SMILE Maker: Concept-Orientation in Agent-Based Architectures for Personal Assistance and Collaborative Problem Solving

The paper presents some experimentally validated design solutions on the groupware module ‘Partner’ of SMILE Maker for mobile and personal support facilities. Three types of scenarios for collaborative problem solving have been tested. Pin-cards, Delphi and BrainMapping modes proved to have a differential effect on learning and collaborative problem solving suggesting concrete design solutions. SMILE Maker is a web-based knowledge support system promoting with just in time, just enough and just at point of need intelligent support in dealing with ill-structured problem situations. Conceptually SMILE Maker lies in a cross-section area of four recently strongly recognized paradigms: problem solving, concept mapping, collaborative learning and instructional design. The module ‘Partner’ of SMILE Maker enables a shared group environment for distributing learning resources. It supports externalis ation and sharing the individual potential in terms of formal expertise and tacit knowledge, organised by the personalised meaningful perception of the problem space. The Next Generation of Mental Support Tools The human and machine roles have been fixed: The user is the operator and at the same time (s)he is the client who expects something back from the system during and after the interaction. On top of that, computers are still regarded as 'work' stages, implying that the user needs a subservient attitude towards his job, employer and the traditional disciplines in his profession. The effectiveness of job performance becomes more and more the ability to escape from virtual barriers; the mental contribution to job is no longer the consequent extrapolation of rules and conventions. Another factor is that the new mental support tools need to be portable in order to bridge travel time and also to bridge professional spheres like discipline-orientation versus management, training and social networking. It seems that mental support systems become responsible for this interconnection of personal areas. Idea generation, idea selection and idea implementation become the strategic areas for personal growth and inter social achievement. Looking to educational, entertainment and communicative systems like the browsing via the WWW we see an ongoing trend to redefine the overall metaphor for both the system and the user role. A number of dimensions play a role in this evolutionary process: 1. Operational and effectiveness perspectives urge permanently the user to converge in order to complete tasks in time and compatible with planning schemes. 2. Users themselves demand a certain convergence during their sessions. A broad information spectrum soon leads to digression and the subsequent feeling of entropy. 3. The emulation of the more traditional social entities in virtual environments reflects the need for reconfirming anthropomorphic rules and templates in order to scaffold the centrifugal effects of participation in worldwide global communities.