AgentOrganization

"an arrangement of relationships between individuals or components. The resulting system is empowered with qualities unknown to its components." (translated from [Morin 77]).

"division of tasks, distribution of roles, authority systems, communication channels and contribution-awards." (translated from [Bernoux 85])

Therefore, the key elements are:

• tasks
• roles
• authorities
• commitments (see BeliefDesireIntention), contracts...

a priori organization vs self-organisation

• centralized
• hierarchical
• bazar/market: self-organization based on the laws of the market and the use of currencies

• in a priori organization: specification of a graph of dependences and influences [Collinot 96], allocation of roles based on tasks, definition of relationships (authorities, communication channels), multi-level hierarchies in case of possible bottleneck
• in self-organization: use of ContractNet and auctions for contract allocation, use of mechanisms for contract enforcement (performance monitoring, violation detection and recovery)

• FacilitatorsAndBrokers, for recursive group/agent view of multi-level hierarchies. ex: Jurisdiction (cf Mitel): brokering for functionally organized agents
• AuctionProtocols: for bazars
• ContractNet:
  • for task allocation between different "sub-agents"
  • to establish contracts and enforce commitments
  • for bazars