Conviviality Masks in Multiagent Systems (Short Paper)

In this paper we study tools for conviviality to develop user-friendly multiagent systems. First, we show how to use the social-cognitive concept of conviviality in multiagent system technology by relating it to agent power and social dependence networks. Second, we define conviviality masks as transformations of social dependencies by hiding power relations and social structures to facilitate social interactions. Third, we introduce dynamic dependence networks to model the creation of conviviality using conviviality masks. We illustrate the use of conviviality masks with a multiagent teleconferencing application for virtual worlds.