just-in-time knowledge flow for distributed organizations using agents technology r. brena, j.l....
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Just-in-time Knowledge Flow for Distributed Organizations usingAgents 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 IntelligenceCenter for Knowledge Systems
Summary
Just-in-time KnowledgeAgents technologyArchitectureOntologiesServicesContextsDiscussionConclusions
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 hierarchiesThese 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
Parasiticagents
Personal Agents
Clusteragents
Directory agent
Cluster agents
DB
InferenceEngine
Communicationinterface
Workingdata
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
Help finding other agentsLike DNS servicesGive great flexibility to the
system’s (re)configuration
Directory agent
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 programmingJess inference engineFull agent-tech version under
development
Future work
Broader scope in K life cycleTighter 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