The Pleasure of Gossip

Abstract

Rohit Parikh has written on levels of knowledge (Parikh and Krasucki in Sadhana 17(1):167–191, 1992). Levels of knowledge are relevant for the analysis of gossip protocols. Gossip protocols describe the dissemination of information over a network. We present some examples of epistemic gossip protocols, wherein the agents or processes communicate with each other by peer-to-peer contact (telephone calls), as in the usal gossip protocols, but wherein the decision to contact another agent is based on the calling agent’s information only. This is, as far as we know, unusual in gossip protocols. In this we wish to honour Rohikh Parikh’s long career and many contributions to logic and computer science.