Challenge Problem: Agent-Mediated Decentralized Information Mechanisms

Abstract

Pervasive computing, driven by faster, cheaper and smaller devices, and wireless networking technology, promises to make people perpetual users of a massive and decentralized computational system. Pervasive computing blurs the boundary between the physical and the virtual. Information, always cheap to duplicate, now becomes cheap to generate everywhere. At once both the opportunities, such as for data mining and collaborative ltering, and the dangers, such as for privacy abuse, are clear. As a challenge to the agent community this paper proposes the development of agent-mediated, decentralized informationprocessing mechanisms, that enshrine the principles of information property rights and provides economic incentives to support efficient information sharing.We discuss the complementary roles of markets, informationdegradation and aggregation, and reputation, within such a mechanism, and propose a straw-man model.