A Methodology to Take Account of Diversity in Collective Adaptive Systems

Collective Adaptive Systems (CASs) are comprised of a heterogeneous set of components often developed in a distributed manner. Their users are diverse with respect to their profiles, preferences, interests and goals, and hence, have different requirements. We propose a typology for the diversity of these components, users, and their requirements. We then present a methodology which provides steps to integrate features that record diversity to support accountability. The foundation of accountability is provided by provenance data, and a CAS vocabulary, these knowledge representation languages provide the core vocabulary that can be exploited by agents and services.