A Multiagent Competitive Gaming Platform to Address Societal Challenges

Author List: Ketter, Wolfgang; Peters, Markus; Collins, John; Gupta, Alok;
MIS Quarterly, 2016, Volume 40, Issue 2, Page 447-460.
The shift toward sustainable electricity systems is one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. Decentralized production from renewable sources, electric mobility, and related advances are at odds with traditional power systems where central, large-scale generation of electricity follows inelastic consumer demand. Information systems innovations can enable new forms of dynamic electricity trading that leverage real-time consumption information and that use price signals to incentivize sustainable consumption behaviors. However, the best designs for these innovations, and the societal implications of different design choices, are largely unclear. We are addressing these challenges through the Power Trading Agent Competition (Power TAC), a competitive gaming platform on which numerous research groups now jointly devise, benchmark, and improve IS-based solutions to the sustainable electricity challenge. Based on the Power TAC community's results, we give preliminary empirical evidence for the efficacy of competitive gaming platforms, and for the community's contributions toward resolving the sustainable electricity challenge.
Keywords: Competitive benchmarking; design science; energy informatics; energy information systems; competitive intelligent agents; research competitions; smart grids; sustainability; virtual worlds
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#36 0.264 competitive advantage strategic systems information sustainable sustainability dynamic opportunities capabilities environments environmental turbulence turbulent dynamics key quest create sustained ability
#16 0.129 infrastructure information flexibility new paper technology building infrastructures flexible development human creating provide despite challenge possible resources specific advances developing
#220 0.091 research study different context findings types prior results focused studies empirical examine work previous little knowledge sources implications specifically provide
#71 0.082 distributed agents agent intelligent environments environment smart computational environmental scheduling human rule using does embodied provide trends computer-aided heterogeneous inventory
#270 0.082 design designs science principles research designers supporting forms provide designing improving address case little space criteria methods increasing synthesis designer
#45 0.057 community communities online members participants wikipedia social member knowledge content discussion collaboration attachment communication law virtual membership structures forms activities
#100 0.057 affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing