CSCE 475/875

Collaborative Topic Summary Assignment 9:

Distributed Rational Decision Making II

Assigned: October 17, 2007

Due: 10:30 a.m. October 24, 2007

(Assignment 5 minutes late will not be accepted)

Summary

This summary is required to have the following sections:

· an overview of the topic – motivations and underlying principles, etc.,

· a list of praises: a description of what you think are the important/useful aspects of the topic,

· a list of critiques: a description of what you think are the weaknesses of the topic,

· a list of wishes: what areas of the topic do you think that should be improved,

· a list of questions on material that you did not understand from the lectures and textbook,

· a response to the stupid question.

NOTE: These lists should be about the topic, not about the way the topic is presented in the class.

Some ideas: What is Bargaining? What is Market Mechanism? What is Contract Net? What are the disadvantages and advantages of the three mechanisms?

Stupid Questions

In many parts of the world, bargaining is part of the practices at small markets. At times, the stall owner marks up their items 100%, 200%, etc. and expects customers to bargain the prices down. Market goers also tend to enjoy the bargaining exercise as they get a sense of satisfaction out of having reached a “good” bargain. However, a buyer might end up paying too much for an item and only realize that after finding exactly the same item a few stalls down at the same market with a lower price. If a buyer is allowed to return purchased items as long as he or she can prove that he/she is going to purchase the same items at another stall with a cheaper price, what will happen? How will a stall owner bargain? How will a market goer bargain? What are the overall strategies? Should we consider the cost of “time”?

Requirement

You are required to use the software I-MINDS to carry out this collaborative writing activity. There is a limit on the number of words allowed for this assignment: 1000 words. Summaries not satisfying this requirement will not be graded. Your topic summary will be graded based on: (1) 10% Overview, (2) 15% Praises, (3) 15% Critiques, (4) 15% Wishes, (5) 15% Questions, (6) 10% Response to Stupid Question, (7) 10% Grammar and Errors, and (8) 10% Requirements.

Your individual assignment score will be graded according to that outlined in the course syllabus.