Agent-based conference management: a case study in SODA

Conference management is concerned with managing the dependencies of activities required to produce the proceedings of a scientific conference. This case study, very frequently used in the literature, presents interesting software engineering issues because it involves a number of articulated coordination activities and stresses interaction between peers. This paper presents an agent-based solution to the conference management problem using the Societies in Open and Distributed Agent spaces (SODA) agent-oriented methodology. On the one hand, this demonstrates the general benefits of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE); on the other hand, it emphasises the peculiarities of SODA: in particular, its focus on inter-agent, social aspects and its layering mechanisms for handling the engineering of complex computation systems. We first discuss why conference management is interesting from the AOSE viewpoint, then we show how to face the many issues in the design of its software architecture by means of SODA.

[1]  Danilo Santos,et al.  Developing a Conference Management System with the Multi-Agent Systems Unified Process: A Case Study , 2007, AOSE.

[2]  Luca Cardelli,et al.  Abstractions for Mobile Computation , 1999, Secure Internet Programming.

[3]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  Activity Theory as a Framework for MAS Coordination , 2002, ESAW.

[4]  Fabio Vitali,et al.  Internet-Based Coordination Environments and Document-Based Applications: A Case Study , 1999, COORDINATION.

[5]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  From AO Methodologies to MAS Infrastructures: The SODACase Study , 2008, ESAW.

[6]  Fausto Giunchiglia,et al.  Tropos: An Agent-Oriented Software Development Methodology , 2004, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[7]  Lin Padgham,et al.  Agent-Oriented Software Engineering VIII, 8th International Workshop, AOSE 2007, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 14, 2007, Revised Selected Papers , 2008, AOSE.

[8]  Lin Padgham,et al.  Introduction to AOSE Tools for the Conference Management System , 2007, AOSE.

[9]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  SODA: A Roadmap to Artefacts , 2005, ESAW.

[10]  Michael Winikoff,et al.  Prometheus: A Methodology for Developing Intelligent Agents , 2002, AOSE.

[11]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  Agens Faber: Toward a Theory of Artefacts for MAS , 2006, Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci..

[12]  Agostino Poggi,et al.  JADE: a FIPA2000 compliant agent development environment , 2001, AGENTS '01.

[13]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  From tuple spaces to tuple centres , 2001, Sci. Comput. Program..

[14]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Developing multiagent systems: The Gaia methodology , 2003, TSEM.

[15]  R. Conte,et al.  Cognitive and social action , 1995 .

[16]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Programming stigmergic coordination with the TOTA middleware , 2005, AAMAS '05.

[17]  Sebastiano Pizzutilo,et al.  Agent-Based Home Simulation and Control , 2005, ISMIS.

[18]  Scott A. DeLoach,et al.  Engineering Organization-Based Multiagent Systems , 2005, SELMAS.

[19]  Francisco Durán,et al.  A Conference Reviewing System in Mobile Maude , 2002, Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci..

[20]  Barry E. Jacobs,et al.  Electronic Management of the Peer Review Process , 1996, Comput. Networks.

[21]  Anna Perini,et al.  Tool-Supported Development with Tropos: The Conference Management System Case Study , 2007, AOSE.

[22]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  CArtA gO : A Framework for Prototyping Artifact-Based Environments in MAS , 2006, E4MAS.

[23]  Adriano Scutellà,et al.  Simulation of Conference Management Using an Even-Driven Coordination Language , 1999, COORDINATION.

[24]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Dealing with Adaptive Multi-agent Organizations in the Gaia Methodology , 2005, AOSE.

[25]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  The LAICA project: supporting ambient intelligence via agents and ad-hoc middleware , 2005, 14th IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprise (WETICE'05).

[26]  Haralambos Mouratidis,et al.  Secure Tropos: a Security-Oriented Extension of the Tropos Methodology , 2007, Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng..

[27]  Ricardo Melo Bastos,et al.  MASUP: An Agent-Oriented Modeling Process for Information Systems , 2004, SELMAS.

[28]  Scott A. DeLoach.  Developing a Multiagent Conference Management System Using the O-MaSE Process Framework , 2007, AOSE.

[29]  Carlo Montangero,et al.  Composing Specifications for Coordination , 1999, COORDINATION.

[30]  Franco Zambonelli,et al.  Challenges and Research Directions in Agent-Oriented Software Engineering , 2004, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[31]  Andrea Omicini,et al.  SODA: Societies and Infrastructures in the Analysis and Design of Agent-Based Systems , 2000, AOSE.