Agents, Artifacts, and Transformations: The Foundations of Knowledge Flows

Abstract

This chapter presents the foundations for a basic understanding of knowledge flows, agents, artifacts, and transformations critical to any examination of knowledge processing. In doing so, it attempts to bridge the gap between a conceptual understanding of how knowledge contributes to corporate objectives, and the practical issues of knowledge management and knowledge engineering. The base ontology presented builds on elements ranging from epistemology to traditional information design and communications engineering to develop an approach that is both domain neutral and fully scaleable. Expanding on the basic axiom that knowledge enables actions and decisions, it examines knowledge flows as sequences of transformations performed by agents on knowledge artifacts in support of specific actions or decisions. It points out the significant differences between the individual, automated, and collective agent, and how these differences factor into knowledge flows; the concept of knowledge artifacts comprised of both cognitive and physical elements; and the primary behaviors associated with knowledge flows including knowledge creation, retention, transfer, and utilization. Through an examination of how knowledge enables actions and decisions and the supporting knowledge flow behaviors, it examines the role played by ontologies, the importance of semantic analysis, and the functions knowledge performs in knowledge utilization.