PLAGIARISM NOTE: You MUST write all parts of this paper yourself. I am interested in YOUR ideas. If you do not believe that you have ideas, or are not willing to share them, you should write the program instead. All papers must focus on the problems inherent in the DIA problem, outlined for this class. Note, however, that this represents a very large class of designs and solutions. If you use quotes from other sources they must be brief, must be called for in the flow of your arguments, and must be correctly cited. I check for plagiarism. I read your papers. If you have not written a paper of this kind before, here are some suggestions:

1. Read all the problem statement documents at least twice.
2. Paraphrase the problems in your own words.
3. Scan through the book and make a list of possible technologies that might apply to the problems that you have outlined.
4. Make a list of specific design choices for your agent system, that might work to build an interesting, creative, system.
5. Refer to the book again, and the web, for technology solutions that will help to build your designs.
6. Block out the problems that an implementation of your design would have to overcome.
7. Write an outline of your paper, including the various sections that detail what you will talk about.
8. Write the introduction to your paper, explaining what you are going to talk about.
9. Write the sections of the paper that are easiest for you.
10. Go back and write the harder sections.
11. Let the paper sit for a day or two.
12. Read your paper, and note which ideas are interesting, and which are not. Are your arguments clear?
13. Re-write the paper, adding sections that may have occurred to you, dropping sections that are not promising, and re-writing other sections that you wish to keep. A good policy is to find at least ONE victim that will be cut! :)
14. Give the paper to someone to read.
15. Re-write the paper based on their feedback.
16. Re-write the introduction asking the question, what am I going to say, and why do we care?
17. Write the conclusion, stating what you have said, and why we cared to read it.
18. Give the paper to someone to edit, for clarity and good writing.
19. Re-write the paper based on their comments.
20. Let the paper sit.
21. Re-read the paper yourself. Edit one more time.

You should have at least the following sections:

• Overview: Overview of what you are going to say, and why we care about it. In addition, give us the structure of the paper.

• Problem Description: Description of the problem area: What is, or could be, of interest in the Distributed Intelligent Agents Animal Game that is specific to this kind of interaction, and data? (E.g., see the "lunch problem".) What is of interest in the way the problem relates to the distribution of computing resources across multiple, connected, platforms? (E.g., The tradeoffs between universal, canonical, shared data in a single repository, or multiple, possibly inconsistent, data stores distributed across the system.) This is a main section.

• Solutions / Design: The algorithms embodied in your ideal design and how they address the problems outlined in the previous section. Refer to formal descriptions of your techniques in the textbook (and possibly elsewhere). Have fun with this section. This is a main section.

• Scaling: A small section discussing how your design would, or would not, scale up to (a) geographic distribution (e.g., does it only work for LAN?, will it work for global distribution?), and (b) to increased numbers of users (e.g., is it appropriate only for 100 or fewer users? would it work for 100,000 users?). Note: it is not necessary that your system scale, but is is necessary that you understand whether or not it could, and why.

• Other sections laying out your interesting ideas related to these problems.
• Summary: A summary of what you have said.

Administration

• Paper Submission:
  1. This paper is to be formatted as either HTML, or as a Word document.
  2. The paper must also be submitted to COL, ON TIME. Submit early, and often.

Writing

• Editing and rewriting. You will need to have some other person edit your paper, and you will need to have at least one re-write cycle. I am not concerned so much about e.g, grammar, but I AM concerned that you express your thoughts clearly, in an organized way. I do not know of any authors, in any medium --- but most particularly a scientific medium --- that do not require outside feedback, and a rewrite cycle.
• Style. Write your document as though you were teaching what you did to someone else. And, teach ME what you designed, what you coded, and what you thought about.