[PlanetKR] CFP: The AAMAS2010 Workshop on Coordination, Organization, Institutions and Norms (COIN)

[Guido Boella]

CALL FOR PAPERS

The AAMAS2010 Workshop on Coordination, Organization, Institutions and Norms (COIN)
Toronto, {10th | 11th} May 2010


AIMS and SCOPE

 From “the internet of things” and virtual worlds to the “smarterplanet”, through grid, cloud and stream computing, the world is becoming increasingly instrumented and inter-connected. Managing the resultant scale and complexity requires intelligence; in particular an intelligence that is manifested by individual strategies or collective behaviour. Furthermore, system architects have to consider:
the inter-operation of heterogeneously designed, developed or discovered components;
inter-connection which cross legal, temporal, or organizational boundaries;
the absence of global objects or centralised controllers;
the possibility that components will not comply with the given specifications; and
embedding in an environment which is likely to change, with possible impact on individual and collective objectives.

The convergence of the requirement for intelligence with these operational constraints demands:
coordination: the collective ability of heterogeneous and autonomous components to arrange or synchronise the performance of specified actions in sequential or temporal order;
organization: a formal structure supporting or producing intentional forms of coordination;
institution: an organization where (inter alia) the performance of designated actions by empowered agents produces conventional outcomes; and
norms: standards or patterns of behaviour in an institution established by decree, agreement, emergence, and so on.

The automation and distribution of intelligence is the subject of study in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems; the automation and distribution of intelligence for coordination, organization, institutions and norms is the specialised interest of COIN at AAMAS2010.


WORKSHOP GOALS

The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems working on the scientific and technological aspects of organizational theory, electronic institutions and computational economies from an organizational or institutional perspective. We seek to attract high-quality papers addressing all mathematical, logical and computational perspectives of, and modelling, animation and simulation techniques for, these types of multi-agent systems. Through various information and opinion exchange mechanisms before, during and after the workshop, we hope to generate new ideas, consolidate and develop an (already) active community, highlight future challenges and opportunities, and lead/define (at least part of) the future research agenda.

TOPIC OF INTEREST

Topics of particular interest for COIN at AAMAS2010 will include:
* COIN for internet of things, 3-D Internet, green computing, and smarterplanet;
* logics, languages and tools for specifying coordination and norms, implementing or simulating organizations and institutions;
* formal lifecycle models: formation, maintenance, and dissolution of organizations and institutions;
* autonomic institutions, self-organization, and general self-* properties;
* law of electronic institutions: regulatory compliance, penalty and sanctions, dispute resolution and conflict prevention;
* agent environments: physical and institutional 'resources' for physical capability and institutional power;
* formal methods for specifying coordination and organizational structures; models for verification, validation and visualisation;
* non-normative behaviour, error-recovery, and reliable computing with unreliable components;
* agent societies and communities, social networks, electronic institutions and virtual organizations;
* frameworks and protocols for organised and organisational adaptation;
* institutional mechanisms for governance of common pool resources;
* discovery, openness and inter-operation in organizations and institutions;
* analysis of issues in the emergence, evaluation (as fit-for-purpose), compliance to and evolution of norms;
* mixed human-agent coordination and institutions in embedded systems and virtual worlds.

VENUE

The workshop will be part of the AAMAS2010 (Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems) workshop programme, and will take place at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in downtown Toronto, Canada. Full details are available athttp://www.cse.yorku.ca/AAMAS2010/

PROCEEDINGS

Preliminary proceedings will be available at the workshop. As with previous COIN workshops, revised and extended versions of the papers of both the two 2010 workshops (there will be a subsequent event in the Autumn) will be published in a single Springer LNCS volume. Those revised versions must take into account the discussion held during the workshop, hence, only those papers that are presented during the workshop will be considered for inclusion in the post-proceedings volume.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission of contributions to workshops:	FEBRUARY, 2, 2010	
Workshop paper acceptance notification:		MARCH 2, 2010
Revised accepted paper submission:		MARCH 12, 2010
COIN at AAMAS2010 WORKSHOP:			MAY 10|11, 2010

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Although the post-proceedings will be published in Springer LNCS, the preliminary proceedings will follow a different format, namely IFAAMAS style. Submissions to COIN at AAMAS 2010 should be a maximum of 8 pages. If using Latex, please use this style file and see this example of how it is used. For Microsoft Word users, a template is also available. Please note that the submissions should be formatted for American letter paper size, and that your submission must be without page numbers.

The length of each paper including figures and references may not exceed 8 pages in this format. All papers must be written in English and submitted in PDF format. Submission of a paper should be regarded as an undertaking that, should the paper be accepted, at least one of the authors will attend the workshop to present the work.

For submission of papers, please use:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=coinaamas2010

ORGANISATION


Workshop Chairs
Dr Jeremy Pitt
Department of Electrical&  Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London
SW7 2BT UK
Email: j.pitt[IsAt]imperial.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6318, Fax: +44 (0)20 7594 6274

Dr Marina De Vos
Department of Computer Science, University of Bath,
BA2 7AY UK
Email: mdv[IsAt]cs.bath.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1225 385053, Fax: +44 (0)1225 383493

Program Committee
Alexander Artikis (National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, Greece)
Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa (UCPEL, Brazil)
Catherine Tessier (ONERA, France)
Catholijn Jonker (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Christian Lemaitre (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico)
Christophe Sibertin-Blanc (IRIT, France)
Dan Corkill (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
Daniel Moldt (University of Hamburg, Germany)
Eric Matson (Purdue, USA)
Eugenio Oliveira (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)
Fuyuki Ishikawa (National Insitute of Informatics, Japan)
George Vouros (University of the Aegean, Greece)
Guido Boella (University of Torino, Italy)
Harko Verhagen (Stockholm University, Sweden)
John-Jules Meyer (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Jomi Fred Hubner (University of Blumenau, Brazil)
Juan Antonio Rodriguez Aguilar (IIIA-CSIC, Spain)
Julian Padget (University of Bath, UK)
Leon van der Torre (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
Luca Tummolini (ISTC/CNR, Italy)
Maite Lopez-Sanchez (University of Barcelona, Spain)
Nicoletta Fornara (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
Olivier Boissier (ENS Mines Saint-Etienne, France)
Pablo Noriega (IIIA-CSIC, Spain)
Sascha Ossowski (URJC, Spain)
Stephen Cranefield (University of Otago, New Zealand)
Virginia Dignum (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Wamberto Vasconcelos (University of Aberdeen, UK)


COIN Steering Committee:
Christian Lemaitre (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico)
Eric Matson (Purdue University, USA)
Guido Boella (University of Torino, Italy)
Jaime Sichman (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Javier Vazquez Salceda (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain)
Julian Padget (University of Bath, UK)
Jeremy Pitt (Imperial College London, UK)
Nicoletta Fornara (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
Olivier Boissier (ENS Mines Saint-Etienne, France)
Pablo Noriega (Instituto de Pesquisa em InteligÍncia Artificial, Spain)
Sascha Ossowski (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain)
Virginia Dignum (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Wamberto Vasconcelos (University of Aberdeen, UK)
George Vouros (University of the Aegean, Greece)