Intelligent documentation as a catalyst for developing cooperative knowledge-based systems

Abstract

In the long run, the development of cooperative knowledge-based systems for complex real world domains such as production planning in mechanical engineering should yield significant economic returns. However, large investments have already been made into the conventional technology. Intelligent documentation, which abstracts the current practice of the industry, is suggested as a stepping stone for developing such knowledge-based systems. A set of coordinated knowledge acquisition tools has been developed by which intelligent documents are constructed as an intermediate product, which by itself is already useful. Within the frame of the conventional technology, the task- and domain specific hypertext structures allow the reuse of production plans while simultaneously starting the development process for knowledge based systems.