In: Torsten Eymann, Franziska Klügl, Winfried Lamersdorf, Matthias Klusch, Michael N. Huhns (Eds.): Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3550: Multiagent System Technologies: Third German Conference, MATES 2005, Koblenz, Germany, September 11-13, 2005., pages 59-70. Springer-Verlag, November 2005. URL: http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1007/115506486,.
Abstract: Web services are functionalities that can be engaged over the Internet. A workflow is a set of Web services that are executed by carrying out specified control and data flows among these services to address some business needs. We believe that commitments among agents can be used to model a workflow and coordinate several self-interested parties to execute a workflow. This paper presents a methodology to infer commitments and causal relationships from a workflow by utilizing semantic descriptions of Web services. We provide an example scenario to show how commitments of a workflow can be inferred. In addition, we use the Petri net representation of a workflow to describe our algorithm. With this technology, agents (service requestors and providers) engaged in a workflow can negotiate with multiple agents to reach favorable agreements and then coordinate their behaviors through the commitment operations in the context of service-oriented environment, where one or more self-interested parties can provide services to one or more other parties.