Cooperative Knowledge Processing

1 Cooperative Knowledge Processing — Research Framework and Applications.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Organizational Paradigms: Evolving Role of Information Technology.- 1.2.1 Early Wor.- 1.2.2 Decision-Orientated Organization Theory.- 1.2.3 Management of the 1990s Research Program.- 1.2.4 Integration of Human and Machine-Based Problem Solving.- 1.3 New Organizational Strategies: A Brief Review.- 1.3.1 Business Process Orientatio.- 1.3.2 Fractalizatio.- 1.3.3 Fractalization versus Business Process Orientation: Conflicting Strategies?.- 1.4 Technology of Cooperative Knowledge Processing.- 1.4.1 Framework.- 1.4.2 Multi-Agent Decision Support Systems (MA-DSS).- 1.4.3 Human Computer Cooperative Work (HCCW).- 1.5 Application Perspectives.- 1.5.1 Attention Focusing Capabilities.- 1.5.2 Knowledge Discovery.- 1.5.3 Business Process Orientation.- 1.5.4 Self-Organization Skills.- 1.6 Summary.- 2 Coordination in Organizations.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Organizational Coordination.- 2.2.1 Coordination Concepts.- 2.2.2 Types of Coordination.- 2.3 Computers and Coordination.- 2.3.1 Possible Roles of the Computer.- 2.3.2 Distributed Intelligence.- 2.4 Design Issues and Applications.- 2.5 Example of a Strategy Related Coordination System.- 2.5.1 Perception of Common Objects.- 2.5.2 Communication.- 2.5.3 Conflict Management (Group Decision Making).- 3 Communication-Oriented Approaches to Support Multi-User Processes in Office Work.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Office Work.- 3.3 Requirements to Support Multi-User Processes in Office Work.- 3.3.1 Basic Requirements.- 3.3.2 Formal Requirements.- 3.4 Communication Orientated Approaches for Supporting Office Work.- 3.4.1 Decision Orientation vs. Communication Orientation.- 3.4.2 Approaches and Systems for the Support of Unstructured Communication.- 3.4.3 Approaches and Systems for the Support of Structured Communication.- 3.4.4 Other Approaches and Systems for the Support of Office Group Work.- 3.5 Evaluation of the Approaches Presented.- 3.6 Summary.- 4 Coordinating Human and Software Agents through Electronic Mail.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Software Support Tools.- 4.2.1 Simple Message Filtering.- 4.2.2 Active Filtering.- 4.2.3 Autonomous Agents.- 4.2.4 Combining Simple Filters, Active Filters and Autonomous Agents.- 4.3 Modes of Interaction with Adcmail.- 4.3.1 Interactive Use of Adcmail.- 4.3.2 Filtering in Adcmail.- 4.3.3 Adcmail Sub-systems.- 4.3.4 The Task Scripting Language.- 4.4 The Coordination Mechanism.- 4.4.1 Human Agents.- 4.4.2 Computer Supported Humans.- 4.4.3 Autonomous Sub-systems.- 4.5 Conclusions.- 5 User Control over Coordination Mechanisms in Office Information Systems.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Office Model in ECHOES.- 5.3 Collaborative Work Scenarios.- 5.3.1 Scenario 1:Evolutionary Changes in the Processing of Application Forms.- 5.3.2 Scenario 2: Answering a Nonroutine Enquiry.- 5.4 Modeling Coordination Mechanisms in ECHOES.- 5.4.1 Information Flow Aspect.- 5.4.2 Information Description Aspect.- 5.4.3 Organizational Aspect.- 5.4.4 Service Description Aspect.- 5.4.5 Degrees of Control over Coordination Mechanisms.- 5.5 Related Research.- 5.6 The ECHOES Project.- 5.6.1 Current State of the Prototype.- 5.6.2 Further Work Required.- 5.7 Summary and Conclusion.- 6 Computational Support for the Management of Social Processes within Organizational Teams.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 The Cooperative Requirements Capture (CRC) Project.- 6.3 The CRC Prototype.- 6.4 Description of the CRC User Interface.- 6.4.1 The Personal Communication Window.- 6.4.2 The Group Communication Window.- 6.4.3 The CRC Agenda Window.- 6.4.4 The Public Window.- 6.4.5 Description Windows.- 6.4.6 The Brainstorming Window.- 6.4.7 The CRC Group Members Window.- 6.5 Why Facilitation?.- 6.6 The Role of the Facilitator.- 6.7 CRC Support for the Social Process.- 6.8 Facilitator Support within CRC Prototype.- 6.8.1 Communication.- 6.8.2 Agenda Management.- 6.8.3 Monitoring Group Activity.- 6.8.4 Monitoring Individual Activity.- 6.8.5 Display Group Dynamics.- 6.8.6 Recognising Problematic Social Syndromes.- 6.8.7 Retrospective Analysis.- 6.9 Future Work.- 6.10 Conclusions.- 7 The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: How Locks Can Gently Control Collaboration.