The Intelligent Facilitator's Assistant (IFA): Coupling models of product-oriented groups and expert facilitator behavior.

This dissertation describes the development of a knowledge-based system, dubbed the "Intelligent Facilitator's Assistant" (IFA), which is capable of assisting a facilitator with selected aspects of meetings employing tool-oriented electronic meeting support (EMS) systems. Issues in the separation of site-specific and domain-specific knowledge are discussed, as are alternatives for modeling facilitator behavior. Software activities carried out as part of the research, which included the construction of a general-purpose microcomputer-based expert system development environment, are also covered. The final products of the research are conceptual models of product-oriented work groups and expert facilitator behavior in pre-session planning; these are realized in a taxonomy of products for EMS sessions and in a prototype knowledge base for agenda construction. Significant conclusions of the research are: (1) an intelligent assistant must be based on deep knowledge of the tool environment; (2) such an assistant must accommodate multiple models of both facilitator and user behavior; (3) the advent of intelligent assistants has major implications for the design of software for this environment, specifically in providing for control and visibility of tool activity by a process rather than a human operator.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Arizona.

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Curtis, Arthur Clayton, Jr.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Nunamaker, Jay F., Jr.
• Ram, Sudha

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10150/186943

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/186943