The benefits of agent-based motivation models in policy formulation and implementation

Our aim is to demonstrate how agent-based motivation models can play a role in the process of policy making and implementation. In this paper, we describe how the motivation models support the description of desirable outcomes and help to develop relevant high-level goals in policy making in particularly complex areas. We give two example domains where we have developed agent-based models. The first is data management policy for university researchers. The second one focuses on sustainable households, and how to provide relevant guidance for educating people and helping them to understand how to behave in a more environmentally friendly manner. Our two examples demonstrate that the agent-based models are able to help to come up with shared quality goals and identifying the right stakeholders in these two multifaceted and abstract domains. We aim to enable people involved in policy making to focus on and understand the relevant goals, quality goals and activities in order to formulate effective and supportive policies that can accomplish the intended outcomes.

[1]  S. S. Obrezkov.  Water management , 1975 .

[2]  Allan MacLean,et al.  What rationale is there in design? , 1990, INTERACT.

[3]  Dan Shapiro,et al.  Steps toward a partnership: ethnography and system design , 1994 .

[4]  W H Glaze.  Our energy future. , 2000, Environmental science & technology.

[5]  John Mylopoulos,et al.  Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering , 2000, International Series in Software Engineering.

[6]  Michael Winikoff,et al.  Developing intelligent agent systems - a practical guide , 2004, Wiley series in agent technology.

[7]  Anne E. James,et al.  Designing with ethnography: An integrative approach to CSCW design , 2005, Adv. Eng. Informatics.

[8]  Anne Boettcher.  Moving from cultural probes to agent-oriented requirements engineering , 2006, OZCHI '06.

[9]  Stéphane Faulkner,et al.  Clarifying Goal Models , 2007, ER.

[10]  Tiffany Holmes,et al.  Eco-visualization: combining art and technology to reduce energy consumption , 2007, C&C '07.

[11]  Nelson Medinilla,et al.  The Ambiguity Criterion in Software Design , 2007 .

[12]  Sven Hartmann,et al.  Challenges in Conceptual Modelling. Tutorials, posters, panels and industrial contributions at the 26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling - ER 2007. Auckland, New Zealand, November 5-9, 2007. Proceedings , 2007, ER.

[13]  Corinna Fischer.  Feedback on household electricity consumption: a tool for saving energy? , 2008 .

[14]  Julio Cesar Sampaio do Prado Leite,et al.  On Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering , 2009, Conceptual Modeling: Foundations and Applications.

[15]  J. Natowitz,et al.  Our Energy Future , 2009 .

[16]  Leon Sterling,et al.  The Art of Agent-Oriented Modeling , 2009 .

[17]  Leon Sterling,et al.  Having fun at home: interleaving fieldwork and goal models , 2009, OZCHI '09.

[18]  Leon Sterling,et al.  Engineering the social: The role of shared artifacts , 2009, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[19]  Jon E. Froehlich,et al.  The design of eco-feedback technology , 2010, CHI.

[20]  Saul Greenberg,et al.  One size does not fit all: applying the transtheoretical model to energy feedback technology design , 2010, CHI.

[21]  Leon Sterling,et al.  Shared artefacts as participatory Babel fish , 2010, PDC '10.

[22]  Anna Perini,et al.  Analyzing requirements of knowledge management systems with the support of agent organizations , 2005, Journal of the Brazilian Computer Society.