CCL: expressions of choice in agent communication

When shall I fly to New York? Which airline should I choose? How are these related to which airport I arrive at, to how I might travel into the city and to where I choose to stay? Many current and potential applications of agents involve reasoning and communicating about multiple interrelated choices. To date, however, most proposals for communication in agent systems have provided little or no direct support for the type of communication required by these applications. To address this need, the paper describes the Constraint Choice Language (CCL): an agent content language designed to support agent problem solving by providing explicit representations of choices and choice problems.