Norms and Institutions

Reputation is often cited as an instrument to enforce norm compliance: agents that do not follow the norms have their reputation decreased. In the case where reputation is conceived as a collective process, a kind of shared voices as proposed by Conte & Paolucci, to change the reputation is not a simple task. In this paper we propose to instrument multi-agent organisation with reputation artifacts that publishes objective evaluations of the performance of the agents with respect to their behaviour within the organisation. The members of the organisation can then read these evaluations and build up their reputation of others. The artifact serves thus as an instrument that aid in the building of the reputation of the agents. The evaluation of the agents is not simply based on their obedience to norms, but also considers their pro-activeness and their contribution to the success of collective tasks that are being executed in the organisation. This proposal is detailed and exemplified in the context of the MOISE + organisational model and the ORA4MAS platform.

This chapter introduces programming with norms from a software engineering perspective. A computational system is conceived as being composed of agents (as process), environment (as data), and norms (as control over actions) as first-class entities. Norms are presented from two points of view: system and agent. The first point of view focuses on how to define the expected behavior of agents by means of normative programs, and how this kind of program is integrated with the environment by constitutive norms. The second focuses on how agents, who cannot bring about some goals on their own, can however engage in norm-aware interactions with expectations about the behavior of one another, even in the absence of organizational guidelines. The JaCaMo platform is used to provide concrete examples and illustrate the approach.

The social and organisational aspects of agency have have become nowadays a major focus of interest in the MAS community, and a good amount of theoretical work is available, in terms of formal models and theories. However, the conception and engineering of proper organisational infrastructures embodying such models and theories is still an open issue, in particular when open MAS are considered. Accordingly, in this paper we discuss a model for an organisational infrastructure called ORA4MAS that aims at addressing these issues. By being based on the A&A (Agents and Artifacts) meta-model, the key and novel aspect introduced with ORA4MAS is that organisations and the organisation infrastructure itself are conceived in terms of agents and artifacts, as first-class basic abstractions giving body to the MAS from design to runtime. This is in analogy with human organisation and organisation infrastructures, that are populated by humans (as participants and part of the organisation machinery), and by rich sets of artifacts and tools that humans use to support their activities inside the organisation and the organisation itself, encapsulating essential infrastructure services.

This chapter introduces programming with norms from a software engineering perspective. A computational system is conceived as being composed of agents (as process), environment (as data), and norms (as control over actions) as first-class entities. Norms are presented from two points of view: system and agent. The first point of view focuses on how to define the expected behavior of agents by means of normative programs, and how this kind of program is integrated with the environment by constitutive norms. The second focuses on how agents, who cannot bring about some goals on their own, can however engage in norm-aware interactions with expectations about the behavior of one another, even in the absence of organizational guidelines. The JaCaMo platform is used to provide concrete examples and illustrate the approach.

This essay is an elaboration of my earlier essay, "Trump, Truth, and Logic." Here, I explore the positive, self-conscious, and principled function of logic for rationally guiding thought and intentional action, especially in moral and political contexts.

