Electronic Institutions and Their Applications

This book introduces electronic institutions (EIs) and illustrates three real-life applications that focus on mixed human-software agent communities: uHelp, users find help within their social network for their day-to-day activities; WeCurate, museum visitors collaboratively browse and curate an art gallery; and PeerLearn, a platform where teachers can set up online classes that follow their lesson plans. The book also presents the PeerFlow system, a system designed and built for peer-to-peer electronic institutions which provides an intuitive user interface allowing nontechnical users to specify and share institutions.

The book features contributions from leading researchers in the area of agent technologies and artificial intelligence, and it will be useful for postgraduates, researchers, and practitioners in this domain.

Dr. Nardine Osman is a Tenured Scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA) within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She obtained her Ph.D. (2008) in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research in artificial intelligence has centered on multiagent systems, formal verification, normative systems, and trust and reputation. More recently, her focus has been on the topic of value engineering, that is, developing systems that understand human values, reason about them, and ensure behaviour is aligned with those values. She is currently leading the Ethics and AI research line at IIIA-CSIC. Throughout her career, Nardine has authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals and conferences. She is currently a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) and an associate editor of AI Communications. In the past, she also served as a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS), as well as as vice president, treasurer, and board member of the European Association for Multi-Agent Systems (EURAMAS).