Agreement Technologies

The overall mission of the COST Action IC0801 on Agreement Technologies was to support and promote the harmonization of nationally-funded high-quality research towards a new paradigm for next generation distributed systems based on the notion of agreement between computational agents, fostering research excellence and sowing the seeds for technology transfer to industry. This mission was backed by following primary objectives:

• European research excellence: to facilitate harmonization and improvement in the quality, profile, and industrial relevance of European research in the emerging field of Agreement Technologies, drawing on relevant prior work from related areas and disciplines;

• Technology transfer: to gain competitive advantage for the European ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) industry in open distributed software systems.

In support of achieving these primary objectives, the Action aimed at the following goals:

• Joint Research: to promote innovative and pragmatic joint research across the community fractions related to Agreement Technologies in different COST member states, and worldwide;

• Interdisciplinary Research: to promote interdisciplinary research in the field of Agreement Technologies aimed at a robust understanding of the notion of agreement among computational entities;

• Early integration of young researchers: to promote a rapid integration and sustained involvement of early-stage researchers in the community building process;

• Capacity Building: to promote high-quality teaching in all aspects related to the Agreement Technology paradigm.

• Awareness: to raise awareness of the emerging field of Agreement Technologies technology among the target groups of the Action; and

• Early Adoption: to encourage the early adoption of Agreement Technologies and applications in industry.

The International Conference on Agreement Technologies series constitutes an interdisciplinary forum that brings together researchers and practitioners working on the various topics comprising this emergent and vibrant field, providing an avenue to discuss and exchange new ideas and techniques for the design, implementation and verification of next generation open distributed systems centered on the notion of agreement among computational agents.

First International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2012)

• October 15th and 16th, 2012, in Dubrovnik, Croatia

• 71 Submissions, 27 accepted full papers (38%), 25 accepted position papers

• Postproceedings of AT-2012 in AI Review

• AT-2012 stream of AI Communications

• AT-2012 Proceedings

• AT-2012 Programme Booklet

• AT-2012 Web site

• AT-2012 Fotos

• AT-2012 Flyer

• AT-2012 Poster

Second International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2013)

• August 1st and 2nd, 2013, in Beijing, China

• Postproceedings of AT-2013 in Information Systems Frontiers

• AT-2013 Proceedings (LNCS 8068)

• AT-2013 Programme Booklet

• AT-2013 Web site

• AT-2013 Flyer

• AT-2013 Poster

Third International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2015)

• December 17th and 18th, 2015, in Athens, Greece

• Postproceedings of AT-2015 in the AI Communications journal

• EUMAS-AT-2015 Proceedings (LNCS 9571)

• AT-2015 Programme Leaflet

• AT-2015 Web site

• AT-2015 Flyer

Fourth International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2016)

• December 15th and 16th, 2016, in Valencia, Spain

• Postproceedings of AT-2016 in the AI Communications journal

• AT-2016 Proceedings (LNCS 10207)

• AT-2016 Web site

Fifth International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2017)

• December 14th and 15th, 2017, in Paris, France

• Postproceedings of AT-2017 in the AI Communications journal

• AT-2017 Proceedings (LNCS)

• AT-2017 Web site

• AT-2017-Flyer

Sixth International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2018)

• December 6th and 7th, 2018, in Bergen, Norway

• Selected and revised papers of AT-2018 in the AI Communications and ComSIS journals

• AT-2018 Postproceedings (LNCS)

• AT-2018 Web site

Seventh International Conference on Agreement Technologies (AT-2020)

• September 14th and 15th, 2020, in Thessaloniki, Greece (moved to online format due to COVID-19)

• Selected and revised papers of EUMAS/AT-2020 in the JAAMAS journal

• AT-2020 Postproceedings (LNCS)

• AT-2020 Web site

The book “Agreement Technologies” was published as volume no 8 in the Law, Governance and Technology Series (LGTS) of Springer Verlag. The book comprises 7 parts, 37 chapters, and 645 pages. Over 100 authors contributed to the volume which is available as e-Book (ISBN 978-94-007-5583-3), as well as in softcover (ISBN 978-94-017-8278-4) and hardcover (ISBN 978-94-007-5582-6).

The back cover text outlines the book as follows:

More and more transactions, whether in business or related to leisure activities, are mediated automatically by computers and computer networks, and this trend is having a significant impact on the conception and design of new computer applications. The next generation of these applications will be based on software agents to which increasingly complex tasks can be delegated, and which interact with each other in sophisticated ways so as to forge agreements in the interest of their human users. The sandbox of technologies supporting this vision is the subject of this volume. It summarises the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action project on AT, during which approximately 200 researchers from 25 European countries, along with eight institutions from non-COST countries, cooperated as part of a number of working groups. The book is the first one to provide a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of Agreement Technologies, written and coordinated by the leading researchers in the field. The results set out here are due for wide dissemination beyond the computer technology sector, involving law and social science fora as well.

A set of videolectures were produced to raise awareness of the emerging field of Agreement Technologies, as well as to encourage the early adoption of the technology and to promote its applications. As such, they summarise and complement the different parts and chapters of the Agreement Technologies Book published in the LGTS series of Springer Verlag.

Overview

• Agreement Technologies: A Bird’s-Eye view

Technology

• Semantics in Agreement Technologies

• Norms in Agreement Technologies

• Organisations in Agreement Technologies

• Agreement Technologies and Argumentation

• Trust & Reputation in Agreement Technologies

Examples of Applications

• A Case Study for Virtual Markets

• Coordinating Emergency Medical Assistance (EMA)

• A Call Centre Study Case

• An e-Government Application for Water Rights Agreements