Reasoning About Change in Knowledgeable Office Systems

Abstract

Managing of and reasoning about dynamic processes is a central aspect of much activity in the office. We present a brief description of our view of office systems and why change is of central importance in the office. A description system used to describe the structure of the office and office activity is discussed. A viewpoint mechanism within the description system is presented and we discuss how this mechanism is used to describe and reason about change in the office. A general scenario is described in which viewpoints are illustrated as a means of describing change. Previous technologies for accommadating change in knowledge embedding languages are characterized. We contrast the approach using viewpoints with previous technologies where change is propagated by pushing and pulling information between slots of data structures.