Specification and Generation of Custom-Tailored Knowledge-Acquisition Tools

Henrik Eriksson

Medical Computer Science Group
Knowledge Systems Laboratory
Stanford University School of Medicine
Knowledge Systems Laboratory
Stanford, California 94305-5479
U.S.A.

Abstract:

Domain-oriented knowledge-acquisition tools provide efficient support for the design of knowledge-based systems. However, the cost of developing such tools is high, especially when their restricted scope is taken into account. Developers can use metalevel tools to generate domain-oriented knowledge-acquisition tools that are custom tailored for a small group of experts, with considerably less effort than is required for manual tool development. An epistemic obstacle to creating such metatools is the specification model for target knowledge-acquisition tools. The metatool DOTS is based on an abstract-architecture approach to the specification and generation of knowledge-acquisition tools. DOTS is domain and method independent, because it is based on an architectural model of the target knowledge-acquisition tool.

In Proceedings of the Thirteen International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI'93, pp. 510-515, Chambéry, Savoie, France. August 29-September 3, 1993. Available as technical report KSL-93-50 from the Knowledge Systems Laboratory, Stanford University. Available in postscript format.