Open Collaborative Systems as Institutions of Agents

A wiki is a typical Web 2.0 system where people from various backgrounds interoperate and/or cooperate, sharing information and, at the same time, building a knowledge base on different areas of interest. Its characteristics are very similar to the ones owned by the open multi-agent systems modeled as electronic institutional environments. This paper proposes an approach to develop open collaborative systems as institutions of agents and demonstrates that suitability through the adaptation of a typical wiki application, known as WikiCrimes, to an institutional environment.