PROTOCOL-2009
International Workshop on Theory and Practice of Programming Collectives
@ Third IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems
San Francisco, California, September 15, 2009

http://protocol.collectivae.net/
protocol@collectivae.net

Established and upcoming research areas such as multi-agent systems, nature-inspired/evolutionary computation, pervasive/autonomic computing and collective intelligence all share one single important property: the involvement of a collective of individuals (agents, solutions, humans, insects, CPUs) that has to accomplish a goal or objective. The types of collective systems commonly used in the mentioned areas can be considered in the range from (on the one extreme) closed and centralised computer clusters at a single location, to (on the other extreme) open and distributed human-computer networks located world-wide.

The issue of programming these systems is central to this workshop, as
well as closely related facets like requirement specification, design
(patterns), formal models, simulation and implementation. Regarding
these issues, the workshop attempts to fill a growing gap that exists
between researchers working at different points on the above-mentioned
system range, as well as on the theoretical (formal, logics,
representation) and practical (simulation, fieldwork, algorithms)
aspects of programming collectives.

* Aim of the workshop *
The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers with a theoretical perspective (formal, logics, representation) and a practical perspective (simulation, fieldwork, algorithms) on the development of self-organising and self-adaptive systems. The result of the event is a forum to establish unified models, methods and techniques for the purpose of programming collectives in general. Attending researchers will have different backgrounds (e.g., multi-agent systems, nature-inspired computing, distributed computing, pervasive computing and collective intelligence), enabling the cross-fertilisation between research efforts on the theory/practice dimension on the one hand and the background dimension on the other hand.

* Audience *
The intended audience of the workshop includes researchers with an interest and/or track record in either the development of formal, simulation or conceptual models; or algorithm design; or software implementation – specifically for the purpose of designing and engineering collective systems. Gathering in an informal setting, workshop participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss selected technical topics in an atmosphere that fosters the active exchange of ideas among researchers. The workshop is intended to be a genuinely interactive event and not a mini-conference, thus ample time will be allocated to discussion.

* Important dates *
July 10, 2009 - Paper submission deadline
August 5, 2009 - Acceptance notification
August 15, 2009 - Camera-ready version deadline
September 15, 2009 - Workshop

* Publication *
Papers will be published in concordance with the SASO conference publication policy. Selected papers wll be invited to submit an extended version of their paper for publication in a special issue of a to-be-announced journal.

* Programme Committee *
Thomas Agotnes, Bergen University College, Norway
Olivier Boissier, EMSE, France
Frances Brazier, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Frank Dignum, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Carlos Gershenson, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Marie-Pierre Gleizes, IRIT Toulouse, France
Christophe Gueret, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Hado van Hasselt, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Wiebe van der Hoek, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
Tom Holvoet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Wojtek Jamroga, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany and University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Andrea Omicini, Università di Bologna, Italy
Juan-Antonio Rodrigues-Aguilar, IIIA, Spain
Giovanna di Marzo Serugendo, University of London, United Kingdom

* Organising Committee *
Martijn Schut, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Nivea Ferreira, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Virginia Dignum, Utrecht University, The Netherlands