Assembling and managing virtual organizations out of multi-party contracts

Abstract

Assembling virtual organizations is a complex process, which can be modeled and managed by means of a multi-party contract. Such a contract must encompass seeking consensus among parties in some issues, while simultaneously allowing for competition in others. Present solutions in contract negotiation are not satisfactory because they do not accommodate such a variety of needs and negotiation protocols. This paper shows our solution to this problem, discussing how our SPICA negotiation protocol can be used to build up virtual organizations. It assesses the effectiveness of our approach and discusses the protocol's implementation. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.