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Concurrency Control and Cooperative Work.- 7.2.1 Extended Set of Lock Modes.- 7.2.2 The Two Effects of a Lock.- 7.2.3 The Semantics of the Lock Modes.- 7.2.4 A Short Discussion of Consistency Aspects.- 7.2.5 Dynamic Assignment of an External Effect (Open Lock).- 7.2.6 Upgrading a Lock.- 7.3 Locks in the Context of Nested Transactions.- 7.4 Rules on Locks and Notification Services.- 7.5 Object-Related Locks.- 7.6 Subject-Related Locks.- 7.7 Conclusion.- 8 Enhancing Organizational Intelligence through Cooperative Problem Solving.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Organisational Intelligence (OI).- 8.2.1 Organisational Process Intelligence.- 8.2.2 Organisational Product Intelligence.- 8.3 Incorporating Organizational Intelligence into Distributed AI Systems.- 8.3.1 Organisational Memory.- 8.3.2 Organisational Cognition.- 8.3.3 Self Organisation, and Organisational Learning Skills.- 8.3.4 Interactions between Multiagent Systems and their Environment.- 8.3.5 Organisational Reasoning.- 8.4 The Contribution of Distributed AI to the Intelligence of Computerized Enterprises.- 9 Organizational Intelligence and Negotiation Based DAI Systems — Theoretical Foundations and Experimental Results.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Theoretical Foundations.- 9.2.1 Matsuda’s OI Approach — a Brief Introduction.- 9.2.2 The Capability to Learn from the Point of View of Organization Theory.- 9.3 Extension of Contract Net-Based Systems by OI Components.- 9.4 Realization in a Scenario.- 9.4.1 Description of the Scenario.- 9.4.2 The Basic Structure of the System.- 9.4.3 Schematic Run of a Move in the OI-Scenario.- 9.5 Presentation and Evaluation of the Results.- 9.5.1 Comparison Conventional ? Extended Contract Net.- 9.5.2. Size of Organizational Memory.- 9.5.3 Time Needed for Negotiated Moves.- 9.6 Conclusion.- 10 Incorporating Organizational Design Principles and Experiences into the Design and Implementation of Multi Agent Systems.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI).- 10.3 Organizational Theory (OT).- 10.4 A DAI Perspective on Organisations.- 10.5 Synthesizing DAI & OT.- 10.5.1 Social Ability.- 10.5.2 Organizational Coherence.- 10.5.3 Task Decomposition.- 10.5.4 Coordination.- 10.5.5 Authority Relationships.- 10.5.6 Decision Autonomy.- 10.5.7 Communication.- 10.5.8 Groups, Norms and Conformity.- 10.5.9 Role.- 10.5.10 Environment.- 10.6 Design Principles.- 10.7 Agent Oriented Programming (AOP).- 10.8 Warehouse World.- 10.9 Design and Experimental Testing of Emergent Organizations.- 10.10 Conclusions.- 11 Coordination Protocols.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 From Speech Acts to Dialogs.- 11.2.1 Speech Acts and Message Types.- 11.2.2 Speech as Planned Action.- 11.2.3 Dialogs.- 11.3 Protocols.- 11.3.1 Task & Domain Specific Protocols.- 11.3.2 Generic Protocols.- 11.4 Conclusion.- 12 Modeling Distributed Industrial Processes in a Multi-Agent Framework.- 12.1 Introduction.- 12.2 The Application Domain.- 12.3 A Specification Framework for Multi-Agent Systems.- 12.3.1 Task (De)composition.- 12.3.2 Information Exchange Between Tasks.- 12.3.3 Sequencing of Tasks.- 12.3.4 Delegation of Tasks.- 12.3.5 Knowledge Structures.- 12.4 Formal Model and Specification of a Multi-Agent System.- 12.4.1 Task Decomposition and Role Allocation..- 12.4.2 Information Flow Within an Agent.- 12.4.3 Task Control Within an Agent.- 12.4.4 Control and Communication Between Agents.- 12.5 Discussion.- 13 Utilitarian Coalition Formation Between Autonomous Agents for Cooperative Information Gathering.- 13.1 Introduction.- 13.2 A Brief Introduction to some Related Research Areas.- 13.2.1 Federated Database Systems.- 13.2.2 Terminological Knowledge Representation.- 13.3 The FCSI-Agent: Functionality and Architecture.- 13.3.1 Local Construction of Information Models.- 13.3.2 Local Recognition of Interdatabase Dependencies.- 13.4 Coalitions of FCSI Agents.- 13.4.1 FCSI Coalition Types.- 13.4.2 Decentralized Coalition Formation Between FCSI Agents.- 13.5 IDEAS — an Environment for the Implementation of FCSI Agents.- 13.5.1 A Brief Overview of IDEAS.- 13.5.2 Working with IDEAS...- 13.5.3 Agent Execution.- 13.6 Conclusion and Discussion.- 13.7 Appendix.- Epilogue: Computers, Networks and the Corporation.- References.- Name Index.