ABACO: COORDINATION MECHANISMS IN A MULTI-AGENT PERSPECTIVE

The concept of Coordination Mechanism has been proposed as a means to construct computer-based facilities to support the articulation of cooperative work by employing a notation called Ariadne. The paper presents a mapping of the elements of Ariadne on the agent-based architecture called ABACO. This mapping serves two main purposes: it enables us to give a formal definition of the semantics of Ariadne and to define the overall structure of a crucial component of a general CSCW architecture that is specialized to support the construction of computational coordination mechanisms. The agent-based approach of ABACO allows us to satisfy the two basic requirements of Ariadne, namely malleability and linkability. Moreover, it allows us to conceive of how ABACO may incorporate functionalities so as to enhance the effectiveness of articulation work. Resume. La notion de Mecanisme de Coordination a ete proposee comme un moyen pour construire des supports automatiques a l'articulation du travail, tout en employant une notation appelee Ariadne. L'article presente une correspondance entre les elements composant Ariadne et les elements d'une architecture d'agents appelee ABACO. Cette correspondance a deux buts: la definition formelle de la semantique d'Ariadne et la definition de la structure d'un composant d'une architecture pour le CSCW, ce composant etant dedie a la construction des Mecanismes de Coordination. L'utilisation d'une architecture d'agents a permis de mettre en evidence deux proprietees fondamentales de ces mechanismes: l'adaptation et la possibilite d' etre assembles. Enfin, la notion d'agent permet l'introduction en ABACO de fonctionalitees destinees a ameliorer l'efficacite de l'articulation du travail.