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Section: New Software and Platforms
dspacenet
Distributed-Spaces Network.
Keywords: Social networks - Distributed programming
Functional Description: DSpaceNet is a tool for social networking based on multi-agent spatial and timed concurrent constraint language.
I - The fundamental structure of DSPaceNet is that of *space*: A space may contain
(1) spatial-mobile-reactive tcc programs, and (2) other spaces.
Furthermore, (3) each space belongs to a given agent. Thus, a space of an agent j within the space of agent i means that agent i allows agent j to use a computation sub-space within its space.
II - The fundamental operation of DSPaceNet is that of *program posting*: In each time unit, agents can post spatial-mobile-reactive tcc programs in the spaces they are allowed to do so (ordinary message posting corresponds to the posting of tell processes). Thus, an agent can for example post a watchdog tcc process to react to messages in their space, e.g. whenever (*happy b*frank*) do tell("thank you!"). More complex mobile programs are also allowed (see below).
The language of programs is a spatial mobile extension of tcc programs:
computation of timed processes proceeds as in tcc. The spatial construct [ P ]_i runs P in the space of agent i and the mobile process uparrow_i P, extrudes P from the space of i. By combining space and mobility, arbitrary processes can be moved from one a space into another. For example, one could send a trojan watchdog to another space for spying for a given message and report back to one's space.
III- Constraint systems can be used to specify advance text message deduction, arithmetic deductions, scheduling, etc.
IV - Epistemic Interpretation of spaces can be used to derive whether they are users with conflicting/inconsistent information, or whether a group of agents may be able to deduce certain message.
V - The scheduling of agent requests for program posts, privacy settings, friendship lists are handled by an external interface. For example, one could use type systems to check whether a program complies with privacy settings (for example checking that the a program does not move other program into a space it is not allowed into).