Nowadays, most of the information exchanged in Internet (particularly through social networks) is in the form of multimedia data. Each actor in Internet (individuals, enterprises, territorial communities, etc.) becomes producer and consumer of contents. Development and increasing demand for multimedia data offer producers/consumers more choices and opportunities for sharing in collaborative environments. Nevertheless, social network platforms and other traditional collaborative environments present limitations regarding to enrich, extract semantics, and combine multimedia resources from different sources so to come up with a collective intelligence for effective and better recommendation, negotiation, notification, etc. Existing collaborative environments also have constraints in addressing the extremely increasing multimedia resources in the web by keeping mutual benefits in a win-win situation. They do not fully allow users to define their profiles and preferences, to publish or keep locally their resources, to have control over their resources according to predefined usage rules, and to have the benefits from collective knowledge. Keeping balance in terms of resource provision and consumption is another challenge to ensure the survival and reliability of the collaborative environments. In this context, Digital Ecosystems aim at creating a digital environment for interested participants that supports in-between cooperation and promotes collective knowledge sharing in order to provide mutual benefits, as a new way to handle collaboration in a distributed and heterogeneous environment. Thus, we propose a Digital Ecosystem for better management of multimedia contents ensuring the benefits of all its participants. The objective is to create a digital environment for interested participants that support in-between cooperation and promote collective knowledge sharing in order to provide mutual benefits, as a new way to handle collaboration in a distributed and heterogeneous environment. Digital Ecosystems are often described as complex systems in which several entities exist and interact. To model and develop such complex systems, modeling languages and frameworks are required. Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have received much attention in recent years because of their advantages on modeling complex distributed systems. However, in the context of Digital Ecosystems, there is still a need for comprehensive modeling language and framework to represent the entities and also facilitate the development process. Moreover, the development of MAS-based Digital Ecosystems remains a complicated task, which demands time and special programming skills. Thus, there is a need for proposing modeling languages and methodologies that support easy and quick way of development and also reduce the overall complexity of developing process. The first contribution of this work regards to Digital Ecosystems modeling. We propose an ontological model based on MAS concepts, called MAS2DES-Onto, which meets the requirements of MASs and Digital Ecosystems. It provides a clear representation of agent concepts and relationships to support the modeling of agents' behavior, knowledge, rule, etc. MAS2DES-Onto consists of five modules to represent all the essential aspects of agents in the context of MAS-based Digital Ecosystems: Structure, Species, Reasoning, Interaction, and System. The second contribution is related to the development process of Digital Ecosystems. We propose a framework, called Onto2MAS, for easy and quick development of MAs-based Digital Ecosystems. This framework enables developers an automatic and rapid generation of MAs-based Digital Ecosystems, based on the ontological model. The framework has three components (Designer, Generator, and Deployer) to support the designing, generating, and deployment processes of the development. Onto2MAS also provides a language, called OJ, which is a simplified language to help the developer in the process of specifying end-user requirements. To demonstrate the efficiency of our approach, we also present the results of experimental tests that we conducted with a first implementation of Onto2MAS, called OnToJade. It is developed with well-known platforms, such as JADE, Jena, Java, and Protégé Editor. Finally, we provide a MultiMedia Digital Ecosystem (MMDES) as a new environment of collaboration and sharing of multimedia contents generated from MAS2DES-Onto and using Onto2MAS framework. We show how particular requirements of MMDES (such as multimedia resources management, knowledge and query management, contribution of participants for multimedia resources, and ensuring balance of the ecosystem) are handled. The first version of MMDES implementation is deployed on a mobile platform.

This paper is a contribution to the formalisation of Thagard's coherence theory. The term coherence is defined as the quality or the state of cohering, especially a logical, orderly, and aesthetically consistent relationship of parts. Cognitive coherence in particular is the coherence theory based explanation of the mind which evaluates the truth of a cognition in terms of it being a member of some suitably defined body of other cognitions: a body that is consistent, coherent, and possibly endowed with other virtues, provided these are not defined in terms of truth. Thus a coherent set is interdependent such that every element in it contributes to the coherence. We take the Thagard's proposal of a coherence set as that of maximizing satisfaction of constraints between elements and explore its use in normative multiagent systems. In particular we show how it could be used as a mechanism to introduce true autonomy in agents particularly in a normative multi agent setting. We show, how an agent can deliberate on norm evaluation while also considering other factors such as sanctions and rewards. We first provide a general coherence framework with the necessary computing tools. Later we introduce a proof-theoretic characterization of a particular type of coherence namely the deductive coherence based on Thagard's principles, and derive a mechanism to compute coherence values between elements in a deductive coherence graph, thus proposing a fully computational model of coherence. Our use of graded logic helps us to incorporate reasoning under uncertainty which is more realistic in the context of multiagent systems. We then explore a scenario where agents deliberate about norm evaluation in a multiagent system where there is competition for a common resource. We show how a coherence maximising agent decides to violate a norm guided by its coherence.

Self-organisation and self-evolution is evident in physics, chemistry, biology, and human societies. Despite the existing literature on the topic, we believe self-organisation and self-evolution is still missing in the IT tools we are building and using. Instead of creating numerous rigid systems, we should aim at providing tools for creating self-evolving systems that adapt to the ever evolving community's needs. This paper proposes a roadmap for self-evolution by presenting a set of building blocks, which we refer to as community charters. The paper also presents an approach for each of these blocks, helping build the first prototype for self-evolving communities.

