Norm-aware and Norm-oriented Programming

This chapter introduces programming with norms from a software engineering perspective. A computational system is conceived as being composed of agents (as process), environment (as data), and norms (as control over actions) as first-class entities. Norms are presented from two points of view: system and agent. The first point of view focuses on how to define the expected behavior of agents by means of normative programs, and how this kind of program is integrated with the environment by constitutive norms. The second focuses on how agents, who cannot bring about some goals on their own, can however engage in norm-aware interactions with expectations about the behavior of one another, even in the absence of organizational guidelines. The JaCaMo platform is used to provide concrete examples and illustrate the approach.