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ISTAR — a tool for creative design of knowledge bases
Author(s) -
Basden Andrew,
Brown Alex J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
expert systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1468-0394
pISSN - 0266-4720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0394.1996.tb00124.x
Subject(s) - computer science , knowledge base , domain knowledge , knowledge representation and reasoning , representation (politics) , domain (mathematical analysis) , process (computing) , knowledge based systems , inference , open knowledge base connectivity , software engineering , artificial intelligence , knowledge management , programming language , personal knowledge management , mathematical analysis , organizational learning , mathematics , politics , political science , law
This paper gives a comprehensive explanation of the Istar knowledge representation software tool. Not only does it describe the features and facilities found in Istar, but it discusses why they are as they are. Istar is one of a new generation of knowledge representation tools, aimed at ill‐structured domains of knowledge. While it can be used in traditional KBS projects, in which pieces of knowledge from a domain expert are assembled to form a working knowledge base, it is designed for situations in which there is a large element of creative design: knowledge refinement and generation resulting from the knowledge representation process. The knowledge representation ‘language’ is purely graphical; the knowledge engineer ‘draws’ knowledge on an easel as a box and arrows diagram. Behind this diagram is the knowledge base itself, in the form of integrated inference nets, Bayesian nets and semantic nets. This paper discusses the reasons for these design choices and, briefly, some of the issues faced in development of Istar.