Representing and Supporting Coordination

该项目的目标是开发以知识为基础的环境，以支持群体协调。这位PI建立在他早期使用信息透镜(一种帮助人们查找、过滤和分类电子消息的智能系统)的经验基础上，开发了更强大、更灵活的工具来支持各种协调过程。这项研究建立在一个原型系统上。这项新工作将结合(A)面向对象的数据库、(B)超文本、(C)电子报文和(D)基于规则的智能代理的许多重要特征。该系统将允许不复杂的计算机用户使用三个关键原语来创建或修改他们自己的协作工作应用程序：半结构化对象、可定制文件夹和半自主代理。研究人员在这种环境中试验了各种应用程序，例如：(A)用于项目管理的任务的智能跟踪，(B)管理工程小组中的设计更改，(C)小组决策，以及(D)协作创作。在开发这些应用程序时，将用更多的对象知识、更多的进程知识和更多类型的代理来扩充现有的原型。这项工作的意义在于使电子邮件系统更灵活、更易于使用。它特别有希望通过对消息进行组织和优先排序来减轻管理大型电子邮件文件的负担。

The goal of this project is to develop knowledge-based environments for supporting group coordination. The PI builds on his earlier experience with the Information Lens (an intelligent system that helps people find, filter, and sort electronic messages) in developing more powerful and flexible tools to support a wide variety of coordination processes. The research builds on a prototype system. The new work will integrate many of the important features of (a) object-oriented databases, (b) hypertext, (c) electronic messaging, and (d) intelligent rule-based agents. The system will allow unsophisticated computer users to create or modify their own cooperative work applications using three key primitives: semistructured objects, customizable folders, and semiautonomous agents. The researchers experiment with a variety of applications in this environment such as: (a) intelligent tracking of tasks for project management, (b) managing design changes in engineering groups, (c) group decision making, and (d) collaborative authoring. In developing these applications, the existing prototype will be augmented with more knowledge of objects, more knowledge of processes, and more kinds of agents. The significance of this work is in making electronic mail systems more flexible and easier to use. It is especially promising for alleviating the burden of managing large electronic mail files by organizing and prioritizing messages.