MASQ (Multi-Agent Systems based on Quadrants) is a generic meta-model that proposes an integral view of interaction in a multi-agent system. It defines four perspectives according to two axes: internal/external and individual/collective. This paper identifies a set of MASQ principles and analyzes how a formal model can be built based on them. We outline the most important design choices that have to be made and their impact on the architecture of the resulting multi-agent system.