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Virtual Knowledge Communities for Corporate Knowledge Issues
Pierre MaretINSA de Lyon, LIRIS, France
Mark Hammond Imperial College London, England
Jacques CalmetUniversity of Karlsruhe, IAKS, Gernamy
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Overview
Dynamical distributed knowledge management Enterprise considered as a distributed
computational paradigm Agent-oriented approach
Modeling dynamical knowledge exchanges within agents
Concept of “Virtual knowledge communities”
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Agenda
Knowledge Management MAS for corporate knowledge Liberal approach of agents and Agent Oriented Abstraction Agent’s Knowledge Virtual knowledge communities
– Modeling– Processes– Social behavior
Implementation and example Results, Perspectives
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Enterprise Knowledge Management
What is it? Models, techniques, methods
related to the improvement of activity through formalizing, exchanging, reusing knowledge
Key words– Knowledge intensive tasks– Ontology– Information, Data, Documents– Community of practice, community of interest
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Enterprise Knowledge Management
Most approaches to knowledge management rely on centralization and objectivity (Database paradigm) :
One database schema and one ontology for structuring and indexing the organization’s universe. Eventually distributed databases.
Incompatible with the very nature of knowledge: subjective, distributed and contextual
Bonifacio: "all perspectival aspects of knowledge should be eliminated in favor of an objective and general representation of knowledge".
Authors emphasizes distributed knowledge management and knowledge nodes.
Knowledge Node 1KN 3KN 2
Ontology 1
O2 O3translation translation
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Corporate Knowledge - Definition
Overall knowledge possessed within an organization + Abilities for exchanges
Comments:– Covers individuals, data bases, documents, sensors…– Large definition of knowledge: everything that can be useful
for acting within the organization (piece of information, predicate, protocol…)
– Linked to the agents’ decision mechanism : domains of interests, knowledge exchange processes
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
MAS for Knowledge Management
Overview of agents in KM: [Dignum 04] Motivations for using MAS approachCompatible with
– Distribution of data, capabilities, responsibilities.– Autonomy AND complex interactions (negotiation,
information sharing, coordination)– Dynamic behavior and responsive to changes
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
MAS for Knowledge Management
Two perspectives :
Agents to implement KM functionalities
Agents to model the organizational KM environment
Needs: Broad and generic view on knowledge within the organization (Content, Processes, …)
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Bases of our proposal
Liberal approach of agent societies
Agent-Oriented Abstraction (AOA)
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Liberal approach of agents societies
[Calmet 03] (Esaw) Model for a society of agents based on sociology
principles (Weber)Main contents No general goals imposed to agents (goals arise from
agents’ actions) The system is open and security is assumed Knowledge heterogeneity must be supported
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Agent-Oriented Abstraction (AOA)
[Calmet 04] (to appear) An agent is composed of
- Annotated Knowledge
- A Decision Mechanism
A generic approach for agents and society of agents
The present work concentrates on the knowledge component
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Corporate Knowledge, 2nd definition
Overall knowledge possessed by agents of an organization
Comments:– Agents: includes individuals and automata– Large definition of knowledge (includes cooperation ability)– Linked to the agents’ decision mechanism : actions related
to knowledge processes (exchanges, domains of interests)
Our goal : Model the organizational environment for CK and agent’s ability to share knowledge
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Agent’s Knowledge
Knowledge Cluster : structured knowledge related to a given area (task, topic…), expressed in terms of predicate, concepts, actions (+ sub-cluster: recursive definition)
Knowledge instances = instances of terms
Agents’ knowledge = a knowledge cluster + knowledge instances
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Agent’s Knowledge
Comments Knowledge varies from agent to agent : agents do
not have the same view of the world Knowledge evolves with time: inherent knowledge +
knowledge production and acquisition– Instances– Knowledge cluster
Fully compliant with very nature of corporate knowledge
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Sharing Knowledge
Agent possess knowledge They are in charge of given tasks and They can increase their efficiency thanks to
knowledge exchanges
=>Modeling agent’s behavior in knowledge sharing=>Added feature which must be opened, dynamic,
agent-driven : Virtual Knowledge Communities
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Virtual Knowledge Communities VKC
A VKC: first class abstraction A topic, a leader, members, a space Topic: subpart of leader’s knowledge Leader: any agent Members: any others agents Space: message buffer controlled by the leader
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
VKC Processes
Initiate: an agent proposes a topic (sub-cluster and/or instances)
Join: an agent is interested by a community topic (cluster intersection)
Inform: an agent proposes an extension to a topic Request: an agent asks for extensions of a topic Leave, delete…
Agents can create and join many communities
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Agent’s behavior
Agents have an added layer Additional goals: in terms of knowledge cluster to
extend Examples of behavior:
– Individualistic agent: acts to reach its goals (ex: kill/leave a community once completing knowledge it required)
– Social agent: acts to help others agents (ex: join all communities related to its knowledge)
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
Agent1: Jose
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
Agent2: Mark
M-ItemM-Item = Item
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
M-ItemM-Item = Item
Goal: M-ItemCreate community on “Item”
Agent1: JoseTask T1
Agent2: MarkTask T2
Additional behavior
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
M-ItemM-Item = Item
Goal: M-Item
Agent1: Jose Agent2: Mark
Join Mark’s community on “Item”
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
M-ItemM-Item = Item
Goal: M-Item
Informs about J-Book is_a ItemMyBook instance of J-Book
Agent1: Jose Agent2: Mark
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
M-ItemM-Item = Item
Agent1: Jose Agent2: Mark
IntroducesM-Book = J-Book
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Implementation & Example
Jade Plate-form + Java agents
J-ItemJ-Book is_a J-ItemMyBook instance_of J-BookJ-Item = Item
M-ItemM-Book is-a M-ItemM-Item = ItemM-Book = J-BookMyBook instance of M-Book
Agent1: Jose Agent2: Mark
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Results
Knowledge exchanged depending on agent’s goals and decisions
An organizational environment for corporate knowledge
Implementation of the liberal approach of agents in the context of corporate knowledge: openness, autonomy, dynamicity in knowledge exchange
Agent-Oriented Abstraction: emphasizes duality / complementarities in-between Knowledge and Decision
Virtual Knowledge Communities. Maret, Hammond, Calmet
Perspectives
Application to knowledge filtering within organization, personal assistant software
Security issues: ensure only trustworthy agents Modeling agent’s knowledge: annotations as
proposed in AOA (traditional agent plate-forms are not sufficient)
Introducing more complex behaviors/roles