The knowledge acquisition bottleneck impeding the development of expert systems is being alleviated by the development of computer-based knowledge acquisition tools. These work directly with experts to elicit knowledge, and structure it appropriately to operate as a decision support tool within an expert system. However, the elicitation of expert knowledge and its effective transfer to a useful knowledge-based system is complex and involves a diversity of activities. This paper illustrates the complete development of a decision support system using knowledge acquisition tools. The example is simple enough to be completely analyzed but exhibits enough real-world characteristics to give significant insights into the processes and problems of knowledge engineering. 1 Introduction Knowledge acquisition for expert system development has come to be termed knowledge engineering, following Feigenbaum's (1980) use of the term to describe the reduction of a large body of knowledge to a precise...

The software and knowledge engineering literature defines maintenance strategies for seven main types of knowledge: words; sentences; behavioural knowledge; and meta-knowledge. Meta-knowledge divides into problem solving methods; quality knowledge; fix knowledge; social knowl- 5 edge; and processing activities. There are five main ways in which these seven knowledge types are processed: acquire; operationalise; fault; fix; and preserve. We review systems that contribute to these 7 5 = 35 types of knowledge maintenance. 1 Introduction 10 A general trend in the twentieth century is an increasing level of doubt about the things we speak or write or try to enter into programs. Popper argues that all knowledge is an hypothesis since nothing can ever be ultimately proved; Submitted to the Knowledge Engineering Review page 2 of 73 our currently believed ideas are merely those that have survive active attempts to refute them [89]. Knowledge representation theorists stress that KBs are...

Widespread access to the Internet has led to the formation of geographically dispersed scientific communities collaborating through the network. The tools supporting such collaboration currently are based primarily on electronic mail through mailing list servers, and access to archives of research reports through ftp, gopher and world wide web. However, electronic communication can support the knowledge processes of scientific communities more directly through overtly represented knowledge structures. This paper describes some experiments in the use of knowledge acquisition (KA) and representation (KR) tools to define and analyze major policy and technical issues in an international research community responsible for one of the test cases in the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) research program. It is concluded that distributed knowledge support systems in routine use by world-class scientific communities collaborating through the Internet will provide a major impetus to artific...

: The problem statement and scope of SISYPHUS III does not draw attention to one of the major problems faced in knowledge engineering (KE), which is building systems based on multiple sources of expertise. In this circumstance, the KE task becomes a requirements engineering (RE) task. A problem with many RE approaches is that the cost of use is prohibitive, and therefore such approaches are rarely applied. We present an RE strategy designed to handle conflicting perspectives that is an extension to current KE techniques. We implement this approach in the context of formal concept analysis (FCA) and ripple-down-rules (RDR) and describe an instantiation using the SISYPHUS III data. Our evaluation technique shows that the resolution operators have reduced the degree of conflict between viewpoints. 1. Introduction The SISYPHUS III experiment offers an excellent example of the similarity between the needs of knowledge engineering (KE) using multiple sources of expertise and those of require...

An architecture for knowledge acquisition systems is proposed based upon the integration of existing methodologies, techniques and tools developed within the knowledge acquisition, machine learning, expert systems, hypermedia and knowledge representation research communities. Existing tools are analyzed within a common framework to show that their integration can be achieved in a natural and principled fashion. A detailed architecture for integrated knowledge acquisition systems is proposed that also derives from parallel cognitive and theoretical studies. 1 INTRODUCTION The past decade has seen an explosion in research on, and application of, knowledge acquisition methodologies, techniques and tools (Marcus, 1988; Boose & Gaines, 1988, 1990; Gaines & Boose, 1988; Boose, 1989). The knowledge acquisition community world-wide has grown in numbers and scope of projects. There are significant international collaborative developments involving the sharing of ideas and software. The problem ...

This article develops a model of organizational knowledge acquisition in terms of modern psychological, sociological, economic and management theories by deconstructing the terms involved: an organization as a collective agent having goals and capabilities to achieve them; knowledge as the hidden state variables imputed to an agent as the basis of its capabilities; and acquisition as the reproduction of dispositions. This form of model enables one to relate the knowledge processes involved to existing models of organizational processes, and to understand such phenomena as knowledge economics and knowledge management. The breadth of the notion of organization encompasses markets, firms and societies; the operational definition of knowledge clarifies its role and the utility of the notion; and the focus on reproduction of dispositions in knowledge acquisition enables the management of knowledge acquisition to be analyzed. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 1.

Abstract: Ripple down rules have addressed two of the major limitations of first generation Expert Systems (ES), the maintenance and knowledge acquisition (KA) bottleneck problems. This is achieved through acquiring knowledge directly from an expert, the use of an exception structure for knowledge representation and the storing of the cornerstone case associated with each rule. Just as RDR has offered a paradigm shift in the way these problems were solved, it is expected that RDR can offer a new approach to the issue of knowledge reuse. Due the poor acceptance of ES by end-users, our focus is more on reusing knowledge in different modes, such as explanation, critiquing or ‘what-if ’ within the same domain rather than the more conventional approach of reusing problem-solving methods or ontologies to solve a similar problem in a somewhat differerent domain. An evaluation of RDR for reuse showed that many modes of use were possible without any change to the knowledge or its structure but that some modes required understanding of the models represented. Since RDR does not require analysis or modeling of the domain for KA, maintenance or finding conclusions we have incorporated ideas from Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) to allow concepts and the relationships between them to be identified and explored. The addition of FCA tools to RDR is described in this paper. 1. The Reuse of Knowledge The reuse of knowledge should result in potential savings

: We argue that adding a requirement of evaluation and testing fundamentally changes KBS practice. In particular: (i) a fundamental change to the symbol-level representation in KBS; (ii) a rejection of certain unnecessary knowledge-level distinctions; (iii) a fundamental change to the inference engine of KBS; and (iv) a basic computational limit to the size and internal complexity of the models we create via knowledge acquisition. 1. INTRODUCTION It would be convenient if KBS evaluation was neutral with respect to KBS practice. If an evaluation module was merely a post-hoc bolt-on, then its design could be deferred until after a system was developed. However, if evaluation adds extra requirements and restrictions to the KBS process, then the design of an evaluation module must be integrated with the system it will test. This paper argues for the inconvenient latter position. Models constructed in vague domains (defined below) are possibly inaccurate. Possibly inaccurate models must b...

Situated cognition is not a mere philosophical concern: it has pragmatic implications for current practice in knowledge acquisition. Tools must move from being design-focused to being maintenance-focused. Reuse-based approaches (e.g. using problem solving methods) will fail unless the reused descriptions can be extensively modified to suit the new situation. Knowledge engineers must model not only descriptions of expert knowledge, but also the environment in which a knowledge base will perform. Descriptions of knowledge must be constantly re-evaluated. This re-evaluation process has implications for assessing representations 1.

Participation in design is caught between two tendencies: (1) traditional design where experts hold tight to their expertise and authority and (2) participation itself taken to the extreme preventing timely decisions and thereby stalling work. This paper articulates this power/authority versus inefficiency dimension at various levels. Some implications to computer tool design as well as the new potential for participation that computer tools may provide are outlined. Keywords Defining Participatory Design, Methods for Participatory Design, Constraints on Participatory Design, Theories of Design. Introduction Participatory design has been discussed, off and on, at least since 1971 (Cross, 1972). However, the still prevalent view of the design process is that active involvement of the user is not only not required, it is to be avoided. According to this view, the argument goes, design professionals know what is best when it comes to design (Broadbent and Ward, 1969). Even, as in the ...