News

Attendees of ArgNMR @ LPNMR: direct flight to Honolulu (operated by ATA), departing from Phoenix Shy Harbor at 4:45pm on the ArgNMR day

Overview

Argumentation can be abstractly defined as the interaction of different arguments for and against some conclusion. Over the last few years, argumentation has been gaining increasing importance in multi-agent systems, mainly as a vehicle for facilitating "rational interaction" (i.e., interaction which involves the giving and receiving of reasons). This is because argumentation provides tools for designing, implementing and analysing sophisticated forms of interaction among rational agents. Argumentation has made solid contributions to the practice of multi-agent dialogues. Application domains include: legal disputes, business negotiation, labor disputes, team formation, scientific inquiry, deliberative democracy, ontology reconciliation, risk analysis, scheduling, and logistics. A single agent may also use argumentation techniques to perform its individual reasoning because it needs to make decisions under complex preferences policies, in a highly dynamic environment.

This workshop builds on three successful workshops:

• ArgMAS 2006 held in conjunction with AAMAS 2006, at Future University, Hakodate, Japan (attracted 21 participants)
• ArgMAS 2005 held in conjunction with AAMAS 2005, at Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands (attracted 31 participants)
• ArgMAS 2004 held in conjunction with AAMAS 2004, at Columbia University, New York, USA (attracted 20 participants)

Post-proceedings of previous editions of the workshop have been published in two Springer LNCS volumes:

	S. Parsons, N. Maudet, P. Moraitis, and I. Rahwan (Eds.) (2006). Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems Second International Workshop, ArgMAS 2005, Utrecht, Netherlands, July 26, 2005, Revised Selected and Invited Papers. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 4049, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
	I. Rahwan, P. Moraitis and C. Reed (Eds.) (2005). Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems: Proceedings of the First International Workshop (ArgMAS'04): Expanded and Invited Contributions. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 3366, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.

The workshop will be concerned with the use of the concepts, theories, methodologies, and computational models of argumentation in building autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. The workshop will solicit papers looking at both theory and practice. In particular, the workshop aims at bridging the gap between the vast amount of work on argumentation theory and the practical needs of multi-agent systems research.

The workshop will be co-located with the sixth international conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems AAMAS 2007.

Topics

We solicit papers dealing with, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Computational models for argumentation
• Argumentation-based decision making
• Argumentation-based joint deliberation
• Argumentation-based persuasion
• Argumentation-based inquiry
• Argumentation-based negotiation and conflict resolution
• Argumentation and risk assessment
• Argumentation for legal reasoning
• Argumentation for electronic democracy
• Argumentation for coordination, cooperation and team formation
• Argumentation and game theory in multi-agent systems
• Human-agent argumentation
• Argumentation and preferences modelling
• Strategic behaviour in argument-based dialogues
• Deception, trust, reputation in argument-based interaction
• Computational complexity of argumentation dialogues
• Properties of argumentation dialogues (termination, success, etc.)
• Hybrid argumentation-based models
• Implemented argumentation-based multi-agent systems
• New application areas

Programme

08:55 am	Opening by Organisers
09:00 am - 10:30 am	Session: Dialogue
A Persuasion Dialog for Gaining Access to Information Laurent Perrussel, Sylvie Doutre, Jean-Marc Th´evenin, Peter McBurney
Towards Characterising Argumentation Based Dialogue in the Argument Interchange Format Sanjay Modgil, Jarred McGinnis
On The Benefits of Exploiting Hierarchical Goals in Bilateral Automated Negotiation Iyad Rahwan, Philippe Pasquier, Liz Sonenberg, Frank Dignum
10:30 am - 11:00 am	Coffee Break
11:00 am - 12:00 pm	Invited Talk
Tools from the Trenches Jack Paulus (www.truthmapping.com)
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm	Session: Applications
The hedgehog and the fox: An argumentation-based decision support system Maxime Morge, Paolo Mancarella
12:30 pm – 02:00 pm	Lunch Break
02:00 pm – 04:00 pm	Session: Foundations
An Extended Value-Based Argumentation Framework for Ontology Mapping with Confidence Degrees Cassia Trojahn, Paulo Quaresma, Renata Vieira
A Hybrid Argumentation of Symbolic and Neural Net Argumentation (Part I) Wataru Makiguchi, Hajime Sawamura
Evidential Reasoning in Bipolar Argumentation Frameworks Nir Oren, Tim Norman, Alun Preece
A Hybrid Argumentation of Symbolic and Neural Net Argumentation (Part II) Wataru Makiguchi, Hajime Sawamura
04:00 pm - 04:30 pm	Coffee Break
04:30 pm - 05:30 pm	Session: Argument in Agent Societies
Co-Argumentation Artifact for Agent Societies Enrico Oliva, Peter McBurney, Andrea Omicini
Conflict-free normative agents using assumption-based argumentation Dorian Gartner, Francesca Toni
05:30 pm	Closing Remarks

Important Dates

Note that the dates are fixed by the AAMAS conference:

Submission Deadline:	5 February 2007
Notification of Acceptance/Rejection:	5 March 2007
Camera Ready Due:	19 March 2007
Workshop:	15 May 2007

Publication

The proceedings of ArgMAS will be printed and distributed at the workshop.

