Programming global computing societies
A distributed system is a collection of independent computers that behaves as a single coherent system. As the complexity of such a system grows, we arrive at the notion of global computing. An aggregate of computational entities acting autonomously and interacting with each other produce a global computing environment. The SOCS project refers to these computational entities as computees in order to stress the fact that they preserve their individualism and heterogeneity within the global computing environment. These so called computees acquire knowledge from a common knowledge base, interact following certain pre-specified protocols and collaborate to achieve common goals. Much like a society, the computational entities are at the same time quite different from each other. The possible absence of a central global control replaced by the presence of a decentralised control of activities highlights the resemblance even further. The SOCS project has developed logic based models for reasoning in a changing environment. These make plausible hypotheses when the information is incomplete and communicate for decision-making. In order to experiment with the governing logical models and test the functionality of their properties, an innovative platform has been developed. The programming societies of computees, the PROSOCS prototype platform, supports the implementation and deployment of such societies of computees. With the aid of the platform, applications become more transparent and consequently more user friendly. Moreover the platform prohibits unwanted interactions between computing entities. The rules of interaction, once decided, can then be embodied in the platform. The developed platform has been successfully tested in a number of different global computing applications like e-commerce and auctions.
