Contractual agent societies: negotiated shared context and social control in open multi-agent systems (2000) [21 citations — 0 self]
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@INPROCEEDINGS{Dellarocas00contractualagent,author = {Chrysanthos Dellarocas},
title = {Contractual agent societies: negotiated shared context and social control in open multi-agent systems},
booktitle = {Social Order in Multi-Agent Systems},
year = {2000},
pages = {113--133},
publisher = {Kluwer Academic Publishers}
}
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Abstract:
Information systems for supporting the fluid organizations of the 21 st century must be correspondingly open and agile, able to automatically configure themselves out of heterogeneous system components, accommodate the dynamic exit and entry of hitherto unknown participants and maintain system stability in the face of limited trust. This paper introduces the concept of Contractual Agent Societies (CAS) as a metaphor for building such open information systems. CAS are open information systems where independently developed agents configure themselves automatically through a set of dynamically negotiated social contracts. Social contracts define the shared context of agent interactions, including ontologies, joint beliefs, joint goals, normative behaviors, etc. In addition, they specify classes of associated exceptions (deviations from ideal behavior) together with associated prevention and resolution mechanisms. A research agenda for developing the infrastructure that will enable the construction of practical CAS is discussed. Significant aspects of that infrastructure include a language and ontology for representing social contracts, as well as the definition of agent architectures capable of negotiating social contracts and adapting their behavior accordingly. Keywords: Open systems, electronic institutions, exception handling, electronic contracts
