Information Flow and Knowledge Sharing

Except from the Foreword
The stated aim of the book series "Capturing Intelligence" is to publish books on research from all disciplines dealing with and affecting the issue of understanding and reproducing intelligence artificial systems. Of course, much of the work done in the past decades in this area has been of a highly technical nature, varying from hardware design for robots, software design for intelligent agents, and formal logic for reasoning.

It is therefore very refreshing to see Information Flow and Knowledge Sharing. This is a courageous book indeed. It is not afraid to tackle the Big Issues: notions such as information, knowledge, information system, information flow, collaborative problem solving, and ontological reasoning. All of these notions are crucial to our understanding of intelligence and our building of intelligent artificial systems, but all too often, these Big Issues are hidden behind the curtains while the technical topics take center stage.

AI has a rich history of philosophical books that have chosen a non-standard structure and narrative. It is nice to see that the authors have succeeded into combining a non-standard approach to deep questions with a non-standard format, resulting in a highly interesting volume.
Frank van Harmelen, Series Editor

Excerpt from the Introduction
Our interest is to promote, through a better and deeper understanding of the notions of information and knowledge, a better and deeper critical understanding of information technology as situated in the full range of human activities, assuming as a principle that this range of activities cannot be properly appreciated when it is reduced to the simplified means-end schema proposed by Technology. We invite the reader to build his/her own points of view about these notions, considering our propositions as a starting point for a critical analysis and discussion of these points. With that, we believe we are contributing to a better understanding of the impact of technology - and particularly of Information Technology - in everyday life.
Flavio Soares Correa da Silva, Jaume Agusti-Cullell

*Bridges the gap between the technological and philosophical aspects of information technology
*Gives both professionals and academics a philosophical foundation of IT so they can better understand their own discliplines
*Sheds light on a part of IT which is often overshadowed by its technical counterparts

1 Introduction
Intended audience
Chapters' contents
Intermission

2 Information
Agents and the world
Reality and structure
Information systems
A non-rationalistic stance
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

3 Information Flow
Communicated information
Noise and distortion
Received information
Communication systems
The purpose of communication
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

4 Shared Understanding
Dialogues for shared understanding
Communication spaces
Productive dialogue
Facilitators for productive dialogues
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

5 Collaborative Problem Solving
Coordinated action
Reliability and trust
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

6 Ontological Reasoning
Ontology
Patterns of interaction
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

7 Uncertainty
Controlled uncertainty
Trust, confidentiality and privacy
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

8 Knowledge Sharing
The illusion of life
Bibliographical notes
Intermission

9 Knowledge
Bibliographical notes

10 Conclusion

Epilogue