1. RESC@RE11 -- 1  2011 John Mylopoulos The Requirements Problem in Social Computing John Mylopoulos University of Trento Panel discussion, RESC@RE11, Trento, August 29, 2011 [Chidi Okoye]

2. RESC@RE11 -- 2  2011 John Mylopoulos Panel questions How do you understand social computing (SC): what's new about it? What is special about requirements engineering (RE) for SC? Give three research challenges for RE for SC. From where do we get the inspiration and insights for addressing them?

3. RESC@RE11 -- 3  2011 John Mylopoulos What is social computing (SC)? A momentous shift in perspective on what is a computer, computation, and computing system: Computer  open group of agents human/social/software, (s-computer)  autonomy! Computation  a collection of actions carried out by an s- computer to fulfill a goal (s-computation)  many things can go wrong, unpredictability Computing system  socio-technical system that can carry out s-computations on an s-computer to fulfill a set of goals (s-system)

4. RESC@RE11 -- 4  2011 John Mylopoulos What is special about RE for s-systems? New concepts: social commitment, norm, trust, incentive, … New kinds of domains: social domains, domain uncertainty, New modalities: requirement modalities (goal, regulation, security policy), agent modalities (benevolent, self-serving, hostile) New kinds of requirements: awareness, adaptivity, evolution, … New elicitation techniques: communities of stakeholders

5. RESC@RE11 -- 5  2011 John Mylopoulos Research challenges New models for RE, founded on new concepts, supporting different forms of reasoning. Protocols as specifications for s-systems Reasoning with trust. Reasoning about compliance.

6. RESC@RE11 -- 6  2011 John Mylopoulos Where do we start? Multi-agent systems (MAS) for a theory of SC. RE as a starting point for developing RE4SC. BUT, … we are software engineers. Our task is to develop systematic, tool-supported processes for building good quality s-systems. In this respect, RE4SC relates to MAS in the same way RE relates to FM, MDA and KR.