Self-* systems, where * stands for a number of properties such as self-organisation, self-configuration, self-diagnose or self-repair, are systems capable of managing themselves. They provide the most convenient alternative for software development in open, unstructured and dynamic environments. These are the characteristics of a new surge of emerging application domains composed with a wealth of devices and software and human agents. These applications require the effective coordination among participants to achieve their global and individual goals. Furthermore, coordination mechanisms have to be adapted over time to continue being effective under environmental changes.
Virtual worlds (VW) are interactive, computer generated 3D environments where participants come together for a variety of self and group determined purposes. They are a successful technology to integrate humans in computer systems.
The main aim of this project is to apply multi-agent technologies to the engineering of self-* systems composed of software and/or human agents, while paying special attention to those that are to be virtually embedded. We propose to achieve that aim by fulfilling the following three objectives:

1. To design new computational models and algorithms for their application to the achievement of coordination in self-* systems.

2. To develop a simulation environment to test virtually-embedded self-* systems.

3. To construct three proof-of-concept prototypes that illustrate the algorithms and technologies created in the project.

The main objective of this project is to explore the emergent scientific space generated
by the intersection of three different paradigms dedicated to the study of
self-organizing mechanisms in social systems: prehistoric etno-anthropology and
social anthropology, experimental economics, and multiagent systems.

The project aims to study the mechanisms of self-organization in societies where it does
not exist a centralized control mechanism and where the institutional level is
almost inexistent.

We will study the mechanisms in charge of self-organization and distributed
social control (as it is the case of reputation) that generate social norms in
human societies and that can be easily applicable to virtual environments,
either entirely populated by artificial entities (autonomous agents) or virtual
societies, where both humans and virtual agents coexist.

The work developed should serve as a guide to treat similar research topics
where the behaviour of a group of individuals responds to the individual
adoption of certain social conventions. This research can lead to three
different and complementary paths: (i) a theoretical work where different
social coordination mechanisms are identified by using the models and
simulations suggested in this project; (ii) an instrumental work where the methodology
and tools developed under this project are refined to build a technological
corpus for social scientists; (iii) and finally, the application of several
mechanisms for social coordination and the technological corpus in virtual
communities as the integration of web services, ubiquitous and pervasive
computing applications, and the online gaming applications.