Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Elements Of Human Decision-Making, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to present some understandings of the human problem-solving activity that we have gained in the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) over the past two decades. Since we feel strongly that the human decision-maker should be an integral component of any computer-based decision-support system, it follows that we would have endeavored to incorporate many of the elements that appear to be important to the user in the design of these systems. The complexity of the human cognitive system is evidenced by the large body of literature that describes problem-solving behavior and the relatively fewer …

The Emerging Knowledge Management Paradigm: Some Organizational And Technical Issues, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper addresses the expectations, organizational implications, and information processing requirements, of the emerging knowledge management paradigm. A brief discussion of the enablement of the individual through the wide-spread availability of computer and communication facilities, is followed by a description of the structural evolution of organizations, and the architecture of a computer-based knowledge management system. The author discusses two trends that are driven by the treatment of information and knowledge as a commodity: increased concern for the management and exploitation of knowledge within organizations; and, the creation of an organizational environment that facilitates the acquisition, sharing and application of knowledge. …

The Future Of Computing: Cyberspace, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper traces trends in the technological advances of computer and communication systems and examines the promises of the Information Society: global information sharing; and, intelligent decision-support. The technological developments that will lead to the realization of Cyberspace, an information rich environment in which virtual reality capabilities couple directly to the human senses, is explored in terms of five essential components: information processing requirements; communication networks; computing devices (i.e., platforms); hardware and software user-interfaces; and, the meaningful representation of information.

Attention is drawn to the critical role played by information representation in a Cyberspace environment. The author argues …