I know it’s a little rude to just post links and little more, but I at least wanted to note four papers I came across today. The first is pretty fanciful, but I think it actually speaks to a real set of problems for programming “mass quantities” of computing devices: Spray Computers: Frontiers of Self-Organization for Pervasive Computing Marco Mamei, Franco Zambonelli Dipartimento di Scienze…
Abstract: We envision a future in which clouds of microcomputers can be sprayed in an environment to provide, by spontaneously networking with each other, an endlessly range of futuristic applications. However, beside the vision, spraying may also act as a powerful metaphor for a range of other scenarios that are already under formation, from ad-hoc networks of embedded and mobile devices to worldwide distributed computing.
The 2003 Blackout – Reference and Analysis from the Kennedy School of Government, particularly pointing to the US-Canada Power System Outage Task Force. Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations.
April 2004. 238 pages.
These last two seem like important theoretical contributions, regarding heirarchical composability of policies in coalitions. I really ought to come back to this and write more soon…
Flexible Regulation of Distributed Coalitions – Ao, Minsky
Developing Multiagent Systems: The Gaia Methodology – Zambonelli, Jennings, Wooldridge