Avec le support du programme ANR ETHOPOL ANR-14-CE29-0002 SUR LE CHEMIN DE LA SERENITE Planification familiale et gestion institutionnelle du potentiel reproducteur féminin En France, les Centres de Planification et d'Education Familiale proposent des consultations médicales et un accompagnement à la contraception et à l'IVG. A partir d'une enquête ethnographique réalisée dans deux unités de la région parisienne, cet article montre comment des institutions agissent, en pratique, sur le corps et la psyché des femmes. La prise en charge encourage le déploiement d'une nouvelle manière d'appréhender son potentiel reproducteur. Cette action -féministe dans son principe et son exercice -renforce les capacités des usagères et le contrôle qu'elles exercent sur leur corps et leur sexualité ; mais elle est aussi un projet politique qui, par le soin et le soutien, participe d'un processus de réforme de soi. Or ce travail, adossé à une définition normative de l'identité féminine, ne fait pas qu'émanciper. Il produit aussi de nouvelles logiques discriminatoires et renforce des hiérarchies raciales qui interrogent, dans le contexte français, les enjeux nationalistes et citoyens qui façonnent les questions reproductives et sexuelles. In France, CPEFs are local, public units where birth control and abortion are freely offered to women in need. Based upon an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two units located within the Paris suburbs, this article examines how institutions transform in practice women's bodies and psyches, as it promotes new ways of perceiving selves, bodies, and sexualities. Birth planning and abortion support, which are feminist projects (discursively and practically speaking), increase female agency and reinforce women's control over themselves, their bodies, and their reproductive capacities. These actions are highly political, as they promote a process of self-reform through care and support. However, this work upon self and others relies on a normative definition of female identity, which does not only emancipate: It also produces new discriminatory dynamics and enforces racial hierarchies, which -in the French context -raise question of nationalism and citizenship, and about the way these stakes currently frame reproductory and sexual issues.

Avec le support du programme ANR ETHOPOL ANR-14-CE29-0002 Politique des sentiments dans la planification familiale En France, les Centres de Planification et d'Education Familiale proposent des consultations médicales et un accompagnement à la contraception et à l'IVG. A partir d'une enquête ethnographique réalisée dans deux unités de la région parisienne, cet article montre comment des institutions agissent, en pratique, sur le corps et la psyché des femmes. La prise en charge encourage le déploiement d'une nouvelle manière d'appréhender son potentiel reproducteur. Cette action -féministe dans son principe et son exercice -renforce les capacités des usagères et le contrôle qu'elles exercent sur leur corps et leur sexualité ; mais elle est aussi un projet politique qui, par le soin et le soutien, participe d'un processus de réforme de soi. Or ce travail, adossé à une définition normative de l'identité féminine, ne fait pas qu'émanciper. Il produit aussi de nouvelles logiques discriminatoires et renforce des hiérarchies raciales qui interrogent, dans le contexte français, les enjeux nationalistes et citoyens qui façonnent les questions reproductives et sexuelles. In France, CPEFs are local, public units where birth control and abortion are freely offered to women in need. Based upon an ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two units located within the Paris suburbs, this article examines how institutions transform in practice women's bodies and psyches, as it promotes new ways of perceiving selves, bodies, and sexualities. Birth planning and abortion support, which are feminist projects (discursively and practically speaking), increase female agency and reinforce women's control over themselves, their bodies, and their reproductive capacities. These actions are highly political, as they promote a process of self-reform through care and support. However, this work upon self and others relies on a normative definition of female identity, which does not only emancipate: It also produces new discriminatory dynamics and enforces racial hierarchies, which -in the French context -raise question of nationalism and citizenship, and about the way these stakes currently frame reproductory and sexual issues.

Autonomous agents require interfaces to define their interactions with humans. The coupling between agents and humans is often limited, with disjoint goals between the agent interface and its associated autonomous components. This leads to a gap in human interaction relative to agent capabilities. We seek to aid interface designs by clarifying agent capabilities within an interface context. A taxonomy was developed that can help elucidate the agent’s affordances and constraints that guide interface design. Moreover, the descriptors employed in the taxonomy can serve as a common language to support dialog between agent and interface developers, resulting in improved autonomous systems that support human-autonomy coordination.

