Increasingly, software engineering involves open systems consisting of autonomous and
heterogeneous participants or agents who carry out loosely coupled interactions …

A challenging problem currently addressed in the multi-agent systems area is the
development of open systems; which are characterized by the heterogeneity of their …

Software agents' ability to interact within different open systems, designed by different
groups, presupposes an agreement on an unambiguous definition of a set of concepts, used …

This paper argues that the agent-based simulation approach is just the one appropriate to
the social sciences (including economics). Although there were many predecessor …

In this paper we investigate two related aspects of the formalization of open interaction
systems: how to specify norms, and how to enforce them by means of sanctions. The …

In an organisational setting such as an online marketplace, an entity called the
'organisation'or 'institution'defines interaction protocols, monitors agent interaction, and …

Socio-Technical Systems demand an evolution of computing into social computing, with a
transition from an individualistic to a societal view. As such, they seem particularly suitable to …

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) where the agents are developed by different parties and serve
different interests, are often classified as 'open'. The specification of open MAS is largely …

Monitoring the temporal evolution of obligations and prohibitions is a crucial aspect in the
design of open interaction systems. In this paper we regard such obligations and …

Human social relationships imply conforming to the norms, behaviors, and cultural values of
the society, but also socialization of emotions, to learn how to interpret and show them. In …