduce the Document Rules Description Language (DRDL) in order to describe the document rules of metadata. We also propose a DRDL processor, which validates whether or not a set of application documents satisfies the document rules. We have used a DRDL processor to support applicants when applying for an export license from the government in JETRAS (Japan Electronic Open Network Trade Control System). The effects of a DRDL processor are as follows: (i) improvement of development efficiency by unified management of document rules for XML processing software; (ii) support of applicants making electronic application documents by document content validation of a set of application documents.

Evaluation of multi-agent model for community formation in network society

Advances in information technology are changing the social environment, and have brought about the so-called information-oriented network society. One of the major issues in the network society is how to bring people together, that is how to form the communities that share similar interests. The formation of communities brings a great deal of benefits to the members such as social collaboration on the Internet, recommendations from people who are interested in similar topics, etc. However, acquiring information about communities and selecting appropriate communities to join is a burden for most of the people and the burden restricts their lives in the network society. We propose a model of community formation with multi-agents with consideration of the cognitive balance model of the user. Personal agents can help the users by gathering and exchanging information, and recommending or assisting the users in making choices. The proposed model is evaluated through experiments.

A proposal of a multi-agent supporting system for network community formation

Information-oriented network society is advancing far beyond our speculation based on the rapid innovations of information and network technologies. Large amount of people become suffering from so-called information barrier When we consider people with informational handicaps, a large gap is opening up between those who can use computers effectively to process information and those who cannot. People interact in the network society through network communities and one of the major issues in the network society is how to bring people together, that is how to form the communities that share similar interests. Active usage of information with the help of personal agents that interact with each other, gather information, and assist the user seems inevitable. Although, users interact through explicit communities, it is more natural and with fewer barriers to form communities as implicit communities using users profiles and then to introduce users to explicit communities. In this paper, we propose a multi-agent supporting system for implicit community formation and discuss methods to encourage effective information exchanges between community members and to improve the quality of their lives.

Sharing SGML/XML document information conformable to business standards

In CALS or EC, it is important to share product information conformable to business standards. This paper proposes a conformance-testing method for authorizing SGML/XML documents to follow business standards about document content constraints, such as standard vocabularies, datatypes, ranges of numerical values and units of measures. This method can promote reliable document sharing in information systems by circulating documents which passed the conformance-test.

A delivery scheduling system by the distributed cooperative multiple agents

In this paper, we propose a practical method for solving the delivery scheduling problem with multiple agents and discuss its implementation. The method is based on the distributed cooperative problem solving. In the delivery scheduling system, the covered region is partitioned into multiple subregions and each subregion is assigned a subproblem solving agent which solves the problem of scheduling of drivers and trucks in the subregion. Integrating those subproblem solving agents, an integration-and-evaluation agent solves the total problem. By employing the distributed cooperative problem solving framework for the delivery scheduling problem, we achieved an easy incorporation of various evaluation parameters in the process of scheduling, efficient use and management of scheduling knowledge of various levels, and reduction of computer processing by division of the problem into subproblems.