Stefan Kirn Book order

1 Multiagent Engineering: A New Software Construction Paradigm Multiagent systems have a long academic tradition. They have their roots in distributed problem solving in Artificial Intelligence (AI) from where they emerged in the mid-eighties as a distinctive discipline. Research in multiagent systems owes much to the work of Rosenschein on rationality and autonomy of intelligent agents, the European MAAMAW workshop series, and last but not least the famous readings of Bond & Gasser (1988) and Jacques Ferber´s book on multiagent systems (1991). It gained further by a public discussion via the Distributed AI mailing list in summer 1991, when the pioneers of the field compared in much detail the concepts of distributed problem solvers to multiagent systems. Within only five years, a new exciting field of research had been established. Now, 15 years later, the field has matured to a degree that allows the - sults of academic research to be passed on to practical use and commercial exploitation. This potential coincides with a need for much larger flexib- ity of our IT infrastructure in light of its highly distributed character and extreme complexity, but also the global character of the business processes and the large number of business partners due to outsourcing and specia- zation. Many experts claim that multiagent systems are the right software technology for the needed IT infrastructure at the right time. The appeal has much to do with the broad perspectives of multiagent systems research.

In light of today's organizational challenges, there is a growing recognition that the effective use of information technology is crucial for market success and long-term survival. A new terminology has emerged to describe enterprises, heavily influenced by concepts like virtual reality and virtual organizations. Developing computerized organizations for the 21st century requires careful integration of organizational theory, design, and practice with research tools from information processing technology. This book approaches this integration from the perspective of a decentralized, possibly virtual enterprise, emphasizing a shift towards process-oriented structures rather than traditional task-oriented models. This perspective highlights the autonomy of organizational subunits, necessitating a cooperative style of problem-solving for coordinating decentralized activities, including workflows and business processes. The text introduces readers to a stimulating interdisciplinary research field in cooperative problem-solving. Chapter 1 presents insights from three central disciplines: Organizational Theory, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI), illustrating how future enterprises can leverage recent advances in cooperative knowledge processing technology.