Organizations as Socially Constructed Agents in the Agent Oriented Paradigm

  • Guido Boella
  • Leendert van der Torre
Conference paper
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 3451)

Abstract

In this paper we propose a new role for the agent metaphor in the definition of the organizational structure of multiagent systems. The agent metaphor is extended to consider as agents also social entities like organizations, groups and normative systems, so that mental attitudes can be attributed to them – beliefs, desires and goals – and also an autonomous and proactive behavior. We show how the metaphor can be applied also to structure organizations in functional areas and roles, which are described as agents too. Thus, the agent metaphor can play a role similar to the object oriented metaphor which allows structuring objects in component objects. Finally, we discuss how the agent metaphor addresses the problems of control and communication in such structured organizations.

Keywords

Multiagent System Autonomous Agent Institutional Fact Normative System Functional Area 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. 1.
    Jennings, N.R.: On agent-based software engineering. Artificial Intelligence 117(2), 277–296 (2000)MATHCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    Yu, E.: Agent orientation as a modelling paradigm. Wirtschaftsinformatik 43(2), 123–132 (2001)Google Scholar
  3. 3.
    Booch, G.: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1988)Google Scholar
  4. 4.
    Bauer, B., Muller, J., Odell, J.: Agent UML: A formalism for specifying multiagent software systems. Int. Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering 11(3), 207–230 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Zambonelli, F., Jennings, N., Wooldridge, M.: Developing multiagent systems: The Gaia methodology. IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering and Methodology 12(3), 317–370 (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: Local policies for the control of virtual communities. In: Procs. of IEEE/WIC WI 2003, pp. 161–167. IEEE Press, Los Alamitos (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: An agent oriented ontology of social reality. In: Procs. of FOIS 2004, Torino (2004)Google Scholar
  8. 8.
    Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: Regulative and constitutive norms in normative multiagent systems. In: Procs. of 9th International Conference on the Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2004), pp. 255–265. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2004)Google Scholar
  9. 9.
    Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: Contracts as legal institutions in organizations of autonomous agents. In: Procs. of AAMAS 2004, pp. 948–955. ACM Press, New York (2004)Google Scholar
  10. 10.
    Ferber, J., Gutknecht, O., Michel, F.: From agents to organizations: an organizational view of multi-agent systems. In: Giorgini, P., Müller, J.P., Odell, J.J. (eds.) AOSE 2003. LNCS, vol. 2935, pp. 214–230. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    McCallum, M., Norman, T., Vasconcelos, W.: A formal model of organisations for engineering multi-agent systems. In: Procs. of CEAS Workshop at ECAI 2004 (2004)Google Scholar
  12. 12.
    Searle, J.: The Construction of Social Reality. The Free Press, New York (1995)Google Scholar
  13. 13.
    Dennett, D.: The intentional stance. Bradford Books/MIT Press, Cambridge (1987)Google Scholar
  14. 14.
    Ricci, A., Omicini, A., Denti, E.: Activity theory as a framework for mas coordination. In: Petta, P., Tolksdorf, R., Zambonelli, F. (eds.) ESAW 2002. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2577, pp. 96–110. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. 15.
    Pacheco, O., Carmo, J.: A role based model of normative specification of organized collective agency and agents interaction. Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems 6, 145–184 (2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. 16.
    Dignum, V., Meyer, J.J., Weigand, H.: Towards an organizational-oriented model for agent societies using contracts. In: Procs. of AAMAS 2002, pp. 694–695. ACM Press, New York (2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    Lang, J., van der Torre, L., Weydert, E.: Utilitarian desires. In: Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, 329–363 (2002)Google Scholar
  18. 18.
    Lee, R.: Documentary Petri nets: A modeling representation for electronic trade procedures. In: van der Aalst, W.M.P., Desel, J., Oberweis, A. (eds.) Business Process Management. LNCS, vol. 1806, pp. 359–375. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. 19.
    Jones, A., Sergot, M.: A formal characterisation of institutionalised power. Journal of IGPL 3, 427–443 (1996)CrossRefMathSciNetGoogle Scholar
  20. 20.
    Ouchi, W.: A conceptual framework for the design of organizational control mechanisms. Management Science 25(9), 833–848 (1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. 21.
    Finin, T.W., Labrou, Y., Mayfield, J.: KQML as an agent communication language. In: Bradshaw, J. (ed.) Software Agents, MIT Press, Cambridge (1995)Google Scholar
  22. 22.
    Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N., Kinny, D.: The Gaia methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 3(3), 285–312 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. 23.
    Boella, G., van der Torre, L.: Attributing mental attitudes to roles: The agent metaphor applied to organizational design. In: Rauterberg, M. (ed.) ICEC 2004. LNCS, vol. 3166, pp. 130–137. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)Google Scholar
  24. 24.
    Masolo, C., Vieu, L., Bottazzi, E., Catenacci, C., Ferrario, R., Gangemi, A., Guarino, N.: Social roles and their descriptions. In: Procs. of KR 2004 (2004)Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005

Authors and Affiliations

  • Guido Boella
    • 1
  • Leendert van der Torre
    • 2
  1. 1.Dipartimento di InformaticaUniversità di TorinoItaly
  2. 2.CWI – Amsterdam and TU DelftThe Netherlands

Personalised recommendations