Intelligent assistance for the communication of information in large organizations

A communication problem rooted in the lack of knowledge individuals have about the knowledge and information needs of others in their organization is discussed. The context is the engineering release process in manufacturing organizations. In Vision is a prototype system that addresses these communication problems by maintaining explicit models of users´ knowledge and information needs. To do this, In Vision uses several artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, including a terminological knowledge representation language, inference rules, implicit user model acquisition, and specification by reformulation. The application of these techniques to this problem are described, along with an overall description of the system´s architecture. Two other approaches to this communication problem, Information Lens and Infoscope, are also examined and compared with In Vision, and the limitations of the current In Vision system are discussed