Electronic institutions with normative environments for agent-based E-contracting

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Assisting and regulating virtual enterprise interoperability through contracts

Virtual Enterprises are a major trend in enterprise interoperability,configuring cooperative settings in which different parties temporarily sharetheir resources towards a common goal. Virtual Enterprises are created in verydynamic environments, and their temporary nature demands for quick set-upphases. In truly open settings, virtual enterprises may comprise business entitieswhose previous performance record may not be assessed. Contracts formalizingnorms of behavior are needed to allow for verification of cooperative businesscompliance. Contracts also provide a coarse-grained specification of businessprocesses, enough for verifying observance to promised cooperative efforts. Inthis paper we relate these issues to the increasingly important dichotomy inmulti-agent systems: autonomy and openness vs. regulation. We present ourapproach, including agent-based services provided inside a regulated environment an electronic institution. We then give particular emphasis to contractformalization through norms, their monitoring and enforcement. Our approachassigns contexts to norms, configuring a structured view that addresses the possibilityof creating different agents cooperation agreements inside the overallframework

Electronic institutions with normative environments for agent-based E-contracting

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201