http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~shipman/viki/papers/ht91/ht91.html
This is a paper about Aquanet, which is a predecessor to VKB.
"Aquanet brings together two separate but convergent lines of hypertext
research. First, over the last five years we have been observing people
using NoteCards [Hala87] for a variety of knowledge structuring tasks. Of
particular interest are our investigations into representing the structure
of argumentation in hypertext [Mars87][Mars89] and our use of the
NoteCards-based IDE system for analyzing knowledge in instructional design
tasks [Russ87][Jord89]. Second, we have been influenced by the ideas
introduced in gIBIS [Conk88] and its subsequent generalization, Germ
[Brun88]. The gIBIS and Germ tools provide a valuable counterpoint to
NoteCards since they were explicitly designed to support the construction
and maintenance of constrained knowledge structures.
These two lines of research have highlighted the discrepancies between the
needs of users engaged in knowledge structuring tasks and the functionality
provided by information management and presentation hypertext systems like
Intermedia and KMS. Two discrepancies stand out. First, information
management hypertext systems focus on nodes and the local connections
between them. But in knowledge structuring tasks it is important to see and
manipulate a global view of the network. Second, information management
systems provide only a simple node-link data model. Knowledge structuring
tasks often require a richer language for expressing the interconnections
among nodes. "
VKB: Visual Knowledge Builder is found at http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~haowei/VKB/
It includes an 8 mb download but does not include source code. I have
written to see about VKB going open source.
Abstract:
"Traditionally, building knowledge-based systems has been a process
involving professional knowledge engineers. While this process works for
well-defined tasks in limited domains, it is too expensive for domains
where the representation must change frequently and is not feasible for
problems where experts' understanding of the domain and task changes during
the course of problem solving. The alternative approach investigated in
this project is one of "incremental formalization." This approach allows
users to initially enter their understanding of their domain, task, and
solutions in less formal representations and provides computer support for
the gradual formalization of this knowledge. The project includes: (1)
designing knowledge representations and interfaces for capturing emergent
understandings and enabling incremental formalization, (2) developing
mechanisms for recognizing implicit structure within informally represented
information, (3) investigating interfaces for suggesting formalizations,
uses of automated formalization, and trade-offs between suggesting and
automating formalization, (4) creating tools which aid the development of
shared languages and support collaborative knowledge-building tasks, and
(5) improving understanding of knowledge-building processes and the
relative merits of prototypes through observations of individual and
collaborative tasks requiring domain modeling."
I went to the VKB web site while reading the TouchGraph forum on graphing text:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=117442&forum_id=95693
There may be a relationship between VKB and that forum. In fact, VKB is
suggestive of one of the directions TouchGraph and similar projects might
want to explore.
Jack
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