Just-in-time Knowledge Flow for Distributed Organizations using Agents Technology

1. This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. Just-in-time Knowledge Flow for Distributed Organizations usingAgents Technology R. Brena, J.L. Aguirre, A.C. Treviño ITESM, Mexico

2. 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

3. Summary • Just-in-time Knowledge • Agents technology • Architecture • Ontologies • Services • Contexts • Discussion • Conclusions

4. 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

5. Knowledge life cycle K acquisition / discovery K distribution K use

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 • The user knows he/she needs it (point-and-click search) • The user is not aware of needing some information (K is diffused to some specific users)

11. Agents technology • Long-lived autonomous processes • Reactive and proactive • Cooperate and compete • Users delegate tasks to agents (electronic assistants)

12. 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

13. 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)

14. Architecture Directory agent Parasiticagents Clusteragents Personal Agents

15. Cluster agents InferenceEngine DB Workingdata Communicationinterface

16. 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.

17. Directory agents Directory agent • Help finding other agents • Like DNS services • Give great flexibility to the system’s (re)configuration

18. 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”

19. 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

20. 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)

21. 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

22. JITIK services • Alerts • Messages • K from bussiness processes

23. 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

24. 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)

25. 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

26. JITIK in context • JITIK could be applied to a variety of organizational contexts: • Big distributed / multinational / vertical entreprises • Virtual organizations and networks • Task forces

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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)

31. Project status • Web-based client-server technology version running • Java programming • Jess inference engine • Full agent-tech version under development

32. 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

33. 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