Knowledge and information distribution leveraged by intelligent agents

Abstract

Knowledge and Information distribution is indeed one of the main processes in Knowledge Management. Today, most Information Technology tools for supporting this distribution are based on repositories accessed through Web-based systems. This approach has, however, many practical limitations, mainly due to the strain they put on the user, who is responsible of accessing the right Knowledge and Information at the right moments. As a solution for this problem, we have proposed an alternative approach which is based on the notion of delegation of distribution tasks to synthetic agents, which become responsible of taking care of the organization's as well as the individuals' interests. In this way, many Knowledge and Information distribution tasks can be performed on the background, and the agents can recognize relevant events as triggers for distributing the right information to the right users at the right time. In this paper, we present the JITIK approach to model knowledge and information distribution, giving a high-level account of the research made around this project, emphasizing two particular aspects: a sophisticated argument-based mechanism for deciding among conflicting distribution policies, and the embedding of JITIK agents in enterprises using the service-oriented architecture paradigm. It must be remarked that a JITIK-based application is currently being implemented for one of the leading industries in Mexico.