Coordination paradigm for modeling ensembles of software agents

Just a mental bookmark to look into the so-called coordination paradigm for modeling the interaction of ensembles of software agents. I do not have a great definition yet, but it involves the modeling of concurrent
and distributed computations and systems based on the concept of coordination which enables the parts to act as a whole.

My hunch is that the trick is that we are not trying to model the agents per se but some "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" functional capability that is emergent from the ensemble and not strictly present and observable in the individual agents of the ensemble.

I have another hunch that we need to differentiate between explicit coordination where the agents know about the greater function of the ensemble and how theay each fit into "the big picture" versus implicit coordination where the greater function is truly an emergent phenomenon that none of the agents could have known about in advance and may not even know about as it is in progress.

-- Jack Krupansky