Emergent properties of referral systems

Agents must decide with whom to interact, which is nontrivial when no central directories are available. A classical decentralized approach is referral systems, where agents adaptively give referrals to one another. We study the emergent properties of referral systems, especially those dealing with their quality, efficiency, and structure. Our key findings are (1) pathological graph structures can emerge due to some neighbor selection policies and (2) if these are avoided, quality and efficiency depend on referral policies. Further, authorities emerge automatically and the extent of their relative authoritativeness depends on the policies. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2.11 [Artificial Intelligence]: Distributed Artificial Intelligence General Terms Experimentation, Performance, Security Keywords Emergent properties; referrals; PageRank

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: ATAL
• Authors: Pinar Yolum, Munindar P. Singh
• Keywords: ATAL 2003, Classical Decentralized Approach, Emergent Properties, Referral Systems