Norm Based Agency for Designing CSCW

Information systems are organisations in which signs are created, processed and consumed. In order to fulfil the organisational goals and objectives, its members must understand their responsibilities and authorities, and must act cooperatively. The key to this organisation and coordination lies in norms which define responsibilities and authorities for each human agent, and establish regularities of behaviour. In the context of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), where “intelligent” software agents are involved, to understand the norms of behaviour of various human agents becomes critical. Software agents can perform some tasks autonomously on the user’s behalf. Such delegation involves a set of complicated philosophical and legal