A contracting model for flexible distributed scheduling

We are interested in building systems of autonomous agents that can automate routine information processing activities in human organizations. Computational infrastructures for cooperative work should contain embedded agents for handling many routine tasks [9], but as the number of agents increases and the agents become geographically and/or conceptually dispersed, supervision of the agents will become increasingly problematic. We argue that agents should be provided with deep domain knowledge that allows them to make quantitatively justifiable decisions, rather than shallow models of users to mimic. In this paper, we use the application domain of distributed meeting scheduling to investigate how agents embodying deeper domain knowledge can choose among alternative strategies for searching their calendars in order to create flexible schedules within reasonable cost.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44288/1/10479_2005_Article_BF02187332.pd

Information sharing systems and teamwork between sub-teams: a mathematical modeling perspective

Teamwork contributes to a considerable improvement in quality and quantity of the ultimate outcome. Collaboration and alliance between team members bring a substantial progress for any business. However, it is imperative to acquire an appropriate team since many factors must be considered in this regard. Team size may represent the effectiveness of a team and it is of paramount importance to determine what the ideal team size exactly should be. In addition, information technology increasingly plays a differentiating role in productivity and adopting appropriate information sharing systems may contribute to improvement in efficiency especially in competitive markets when there are numerous producers that compete with each other. The significance of transmitting information to individuals is inevitable to assure an improvement in team performance. In this paper, a model of teamwork and its organizational structure are presented. Furthermore, a mathematical model is proposed in order to characterize a group of sub-teams according to two criteria: team size and information technology. The effect of information technology on performance of team and sub-teams as well as optimum size of those team and sub-teams from a productivity perspective are studied. Moreover, a quantitative sensitivity analysis is presented in order to analyze the interaction between these two factors through a sharing system

Assembling Collaboration:Informing the Design of Interaction Spaces

A historical analysis of the Spanish verb shows that the transition between the classical system and the modern system is characterized by two disappearances: the future subjunctive and the contrast between cantara and cantase. The present paper aims to show that: 1) abandoning the use of the future subjunctive has led directly to abandoning the contrast between cantara and cantase; 2) by the end of the classical period cantara was a form which was "programmed" to replace cantase; 3) in the modern and contemporary verbal system, cantara remains the same as in the classical system. Even if its referential capacities have somewhat altered, it remains the same single linguistic sign. This paper is based on a modal theory which differs the traditional contrast between indicative an subjunctive