The HyperAgents project aims to enable the deployment of world-wide hybrid communities of people and autonomous agents on the Web. For this purpose, HyperAgents defines a new class of multi-agent systems (MAS) that use hypermedia as a general mechanism for uniform interaction such that they are: (i) aligned with the Web architecture to inherit the properties of the Web as a world-wide, open, and long-lived system, and (ii) transparent and accountable to support acceptance by people. We refer to this new envisioned class of Web-based MAS as Hypermedia MAS. The HyperAgents project proposes: (1) to define an architectural style for Hypermedia MAS that induces the above-mentioned properties, (2) to define declarative languages and mechanisms for specifying, enacting, and regulating interactions among people and autonomous agents in Hypermedia MAS, (3) to develop an open-source software infrastructure for Hypermedia MAS that enables the deployment of hybrid communities on the Web, and (4) to demonstrate the deployment of prototypical hybrid communities in two application areas: (i) Industry 4.0 and (ii) tackling online disinformation. To undertake this investigation, the project consortium brings together internationally recognized researchers actively contributing to research on autonomous agents and MAS, the Web architecture, Semantic Web, and to the standardization of the Web. Being able to harness the collective power of Web-scale hybrid communities and to focus it on specific problems would have extensive implications in a broad range of domains: for manufacturers, it could enable distributed intelligent manufacturing at global scale; for citizens, it could enable access to transparent and trustworthy online information. We expect that the work conducted in this project will break new ground in AI and Web research and that its applications will cut across society.

With 3D digital events exciting e-gamers, luxury brands experimenting with NFTs, and the medical industry investigating virtual and augmented reality technologies for remote surgeries, the metaverse is currently a vibrant space in which firms dabble in identifying application areas for innovation and growth. In this project, we investigate how firms conduct nascent market work in metaverse markets. Nascent market work comprises the activities firms carry out to legitimize a new market and to create and capture value in it. We approach this topic in four steps: First, we carry out a longitudinal field study to propose how firm strategies, stakeholders’ legitimacy perceptions, and activities of companies co-evolve while forming opportunities and challenges for firm innovation performance in the metaverse. This study involves qualitative interviews with firms and relevant stakeholders (consumers, governmental institutions, NGOs, investors, media) to study the ways in which they engage in sensemaking and sensegiving to others. Second, we conduct a quantitative content analysis of archival data (press releases, media coverage, social media posts), to investigate which nascent market work receives more versus less public approval and why. Third we build on Step 1 & 2, to develop and validate multi-item scales that allows to capture firm’s nascent market work in quantitative studies. Fourth, and building on Steps 1-3, we carry out a quantitative study in three consecutive phases to capture how firm activities in the metaverse influence their performance. We expect that the results contribute to understanding the relevance of different activities and interactions between firms and their stakeholders in building a nascent market.