On Conversation Policies and the Need for Exceptions

The author describes a system for defining conversation policies that allows conversants to exchange explicit representations of how they use messages to get things done. This system allows conversation policies to be defined for one or more conversation partners. It does not require that every partner be aware of the other’s conversation policies; however, it does provide more capabilities if partners have this information. It also does not require that conversing agents have the same capabilities. Most importantly, its use of modular conversation policies, acceptance of deviations from them, and its method of dynamically combining the policies encourages constructing policies that are relatively simple to interpret and manage.