A method for providing access to a computing environment includes the step of receiving a request from a client system for an enumeration of available computing environments. Collected data regarding available computing environments are accessed. Accessed data are transmitted to a client system, the accessed data indicating to the client system each computing environment available to a user of the client system. A request is received from the client system to access one of the computing environments. A connection is established between the client system and a virtual machine hosting the requested computing environment via a terminal services session, the virtual machine executed by a hypervisor executing in the terminal services session provided by an operating system executing on one of a plurality of execution machines.

Methods and servers for establishing a connection between a client system and a virtual machine executing in a terminal services session and hosting a requested computing environment

Emergence: From Chaos to Order by John H. Holland .

A method for executing, by a virtual machine, an application program requested by a client machine includes the step of receiving a file including access information for accessing a plurality of application files and for executing a first client capable of receiving an application stream. An identification of the plurality of application files is retrieved, responsive to the received file. At least one characteristic required for execution of the plurality of application files is retrieved, responsive to the file. A determination is made as to whether a client machine includes the at least one characteristic. A second client is executed, responsive to a determination that the client machine lacks the at least one characteristic, the second client requesting execution of the plurality of application files on a remote machine comprising a virtual machine providing a computing environment having the at least one characteristic.

Methods and systems for executing, by a virtual machine, an application program requested by a client machine

We describe our initial implementation of the KAoS policy and domain services. While primarily oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, the services are also being adapted to general-purpose grid computing and Web services environments as well. The KAoS services rely on a DAML description-logic-based ontology of the computational environment, application context, and the policies themselves that enables runtime extensibility and adaptability of the system, as well as the ability to analyze policies relating to entities described at different levels of abstraction.

http://wifo5-03.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/bizer/SWTSGuide/KAoS/KAoS_Policy_03.pdf

KAoS policy and domain services: toward a description-logic approach to policy representation, deconfliction, and enforcement

Well-designed technologies that offer high levels of human control and high levels of computer automation can increase human performance, leading to wider adoption. The Human-Centered Artificial In...

Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: Reliable, Safe & Trustworthy

This paper describes an approach to runtime policy-based control over information exchange that allows a far more fine-grained control of these dynamically discovered agent interactions. The DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) is used to represent policies that may either filter messages based on their semantic content or transform the messages to make them suitable to be released. Policy definition, management, and enforcement are realized as part of the KAoS architecture. The solutions presented have been tested in the Coalition Agents Experiment (CoAX) - an experiment involving coalition military operations.

DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

Introduction The concept of automation—which began with the straightforward objective of replacing whenever feasible any task currently performed by a human with a machine that could do the same task better, faster, or cheaper—became one of the first issues to attract the notice of early human factors researchers. Pioneering researchers such as Fitts attempted to systematically characterize the general strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines [28]. The resulting discipline of function allocation aimed to provide a rational means of determining which system-level functions should be carried out by humans and which by machines (fig. 1).

Human–Agent Interaction

This paper introduces a version of KAoS Semantic Policy and Domain Services that has been developed to support Web Services-based (i.e., OGSA-compliant) Grid Computing Architectures. While initially oriented to the dynamic and complex requirements of software agent applications, KAoS services are now being extended to work equally well with both agent and non-agent clients on a variety of more general distributed computing platforms. The OGSA-compliant version of KAoS services allows fine-grained policy-based management of registered Grid services as well as opening additional opportunities for the use of agents on the grid.

Kaos Semantic Policy and Domain Services

This paper describes an approach to runtime policy-based control over information exchange that allows a far more fine-grained control of these dynamically discovered agent interactions. The DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) is used to represent policies that may either filter messages based on their semantic content or transform the messages to make them suitable to be released. Policy definition, management, and enforcement are realized as part of the KAoS architecture. The solutions presented have been tested in the Coalition Agents Experiment (CoAX)—an experiment involving coalition military operations.

Toward DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

In this article we describe how we apply the concept of coactive emergence as a phenomenon of complexity that has implications for the design of sensemaking support tools involving a combination of human analysts and software agents. We apply this concept in the design of work methods for distributed sensemaking in cyber operations. Sensemaking is a motivated, continuous effort to understand, anticipate, and act upon complex situations. We discuss selected results of a macrocognitive work analysis that informed our focus for design and development of support tools. In that analysis, we identified seven target topics that would be the focus of our research: engaging automation as a full partner, reducing the volume of uncorrelated events, continuous knowledge discovery, more effective visualizations, collaboration and sharing, minimizing tedious work, and architecting scalability and resilience. In addressing the first target topic, we show how coactive emergence inspires an agent-supported threat understanding process that is consistent with Klein’s Data/Frame theory of sensemaking. In subsequent sections, we describe our efforts to address the remaining six target topics as part of design and development of a cyber operations framework called Sol. Specifically, we describe the use of agents, policies, and visualization to enable coactive emergence for taskwork and teamwork. We also show how policy-governed agents working collaboratively with people can help in additional ways. We introduce the primary implementation frameworks that provide the core capabilities of our Sol cyber framework: the Luna Software Agent Framework, and the KAoS Policy Services Framework. We describe areas for future development of Sol, including the incorporation of the VIA Cross-Layer Communications Substrate. Finally, we describe recent results and current plans for empirical studies addressing some of the issues raised in this article.

/pdf/coactive-emergence-as-a-sensemaking-strategy-for-cyber-3vf0ps6bx6.pdf

Matthew Johnson

Papers

DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

Human–Agent Interaction

Kaos Semantic Policy and Domain Services

Toward DAML-based policy enforcement for semantic data transformation and filtering in multi-agent systems

Coactive Emergence as a Sensemaking Strategy for Cyber Operations