Computational Models of Human Organizational Dynamics
Abstract
This is the seventh quarterly report for the project: Computational Models of Human Organization Dynamics. This report covers the period from 9/1/98 through 11/30/98. Progress During Reporting Period During this quarter we have elaborated our architecture for actors and we have created our first design for a group work environment to support collaborative creation of organizational models. We call the actor architecture the Ambiguity Reduction Architecture. It is based on the view that actors are bundles of practices (i.e., adaptive skills) and that the task that organizes cognition by determining what to do next' is the reduction of ambiguity. Ambiguity arises for actors whenever they have no solution, multiple solutions yet need one, or conflicting solutions about which practices to execute in the current situation. Ambiguity reduction is encoded in a collection of skills (i.e., just more practices) that have special access to and control over the actor's agenda. This architecture can be contrasted with SOAR in that it makes no necessary prior commitment to the types of ambiguities that might arise; in contrast, SOAR's architecture requires a prior specification of all possible problem spaces that may require consideration. In our last report we remarked that most real human planning activity, as well as intelligence analysis and decision-making, are conducted by multiple individuals. Further, we have learned in our initial use of our technologies - mapping (data collection and encoding), modeling (construct computational realizations of practices, and analysis (experiment design, results analysis and visualization) - that the most likely and effective use of our technology will be by groups or even entire organizations. During this period we have taken some preliminary steps to define a suitable architecture. In previous work for DARPA we designed an architecture, called the Problem Solving Support System, or PS3, for distributed concurrent development.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA376564
Entities
People
- Gregg Courand
- Michael Fehling