projects
EMIL , “EMergence In the Loop: simulating the two way dynamics of norm innovation“, is a three-year EC funded project (Sixth Framework Programme – Information Society and Technologies – Citizens and Governance in the Knowledge Based Society) involving six Partners: the Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology, National Research Council, Italy; University of Bayreuth, Dept. of Philosophy, Germany; the Centre for Research on Social Simulation University of Surrey, United Kingdom; Universität Koblenz-Landau KL Germany; Manchester Metropolitan University, Centre for Policy Modelling MMU United Kingdom; AITIA International Informatics Inc. Hungary
EMIL is aimed at understanding and developing design strategies able to cope with a particular type of complex entities, i.e. social systems. These are characterized by a 2-way dynamics, consisting of emergent and immergent processes: emergence from interaction among individual agents to aggregate level, and immergence of entities (norms) at the aggregate level into agents’ minds. A summary of main theoretical goals is:
- understand and manage complexity in social systems with autonomous agents;
- understand how new conventions and norms emerge and spread in these systems;
- study of norm innovation by means of agent-based simulation.
The main technological aim of the project is to construct a simulator for exploring and experimenting upon norm-innovation. Forecasted impact of the project is to contribute to the regulation of e-communities by handing out a simulator for the emergence of new norms in complex social systems. :::Project website
eRep – Social knowledge for e-Governance is an FP6 european project aimed at providing theory-driven and empirically backed-up guidelines for designing reputation technologies.
An inter- and multi-disciplinary consortium provides the project with an innovative approach to be used for:
1. theory-building, namely formulating hypotheses concerning the generation, spreading and impact of reputation under given social and technological conditions;
2. testing these hypotheses on the grounds of cross-methodological experiments;
3. transferring knowledge thanks to both a computational proof-of-concept system and the guidelines specified in the White Book.
Immediate impact of the project is to contribute to the governance of electronic institutions (e.g. auction sites, discussion forums, recommendation sites, social networks, etc.). Future scientific added value of the project is expected to consist in advances of reputation theory and technology for multi agent systems. :::Project website
SOCRATE is an Italian highly interdisciplinary project – among cognitive and social scientists, software designers, and trainers of economic operators – project about the effect of reputation on industrial districts.
By means of Agent Based Modelling and Simulation, a cognitive theory of social evaluation (Conte and Paolucci, 2002) will be applied to studying the added value of reputation on firms’ competitiveness. A cross-methodological experimental design will be extensively applied: natural evidence – collected through case studies – will be compared with artificial findings, collected by means of an agent-based model of partner selection within productive cycles. The effect of reputation will be observed on several measures, including quality and price of products, volume of transactions, and ultimately, the very dynamics of firms within the same district. :::Project website
