Franchise Experts

This article harks back to the origins of this periodical as IEEE Expert Systems. Even while expert systems as a field or paradigm was morphing into intelligent systems, it was recognized that cognitive task analysis was critical in the design of new technologies. Furthermore, as a part of cognitive task analysis, it is crucial to conduct some form of proficiency scale to help identify the experts whose knowledge and skill might be revealed and specified in the creation of reasoning and knowledge-based systems. In this article, we will advance the claim that identifying and studying franchise experts can contribute to the design of intelligent systems. Of further interest is the possibility that the knowledge elicited from such experts might be invaluable for the practice of accelerated learning. We refer to "franchise" experts because they are not only expert in their chosen technical domain but also expert with regard to the organizations to which they belong. As a concept map organizer within a "knowledge model," some of the nodes are appended with icons that link to other concept maps that drill down into details, technical documentation, schematics, URLs, and so forth. This concept map shows that the franchise expert\´s knowledge refers to organizational structures and topics.