Distributive and Collective Readings in Group Protocols

Silvia Rossi, Sanjeev Kumar, Philip R. Cohen

Abstract: Collaborative applications require protocols that specify how distributed entities interact with one another in order to achieve a specified behavior. Many different kinds of relationships can be established between these entities as a result of such interactions. Distributive and Collective readings are two important ways to characterize group interaction. Starting from an attempt-based semantics of group communicative acts, we distinguish between these two concepts and evaluate group protocols with respect to formation of different types of teams during the interaction.