Norms as a basis for governing sociotechnical systems
We understand a sociotechnical system as a mi-crosociety in which autonomous parties interact with and about technical objects. We define gov-ernance as the administration of such a system by its participants. We develop an approach for gov-ernance based on a computational representation of norms. Our approach has the benefit of capturing stakeholder needs precisely while yielding adap-tive resource allocation in the face of changes both in stakeholder needs and the environment. In cur-rent work, we are extending this approach to tackle some challenges in cybersecurity. 1 Challenges in Sociotechnical Systems We define a sociotechnical system (STS) as a microsociety in which autonomous stakeholders interact. How can these stakeholders collaborate effectively even though their inter-ests may only be imperfectly aligned? Administering STSs is made complicated by complexity and change not only in the resources being shared but also the nature of the inter-actions among the stakeholders. We address the challenge of enabling stakeholders to administer or (self-)govern such sys-tems in a manner that respects their autonomy. A particular benefit are the resulting gains in adaptability in accommodat-ing any exceptions and opportunities. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) [Arrott et al., 2009], which facilitates scientists and research institutions in acquiring, storing, analyzing, and sharing information from the world’s oceans, is a paradigmatic STS. Its stakeholders in-clude oceanographers, educators, and members of the public as well as research laboratories and universities. The OOI has three key features. One, autonomy: the stakeholders own and share resources such as Underwater Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs), buoys, ocean sensors, and research databases. Thus, the OOI would support collaborations in which it would not own all resources involved. Two, lifetime: a requirement for the OOI was to sustain operation for decades. Thus we must accommodate changes in stakeholder needs without relying ∗ c © ACM. Reproduced with permission. This paper is an ex-tended abstract of [Singh, 2013], which appears in the ACM Trans-