Norms and Policies for Agents on the Web
Abstract
The study of policies and norms has a long tradition in the Semantic Web & Linked Data and Multi-Agent Systems communities, with applications ranging from business processes, and legal reasoning, to information systems governance. Although representing and reasoning about norms is crucial in ensuring that autonomous agents act in a manner to satisfy stakeholder requirements, normative concepts have yet to be considered as first-class abstractions in Web-based software systems. The chapter motivates the practical need to apply research on policies and norms to autonomous agents on the Web, and highlights research challenges and opportunities at the intersection of the Semantic Web & Linked Data, Multi-Agent Systems, and Web Architecture & Web of Things communities.