A Communication Agreement Framework of Access/Action Control

We introduce a framework of access/action control which shifts the emphasis from the participants to their relationship. The framework is based on a communication model in which participants negotiate the mutually agreed-upon boundary conditions of their relationship, and create social reference points by encapsulating them in compact “communication pacts,” called “commpacts.” Commpacts are designed to provide a language enabling a social mechanism of coordinated expectation. We argue that in networked environments characterized by multiple authorities and “trusted proxies,” this model can deal with the complexities of general (userand content-dependent) distributed access/action control and provides a clear userconceptual metaphor. The framework embeds naturally into the existing legal and institutional infrastructure; it generalizes work in electronic contracting. Commpacts can be seen as a third fundamental type next to access-control lists (ACLs) and capabilities.