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 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 third international conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems AAMAS 2004.

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

Preliminary Program

• INVITED TALK:

  Argument as Belief-Monitoring
  Prof. Jonathan Adler, Faculty of Philosophy, City University of New York

  Abstract:
  Argument is generally conceived as aiming at rational persuasion. However, argument serves another crucial cognitive function: It is a device of belief self-correction. By arguing with an agent, whose judgments I do not control, yet which are coordinated with mine, I can uncover weaknesses in my own beliefs, and weaknesses that I am barred from even recognizing by the very fact of belief. Similarly, perception, memory, simple reasoning, and testimony are generally viewed as reliable ways to acquire good information (new beliefs). But these are also on-going mechanisms to monitor, and so correct or revise, beliefs. I want to explore the value of argument as a second-order monitoring system of self-correction, and for the conceptual and modeling problems this role raises.

• FULL PAPERS:
  • Some preliminary steps towards a meta-theory for formal inter-agent dialogues
    Simon Parsons, Peter McBurney and Michael Wooldridge
  • Formal Dialectic Specification
    Simon Wells and Chris Reed
  • Towards a formal and implemented model of argumentation schemes in agent communication
    Chris Reed and Doug Walton
  • On the generation of bipolar goals in argumentation-based negotiation
    Leila Amgoud and Souhila Kaci
  • Is it worth arguing?
    Nishan C. Karunatillake and Nicholas R. Jennings
  • Bargaining and argument-based negotiation: some preliminary comparisons
    Iyad Rahwan, Liz Sonenberg and Peter McBurney
  • A Bayes Net approach to argumentation-based negotiation
    Sabyasachi Saha and Sandip Sen
  • When is it okay to lie? A simple model of contradiction in agent-based dialogues
    Elizabeth Sklar, Simon Parsons and Mathew Davies
  • Layered strategies and protocols for argumentation-based interaction
    Antonis Kakas, Nicolas Maudet and Pavlos Moraitis
  • A dialogue game protocol for multiagent argument over proposals for action
    Katie Atkinson, Trevor Bench-Capon and Peter McBurney
  • A Persuasion Dialogue Game based on Commitments and Arguments
    Jamal Bentahar, Bernard Moulin and Brahim Chaib-draa
  • An argument-based framework to model an agent's beliefs in a dynamic environment
    M. Capobianco, C.I. Chesnevar and G.R. Simari
  • Revising beliefs through arguments: bridging the gap between argumentation and belief revision in MAS
    Fabio Paglieri and Cristiano Castelfranchi

• POSITION STATEMENTS:
  • Communicating Conventions of Argumentation-based Dialogue Games
    Jarred P. McGinnis
  • Evidence and Argumentation based Risk Assessment
    Will Shenton, Trent Cain, Ryan How

Important Dates

Submission Deadline:	Thursday 1 April 2004
Notification of Acceptance:	Saturday 1 May 2004
Camera Ready Due:	Tuesday 25 May 2004
Workshop:	Mon 19 July 2004

Publication

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

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 will have an ISBN number, and will 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 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 Iyad Rahwan on

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

Organising Committee

Co-Chairs:

• Iyad Rahwan (Corresponding Organiser)
  Department of Information Systems
  University of Melbourne
  Parkville 3010 Australia
  

• Pavlos Moraitis
  Department of Computer Science
  University of Cyprus
  75 Kallipoleos St.
  cY-1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
  moraitis@cs.ucy.ac.cy

• Chris Reed
  Department of Applied Computing
  University of Dundee
  Dundee DD1 4HN
  Scotland
  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 of Cyprus, Cyprus)
• Simon Parsons (CUNY, NY, USA)
• Iyad Rahwan (University of Melbourne, Australia)
• Chris Reed (University of Dundee, UK)

Program Committee

• Leila Amgoud (IRIT, Toulouse, France)
• Frank Dignum (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
• Rogier van Eijk (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
• Antonis Kakas (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
• Nicolas Maudet (Universite Paris Dauphine, France)
• Peter McBurney (University of Liverpool, UK)
• Pavlos Moraitis (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
• Xavier Parent (King's College, UK)
• Simon Parsons (CUNY, NY, USA)
• Henry Prakken (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
• Iyad Rahwan (University of Melbourne, Australia)
• Chris Reed (University of Dundee, UK)
• Carles Sierra (IIIA, Spain)
• Paolo Torroni (Università di Bologna, Italy)
• Bart Verheij (Maastricht University, The Netherlands)
• Gerard Vreeswijk (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
• Mike Wooldridge (University of Liverpool, UK)