Newsgroups: comp.ai.jair.announce
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!news.acsu.buffalo.edu!news.uoregon.edu!hunter.premier.net!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news.sgi.com!enews.sgi.com!ames!eos!kronos.arc.nasa.gov!jair-ed
From: jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: New Article, Mechanisms for Automated Negotiation ...
Message-ID: <1996Oct29.013304.6563@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov>
Originator: jair-ed@polya.arc.nasa.gov
Lines: 40
Sender: usenet@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov (usenet@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)
Nntp-Posting-Host: polya.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA/ARC Computational Sciences Division
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 01:33:04 GMT
Approved: jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

JAIR is pleased to announce the publication of the following article:

Zlotkin, G. and Rosenschein, J.S. (1996)
  "Mechanisms for Automated Negotiation in State Oriented Domains", 
   Volume 5, pages 163-238.

   Available in Postscript (946K) and compressed Postscript (374K).
   For quick access via your WWW browser, use this URL:
     http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/abstracts/zlotkin96a.html
   More detailed instructions are below.

   Abstract: This paper lays part of the groundwork for a domain theory of
   negotiation, that is, a way of classifying interactions so that it is
   clear, given a domain, which negotiation mechanisms and strategies are
   appropriate.  We define State Oriented Domains, a general category of
   interaction.  Necessary and sufficient conditions for cooperation are
   outlined.  We use the notion of worth in an altered definition of
   utility, thus enabling agreements in a wider class of joint-goal
   reachable situations. An approach is offered for conflict resolution,
   and it is shown that even in a conflict situation, partial cooperative
   steps can be taken by interacting agents (that is, agents in
   fundamental conflict might still agree to cooperate up to a certain
   point).

   A Unified Negotiation Protocol (UNP) is developed that can be used in
   all types of encounters. It is shown that in certain borderline
   cooperative situations, a partial cooperative agreement (i.e., one
   that does not achieve all agents' goals) might be preferred by all
   agents, even though there exists a rational agreement that would
   achieve all their goals.

   Finally, we analyze cases where agents have incomplete information on
   the goals and worth of other agents. First we consider the case where
   agents' goals are private information, and we analyze what goal
   declaration strategies the agents might adopt to increase their
   utility.  Then, we consider the situation where the agents' goals (and
   therefore stand-alone costs) are common knowledge, but the worth they
   attach to their goals is private information.  We introduce two
   mechanisms, one 'strict', the other 'tolerant', and analyze their
   affects on the stability and efficiency of negotiation outcomes.

The article is available via:
   
 -- comp.ai.jair.papers (also see comp.ai.jair.announce)

 -- World Wide Web: The URL for our World Wide Web server is
       http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/home.html
    For direct access to this article and related files try:
       http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/abstracts/zlotkin96a.html

 -- Anonymous FTP from either of the two sites below.

    Carnegie-Mellon University (USA):
	ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/project/jair/volume5/zlotkin96a.ps
    The University of Genoa (Italy):
	ftp://ftp.mrg.dist.unige.it/pub/jair/pub/volume5/zlotkin96a.ps

    The compressed PostScript file is named zlotkin96a.ps.Z (374K)

 -- automated email. Send mail to jair@cs.cmu.edu or jair@ftp.mrg.dist.unige.it
    with the subject AUTORESPOND and our automailer will respond. To
    get the Postscript file, use the message body GET volume5/zlotkin96a.ps 
    (Note: Your mailer might find this file too large to handle.) 
    Only one can file be requested in each message.

For more information about JAIR, visit our WWW or FTP sites, or
send electronic mail to jair@cs.cmu.edu with the subject AUTORESPOND
and the message body HELP, or contact jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov.



