News

The submission deadline has been extended to 31 Jan 2008.

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 2007 held in conjunction with AAMAS 2007, in Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA (attracted 22 participants)
• 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 the following Springer LNCS volumes:

	I. Rahwan, S. Parsons, and C. Reed (Eds.) (2008). Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems: Forth International Workshop, ArgMAS 2007, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 2007 Revised Selected and Invited Papers, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 4946, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
	N. Maudet, S. Parsons and I. Rahwan (Eds.) (2007). Argumentation in Multi-Agent Systems: Third International Workshop, ArgMAS 2006 Hakodate, Japan, May 8, 2006 Revised Selected and Invited Papers, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 4766, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
	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 seventh international conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems AAMAS 2008.

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

Accepted Papers

Full papers:

• Command Dialogues.
  Katie Atkinson, Peter McBurney, Roderic Allen Girle and Simon Parsons
• Argumentation-based Information Exchange in Prediction Markets
  Santiago Ontañón and Enric Plaza.
• Co-ordination and Co-operation in Agent Systems: Social Laws and Argumentation
  Katie Atkinson and Trevor Bench-Capon.
• Personality-Based Practical Reasoning
  Tom van der Weide, Frank Dignum, John-Jules Meyer, Henry Prakken and Gerard Vreeswijk.
• An Argumentation Framework based on strength for Ontology Mapping
  Cassia Trojahn, Paulo Quaresma and Renata Vieira.
• Contextual Extension with Concept Maps in the Argument Interchange Format
  Ioan Alfred Letia and Adrian Groza.
• Argumentation and Artifact for Dialog Support
  Enrico Oliva, Mirko Viroli, Andrea Omicini and Peter McBurney.
• Argumentation based Resolution of Conflicts Between Desires and Normative Goals
  Sanjay Modgil and Michael Luck.

• Strategic maneuvering in argumentative confrontations
  Jan Albert van Laar.
• Dung Argumentation and AGM Belief Revision
  Guido Boella, Celia da Costa Perera, Andrea Tettamanzi and Leon van der Torre.

Programme

Workshops will run from 9.30 to 18.30.

• [09:20 - 09:30] Welcome by organisers
• [09:30 - 11:00] Session 1: Dialogue
  • Command Dialogues
    Katie Atkinson, Peter McBurney, Roderic Allen Girle and Simon Parsons
  • Argumentation and Artifact for Dialog Support
    Enrico Oliva, Mirko Viroli, Andrea Omicini and Peter McBurney.
  • Argumentation based Resolution of Conflicts Between Desires and Normative Goals
    Sanjay Modgil and Michael Luck.
• [11:00 - 11:30] Coffee break
• [11:30 - 13:00] Session 2: Foundations
  • Co-ordination and Co-operation in Agent Systems: Social Laws and Argumentation
    Katie Atkinson and Trevor Bench-Capon.
  • Personality-Based Practical Reasoning
    Tom van der Weide, Frank Dignum, John-Jules Meyer, Henry Prakken and Gerard Vreeswijk.
  • Dung Argumentation and AGM Belief Revision
    Guido Boella, Celia da Costa Perera, Andrea Tettamanzi and Leon van der Torre.
• [13:00 - 14:30] Lunch break
• [14:30 - 16:00] Session 3: Applications
  • An Argumentation Framework based on strength for Ontology Mapping
    Cassia Trojahn, Paulo Quaresma and Renata Vieira.
  • Argumentation-based Information Exchange in Prediction Markets
    Santiago Ontañón and Enric Plaza.
  • Contextual Extension with Concept Maps in the Argument Interchange Format
    Ioan Alfred Letia and Adrian Groza.
• [16:00 - 16:30] Coffee break
• [16:30 - 18:00] Session 4: Strategic Issues
  • Strategic maneuvering in argumentative confrontations
    Jan Albert van Laar.
  • PANEL DISCUSSION: Perspectives on Argumentation Strategies
    
    • Jan Albert van Laar - Department of theoretical philosophy, University of Groningen
    • Kate Larson - Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
    • Simon Parsons - Department of Computer and Information Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
• [18:00 - 18:15] Closing by organisers

Important Dates

Note that the dates are fixed by the AAMAS conference:

Submission Deadline:	31 January 2008
Notification of Acceptance/Rejection:	25 February 2008
Camera Ready Due:	5 March 2008
Workshop:	12 May 2008

Publication

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

As done with previous ArgMAS workshops, 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

Papers must be submitted through a dedicated EasyChair site, which can be found at: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=argmas2008

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

Organising Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Iyad Rahwan (Corresponding Organiser)
  

  Faculty 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

• Pavlos Moraitis
  Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
  Paris-Descartes University
  45 rue des Saints-Peres
  75270 Paris Cedex 06
  France
  

ArgMAS Steering Committee

• Antonis Kakas (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
• Nicolas Maudet (Universite Paris Dauphine, France)
• Peter McBurney (University of Liverpool, UK)
• Pavlos Moraitis (Paris Descartes University, 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
• Yannis Dimopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
• Sylvie Doutre, IRIT, Toulouse, France
• Rogier van Eijk, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• Frank Guerin, University of Aberdeen, UK
• Joris Hulstijn, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Anthony Hunter, University College, London, UK
• Nikos Karacapilidis, University of Patras, Greece
• 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
• 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, Simon Fraser University, Canada
• Laurent Perrussel, IRIT, Toulouse, France
• Enric Plaza, IIIA-CSIC, Spain
• Henri Prade, IRIT, Toulouse, France
• Henry Prakken, Utrecht University, & University of Groningen, The Netherlands
• Alun Preece, Cardiff University, 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
• Carles Sierra, IIIA-CSIC, Spain
• Guillermo Simari, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina
• Elizabeth Sklar, City University of New York, 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
• Mike Wooldridge, University of Liverpool, UK