As done with ArgMAS 2004, ArgMAS 2005, and ArgMAS 2006, it is planned to publish revised versions of the accepted full papers in an edited book as part of the Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series. This publication would have an ISBN number, and would be available both in printed form, as well as electronically on the SpringerLink online library.

Submission Procedure

Contributors may submit either full papers (no longer than 5000 words, not including figures) or a two page position statement that outlines their interests, background, and discussion of an aspect of the workshop theme.

Authors are encouraged to submit their papers in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) style, since this will be the format required for the planned post-proceedings book. Formatting instructions, as well as the style and sample files, can be found here: http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html

All submissions should be sent either in PostScript format or in PDF format by email to Simon Parsons on parsons@sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu

At least one author of each accepted papers must register for the workshop.

Organising Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Simon Parsons
  Department of Computer and Information Science
  Brooklyn College
  City University of New York
  2900 Bedford Avenue
  Brooklyn, 11210 NY
  parsons@sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu
  

• Iyad Rahwan (Corresponding Organiser)
  

  Institute of Informatics British University in Dubai P.O.Box 502216, Dubai United Arab Emirates

  (Fellow) School of Informatics University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, EH8 9LE UK

• Chris Reed
  Department of Applied Computing
  University of Dundee
  Dundee DD1 4HN
  Scotland, UK
  Chris.Reed@computing.dundee.ac.uk
  

ArgMAS Steering Committee

• Antonis Kakas (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
• Nicolas Maudet (Universite Paris Dauphine, France)
• Peter McBurney (University of Liverpool, UK)
• Pavlos Moraitis (University RENE DESCARTES-Paris 5, France)
• Simon Parsons (City University of New York, USA)
• Iyad Rahwan (British University in Dubai, UAE, and University of Edinburgh, UK)
• Chris Reed (University of Dundee, UK)

Program Committee

• Leila Amgoud, IRIT, Toulouse, France
• Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool, UK
• Jamal Bentahar, Concordia University, Canada
• Guido Boella, Università di Torino, Italy
• Brahim Chaib-draa, Laval University, Canada
• Carlos Chesnevar, Universitat de Lleida, Spain
• Frank Dignum, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Rogier van Eijk, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Frank Guerin, University of Aberdeen, UK
• Joris Hulstijn, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Anthony Hunter, University College, London, UK
• Antonis Kakas, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
• Nikos Karacapilidis, University of Patras, Greece
• Nishan Karunatillake, University of Southampton, UK
• Nicolas Maudet, Universite Paris Dauphine, France
• Peter McBurney, University of Liverpool, UK
• Jarred McGinnis, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
• Sanjay Modgil, Cancer Research UK
• Pavlos Moraitis, University RENE DESCARTES, France
• Bernard Moulin, Laval University, Canada
• Søren Holbech Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark
• Tim Norman, University of Aberdeen, UK
• Nir Oren, University of Aberdeen, UK
• Fabio Paglieri, ISTC-CNR, Roma IT
• Xavier Parent, King's College, UK
• Simon Parsons, City University of New York, USA
• Philippe Pasquier, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Enric Plaza, Spanish Scientific Research Council, Spain
• Henri Prade, IRIT, Toulouse, France
• Henry Prakken, Utrecht University, & University of Groningen, The Netherlands
• Alun Preece, University of Aberdeen, UK
• Iyad Rahwan, British University in Dubai, UAE, & University of Edinburgh, UK
• Sarvapali Ramchurn, University of Southampton, UK
• Chris Reed, University of Dundee, UK
• Michael Rovatsos, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Hajime Sawamura, Niigata University, Japan
• Sandip Sen, University of Tulsa, USA
• Guillermo Simari, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina
• Elizabeth Sklar, City University of New York, USA
• Katia Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Francesca Toni, Imperial College, London, UK
• Leon van der Torre, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• Paolo Torroni, Università di Bologna, Italy
• Bart Verheij, University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Gerard Vreeswijk, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Doug Walton, University of Winnipeg, Canada
• Simon Wells, University of Dundee, UK
• Steven Willmott, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
• Mike Wooldridge, University of Liverpool, UK