Agent Based Personal Knowledge Management System Supported by Mobile Technology Cross-Platform Solution
2012
Kaspars Osis, Jānis Grundspeņķis

A historic transition from the industrial age to the information age has happened during several previous decades. Industrial age can be characterized by following standardized information routines, usage of fixed procedures, and creation of material goods and consumption of them. In opposite the information age is focusing on creation and consumption of information, usage of ad-hoc approaches and non-standardized information for decision making. During this time of transition the Web has developed very rapidly along with growth of information amounts. That has led to a notion of information overload. In organizations workspace environment and equipment is turning to be more sophisticated. Also learning environment is becoming more information and technology dense. As a result work is becoming increasingly complex (Wiig, 2004). That requires additional knowledge and skills to handle it. In turn that leads to recognition that knowledge has become a very important asset both for individuals and for organizations. Thus it more increasingly has been seen as an active area of research. Notions of knowledge work and accordingly of knowledge worker have strengthen their positions out of transition from information to knowledge. Much of attention is focused towards researching different knowledge related areas. Knowledge management (KM) is one of such areas. It was first defined by Wiig in 1986 (Wiig, 1997). As per (Tiwana 2002) KM has three basic processes: knowledge acquisition, sharing, and utilization. Knowledge is divided in two broad categories: tacit (i.e. tacit knowing) and explicit (i.e. explicit knowing) (Polanyi, 1966). There are also several other ways of classifying knowledge based on particular perspective of research (Maier 2004). Majority of research is connected with knowledge that we do know and with knowledge we know that we do not know. However per (Frappaolo 2004) there still remains knowledge which we do not know that we know and knowledge which we do not know that we do not know. Thus we propose a new concept of knowledge substance to encompass all knowledge elements (KE) as a basis for further research. New technological solutions such as mobile technology and accordingly different types of mobile devices have appeared in addition of transition to information age and development of the Web and the Internet. These devices have greatly influenced individuals’ habits and their ways of consuming, sharing and storing information. A large and growing variety of mobile devices and a number of new forms of communication have been developed to accommodate expanding needs of people. Thus, for example, based on (i2SMS 2008) almost every second person uses a mobile phone in 2008. But two years later as per (mobiThinking 2011) there are already 77% mobile subscribers of the world population in 2010. However that has its draw back by making it difficult to develop services and applications accommodating a vast array of mobile devices and their platforms. Accordant innovative services are lacking a momentum of development. Frequently they are still mainly based on rather old technologies such as text messaging despite this wide acceptance of mobile phones. Thus there is a necessity for new developments and technologies in the area of mobile device service and application creation. Per (Koch and Rahwan, 2004) agent technology promises to be as such within this domain. In particular Java agent development environment (JADE) besides other possibilities proposes a way to develop mobile device based cross-platform applications. By taking into account mobile and agent technologies possibilities we focus also on knowledge and especially on personal knowledge. As knowledge is increasingly valuated and used in business and in regular life situations then it points to a necessity for well educated people. Thus there is an implication for need of an effective personal knowledge management system (PKMS). Such system should lay foundation blocks for a new knowledge-based society, economy, and should allow ambient participation in a social and economic life. Per Jefferson currently available PKMS are just a bit more than just productivity tools (Jefferson 2006). He suggests that there is a necessity for systems with ability to adjust to individual. This paper reports on several stages of broader research targeted at perspectives of developing a PKMS. Proposed solution is encompassing three personal knowledge management (PKM) aspects of well-rounded PKMS (Apshvalka 2004, Apshvalka and Grundspenkis 2005): social, psychological and technological. Technological aspect is based on agent and mobile technologies (Osis and Grundspenkis 2009, Osis and Grundspenkis 2010, Osis and Grundspenkis 2011a) utilizing mobile-cross platform solution based on JADE environment. In addition within this paper the technological aspect is elaborated in a detailed way and encompassing whole PKMS perspective. Social and partially psychological aspect of PKM is based on proposed personal trinity model approach (Osis and Grundspenkis 2011b) for developing a well-rounded PKMS. Within this aspect of PKMS is included the personal knowledge cone-spiral (PKCS) which makes it possible to avoid knowledge worker “burn-out” by detecting PKCS pattern in knowledge acquisition process. As well this aspect of PKMS includes five knowledge acquisition principles based on knowledge substance and its elements characteristics to support PKM. This paper has the following goal: to use in previous steps of research summarized existing PKM tools and systems, their development approaches overview (Osis and Grundspenkis 2011a) and to propose a conceptually new approach for developing more well-rounded PKMS, which takes into account also a social and psychological aspect of PKM. As one area of usage of such PKMS is a learning environment support (Osis and Grundspenkis 2010), which is briefly described in this paper as well to provide a demonstrative example for potential utilization of proposed system. The main contribution of this paper is an attempt to incorporate social and psychological aspects of PKM with technological aspect of PKM into the PKMS, and to stimulate the debate in this regard. Paper is organized as follows. First is given a brief introduction. That is followed by an overview of personal knowledge management from knowledge worker’s perspective. Within this perspective is given a short summary of previous findings about existing PKM tools and systems. Next section describes personal knowledge management system’s conception. This section includes description of social and partially psychological aspect of PKMS. In addition this section has a brief look into technological aspect of PKMS detailing several types of modules the proposed PKMS consists of. These modules include PKMS core or basic module, several supplemental modules, which are further divided into two types: frequently used modules and specific area modules. Description of specific area module “m-learning” focusing on learning environment support is provided to illustrate a particular example of this type of module in more details. Next section is geared towards development of proposed PKMS. This section includes a brief description of mobile devices environment – types, platforms and ways of communication. Next it looks into strength and weaknesses of mobile devices in perspective of PKMS. That is followed by introduction of main elements of mobile Java environment. Then is described agent technology and mobile devices in perspective of PKMS and particularly also JADE and JADE LEAP environment, which focuses on mobile devices. Then all these pieces are put together and a detailed description of proposed PKMS architecture is given covering all types of modules involved. Specific attention is given to the core or basic module, which encompasses also individual’s knowledge profile, user profile and a special configuration area for adding supplemental modules to PKMS on a need basis. Conceptual specific area module “m-learning” is also described, which involves a case study at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences to enhance a course grading system at Faculty of Engineering as a learning environment supportive effort. Finally it is followed by conclusions, which includes summary of key results and future work perspective. References section is included as well.


Atslēgas vārdi
personal knowledge management, modular personal knowledge management system, knowledge substance, personal trinity model, mobile devices, mobile Java, agent technology

Osis, K., Grundspeņķis, J. Agent Based Personal Knowledge Management System Supported by Mobile Technology Cross-Platform Solution. pp.139-164. Rijeka: InTech, 2012. 139 lpp. ISBN 978-953-51-0074-4.

Publikācijas valoda
English (en)
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