<I-N-C-A>: a Shared Model for Mixed-initiative Synthesis Tasks

I-X is a research programme intended to create a well-founded approach to allow humans and computer systems to cooperate in the creation or modification of some product such as a design, physical entity or plan – i.e. it supports mixedinitiative synthesis tasks. The I-X mixed-initiative approach involves the use of shared models for task-orientated communication between human and computer agents who are jointly exploring (via some process) a range of alternative options for the synthesis of an artifact such as a design, configuration or plan (termed a process product). The (Issues – Nodes – Constraints – Annotations) ontology is used as a shared model between the human and system agents. It represents a specific artifact as a set of constraints on the space of all possible artifacts in an application domain. It can be used to describe the initial requirements or objectives to be met and the emerging solutions. It can also describe the (perhaps dynamically generated) process(es) or plans involved in mixed-initiative collaboration. This paper gives an overview of as a potential knowledge representation framework or shared model suitable for use in mixed-initiative collaborative task support.