Systems of autonomous and self-interested agents interacting to achieve individual and collective goals may exhibit undesirable or unexpected behaviour if left unconstrained. Norms have been widely proposed as a means of defining and enforcing societal constraints by using the deontic concepts of obligations, permissions and prohibitions to describe what must, may and should not be done, respectively. However, recent efforts to provide norm-enabled agent architectures that guide plan choices suffer from interfering with an agent's reasoning process, and thus limit the agent's autonomy more than is required by the norms alone. In this paper we describe an extension of the Beliefs-Desires-Intentions (BDI) architecture that enables normative reasoning used to help agents choose and customise plans taking norms into account. The paper makes three significant contributions: we provide a formal framework to represent norms compactly and to manage them; we present a formal characterisation of the normative positions induced by norms of an agent's execution within a given time period; and finally, we put forth a mechanism for plan selection and ranking taking into consideration a set of normative restrictions.

The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW for short), in its second edition this year after the success of MALLOW'007 held in Durham (UK), is a forum for researchers interested in sharing their experiences in agents and multi-agent systems. MALLOW'009 was held at the Educatorio della Provvidenza, in Torino (Italy), from September 7th, 2009 through September 10th, 2009.

Abstract—MAS research pushes the notion of openness related to systems combining heterogeneous computational entities. Typically, those entities answer to different purposes and functions and their integration is a crucial issue. Starting from a comprehensive approach in developing agents, organizations and environments, this paper devises an integrated approach and describes a unifying programming model. It introduces the notion of embodied organization, which is described first focusing on the main entities as ...

Abstract. MAS research pushes the notion of openness related to systems combining heterogeneous computational entities. Typically, those entities answer to different purposes and functions and their integration is a crucial issue. Starting from a comprehensive approach in developing agents, organizations and environments, this paper devises an integrated approach and describes a unifying programming model. It introduces the notion of embodied organization, which is described first focusing on the main entities as ...

In logic programming, Horn clauses play a basic role, and in many logical constructs their consideration is important. In this paper we study the multiple revision of a belief base where the underlying logic is composed by Horn clauses. The main difficulties as to restricting to the Horn fragment for revision operators by a single sentence are analyzed, and general results are presented about multiple revision operators on belief bases. We define prioritized multiple revision operators under a more restricted logic than classical propositional logic, i.e. Horn logic. We propose a set of postulates and representation theorems for each operation. This work is relevant for multiple revision in areas that employ Horn clauses, such as logic programming and deductive databases applications.

We introduce in this paper an agent model based on coherence theory. We give a formalization of Thagard's theory on coherence and use it to explain the reasoning process of an intentional agent that permits the agent to drop beliefs or to violate norms in order to keep a maximal state of coherence. The architecture is illustrated in the paper and a discussion on the possible use of this approach in the design of institutional agents is presented. Pc(GREEN → GO), Oc (RED → STOP), 1 Oc(obey(traffic_rules)),

We tackle semantic heterogeneity in multi-agent communication by looking at semantics related to interaction in order to avoid dependency on a priori semantic agreements. Our underlying claim is that semantic alignment is often relative to the particular interaction in which agents are engaged, and that in such cases the interaction state should be taken into account and brought into the alignment mechanism. We provide a formal foundation along with an alignment mechanism and protocol based on it.

We provide the formal foundation of a novel approach to tackle semantic heterogeneity in multi-agent communication by looking at semantics related to interaction in order to avoid dependency on a priori semantic agreements. We do not assume existence of any ontologies, neither local to interacting agents nor external to them, and we rely only on interactions themselves to resolve terminological mismatches. In the approach taken in this paper we look at the semantics of messages that are exchanged during an interaction entirely from an interaction-specific point of view: messages are deemed semantically related if they trigger compatible interaction state transitions-where compatibility means that the interaction progresses in the same direction for each agent, albeit their partial view of the interaction (their interaction model) may be more simple than the interaction that is actually happening. Our underlying claim is that semantic alignment is often relative to the particular interaction in which agents are engaged in, and, that in such cases the interaction state should be taken into account and brought into the alignment mechanism.