Just-in-time Knowledge Flow for Distributed Organizations
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Transcript Just-in-time Knowledge Flow for Distributed Organizations
Just-in-time Knowledge
Flow for Distributed
Organizations using
Agents Technology
R. Brena, J.L. Aguirre, A.C.
Treviño
ITESM, Mexico
Who are we?
Joint project between a lab in AI
and a Bussiness research center at
the ITESM, Monterrey:
Center for Artificial Intelligence
Center for Knowledge Systems
Summary
Just-in-time Knowledge
Agents technology
Architecture
Ontologies
Services
Contexts
Discussion
Conclusions
Knowledge economy
Increased relative weight of
knowledge and information in the
production of value
Knowledge is critical for shrinking
cycle time for competency-base
renewal
Pressure for most organization to
cope with massive flood of
unstructured information
Knowledge life cycle
Knowledge flow
Often K is created in one place and
needed (often not used) in another
Many large distributed
organizations suffer from a lack of
K circulation both in vertical and
horizontal directions
Good dissemination of relevant
pieces of information and
knowledge is very important
JITIK concept
“Just-in-time” Information and
Knowledge
Give support to K circulation in the
organization by connecting the
right K with the right person at the
right moment
Right Knowledge
Knowledge pieces are
characterized as points in a
multidimensional space
Dimensions are class hierarchies
These come from “ontologies”
Examples:
– Classification of users’ interest areas
– Structure of the organization
Right person
“Right knowledge” and “Right
person” are reciprocal
We use the same categories for
characterizing users and
knowledge
This makes possible to link pieces
of knowledge to corresponding
users
Right moment
The time for sending a piece of
knowledge could be:
– When that K is generated
– When it arrives to the organization or
is discovered
– When a particular users needs it
1. The user knows he/she needs it
(point-and-click search)
2. The user is not aware of needing some
information
(K is diffused to some specific users)
Agents technology
Long-lived autonomous processes
Reactive and proactive
Cooperate and compete
Users delegate tasks to agents
(electronic assistants)
Point & Click / Delegate
Old paradigm: Point and click
– Computer does just what user directs
it to do
New paradigm: Delegate
– Computer takes care of tasks and
reports results to the master
Search / Diffuse
Usually K is searched by users
– (point and click paradigm)
In JITIK K is diffused to users as it
becomes available / relevant
– (delegation paradigm)
Architecture
Parasitic
agents
Directory
agent
Cluster
agents
Personal Agents
Cluster agents
Inference
Engine
DB
Working
data
Communication
interface
Inference engine
Forward-chaining rule-based
Rules of the form:
– Distribute K satisfying
Char(K) to U satisfying
Char(U) when E
– Distribute www_library_regulation
satisfying relevant(library_regulation,
new_users) to ?x satisfying
new_registered(?x) when NOW.
Directory agents
Directory
agent
Help finding other agents
Like DNS services
Give great flexibility to the system’s
(re)configuration
Personal agents
Take care of services specific to an
individual
Examples:
– Monitoring specific web pages
– Checking ranges for values in
databases
– Reporting articles from netnews
related to interest areas
Maintain a “user profile”
Parasitic agents
Allow JITIK to gather information
from other systems
Parasitic agents are “fastened” to
conventional programs
PA report to cluster agents
– Identity of the PA
– Event being reported
– Associated data
PA find cluster agents using DA
Knowledge/Users specification
Combination (“and”) of several
class hierarchies
Example:
– User in the sales division
(organization classification), and
– User is executive in charge of a
department (level classification), and
– User involved in best-practices
support (tasks classification), and
– User expert in customer satisfaction
(competence classification)
Ontologies
The set of class hierarchies is a
form of “ontology”
Terms are defined by their place in
class hierarchies
Expression of ontologies in an
ontology-oriented language is
under way
JITIK services
Alerts
Messages
K from bussiness processes
Alerts
Alerts are brief notification of
events:
– A new relevant piece of information
has arrived
– An important information has changed
– A deadline has been reached
They are reported to personal
agents, which notify their user
according to his/her profile
Messages
Messages are created by a human
user
The delivery time could be now or
when some conjunction of
conditions become true
Messages are delivered in a form
chosen by the user (email, instant
messaging, web)
K from bussiness processes
Parasitic Agents are attached to key
points of bussiness processes
Information from PA is associated
to a specification of relevant K
Relevant K is then distributed
among concerned users
Example: New user registers at a
library.- Send him/her regulations
JITIK in context
JITIK could be applied to a variety
of organizational contexts:
– Big distributed / multinational /
vertical entreprises
– Virtual organizations and networks
– Task forces
Best-practices support
Best practices are hard to
generalize
Quality circles run without much
automated support
JITIK can distribute best practices
to relevant users
Could help to break geografical /
organizational distances
Virtual organizations
Users are spread over the world
They share common interests /
activities (e.g. Medical specialists)
JITIK could help to distribute
relevant alerts, information and
knowledge
Discussion
Personal computers or server
networks?
– PC are not running and connected
around the clock
– Permanent tasks could not be
delegated
– Personal agents need to take care of
their delegated tasks on a permanent
basis
A word on methodology
Currently there is no methodology
to create rules relating knowledge
to users and events
Rules are themselves a form of K
about the organization (e.g.
Intellectual capital)
Project status
Web-based client-server technology
version running
Java programming
Jess inference engine
Full agent-tech version under
development
Future work
Broader scope in K life cycle
Tighter integration as KM support
tool (e.g. K maps, K monitoring)
Sophisticated AI tools (Case-based
reasoning, Data mining, Knowledge
repositories)
Integration with workflow systems
and CSCW
Integration with XML and related
technologies
Conclusions
JITIK is a method for relating a piece
of knowledge or information,
specied as mentioned, to a set of
users, also characterized in an
abstract way, when an event is
produced
JITIK provides diffusion of the right K
to the right person at the right time