Knowledge base and rules

ension reviewed in this dissertation, consisting of

Every user has their own preference using the tools in the groupware based on their comfort or preferences according to the cultural style of the people; however the rules can also be used to know the suggested groupware for the group. Each person in the group will select which tools that they prefer the most to use, and the system will then combine their preferences, and decide for the group which tools that are recommended for the group to use. These is achieved by selecting the groupware tools that appear the most preferred, or the majority voice of the groupware tool selection will be recommended by the system. The rules are made with a ranking system, where each selection of the input are given a value, which then these values are added once the entire of the group members have enter in their input. The application of this preference rules includes:

‐ Obtain the most recommended groupware tools for the individual group members’ personal preferences

use. To assess the recommendation tools and features, users answer a number of questions about their preferences. The query session consist of semi-structure questions that user must select or fill in. The questions corresponds to the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede, Edward T. Hall and Trompenaars, which includes high-low context, individualism vs. collectivism, specific vs. diffuse, polychromic vs. monochromic, and power distance. The output variables represent the users’ choice, for example, the recommended communication tools, working tools, and awareness mode to use. their preference, and the system will calculate and give recommendation of which tools that will be best suited for the group to use.

The ICEES knowledge base includes the cultural dim

High-Low Context, Individualism-Collectivism, Specific vs. Diffuse, Monochromic vs. Polychromic, and Power Distance. The knowledge base contains all the recommended tools and features.

familiarity of usage. Some users tend to prefer working with tools based on graphics since due to their cultural background coming from high-context culture, while other prefer to work with tools that are more text-based with background culture of the low-context culture. The preference of the usage of the communication tools in groupware may also be due to the degree of language fluency. Users working not with their mother tongue language often prefer to use tools that do not force them to talk too much, or chat is more prefer. The results that are given the previous chapters shows that users coming from low-context culture will prefer to use the text based communication and users coming from high- context culture will prefer to use the visual based communication.

Table 9.1 An example of the ICEES knowledge base Cultural

Code If Then

HLC1

User prefer to have an information displayed is LOW

CONTEXT Communication Tool is CHAT The recommended User prefer to have an information displayed is MIDDLE

CONTEXT Communication Tool is AUDIO The recommended User prefer to have an information displayed is HIGH

CONTEXT Communication Tool is VIDEO The recommended

HLC2

User prefer the working tools to be TEXT BASED

The recommended Working Tool is COLLABORATION

WRITING User prefer the working tools to be in the MIDDLE between

Text based and Visual Based The recommended Working Tool is DOCUMENT SHARING User prefer the working tools to be VISUAL BASED The recommended Working Tool _{is WHITEBOARD}

Ind

User STRONGLY DISAGREE that individuals job performance is more important than the performance of the

group The use of Polling Tool is HIGH

User STRONGLY AGREE that individuals job performance is

more important than the performance of the group The use of Polling Tool is LOW

Spe

User STRONGLY DISAGREE to keep private and business agenda separate

The recommended features to be available is PRIVATE CHAT to

specific users User STRONGLY AGREE to keep private and business

agenda separate

The recommended features to be available is PUBLIC CHAT to all

users Pol1

User STRONGLY DISAGREE to do several things at the same

time rather than one thing after another Awareness is SINGLE POINTER The recommended Working Tool User STRONGLY AGREE to do several things at the same

time rather than one thing after another

The recommended Working Tool Awareness is MULTIPLE

POINTER Pol2

User STRONGLY DISAGREE to be fully alert to all the changes that the other users have done

The recommended Message Awareness is SHORT MESSAGE

ALERT User STRONGLY AGREE to be fully alert to all the changes

that the other users have done

The recommended Message Awareness is MESSAGE POP UP Pol1+Pol

2

User prefer to do one thing after another and needs to be fully

alert to all the changes that the other users have done The recommended Awareness Mode is TIGHT (WYSIWIS) User prefer to do several things at the same time and do not

need to be alert of all the changes that the other users have done

The recommended Awareness Mode is LOOSE (WYSINWIS)

PDI1

User STRONGLY DISAGREE that all users should have equal

involvement (not based on hierarchical position) Shared Object is FREE ACCESS The recommended Control over User STRONGLY AGREE that all users should have equal

involvement (not based on hierarchical position)

The recommended Control over Shared Object is CENTRAL MODERATOR

HLC + PDI1

User prefer to have an information displayed is LOW CONTEXT and User STRONGLY DISAGREE that all users

should have equal involvement (not based on hierarchical position)

The recommended Attention Attractor is BEEPING SOUND User prefer to have an information displayed is HIGH

CONTEXT and User STRONGLY DISAGREE that all users should have equal involvement (not based on hierarchical

position)

The recommended Attention Attractor is BEEPING SOUND

and WINDOWS BLINKING User prefer to have an information displayed is LOW

CONTEXT and User STRONGLY AGREE that all users should have equal involvement (not based on hierarchical

The recommended Attention Attractor is BEEPING SOUND

position)

User prefer to have an information displayed is HIGH CONTEXT and User STRONGLY AGREE that all users should have equal involvement (not based on hierarchical

position)

The recommended Attention Attractor is WINDOWS BLINKING WITH VIDEO SCREEN ENLARGEMENT

Each rule has two sections – in the form of ‘IF-Then’. ICEES users can query the system using an inference process that automatically determines which rules are applicable. The following are examples of the rule (in an English format for easy reading) maintained by the system:

IF

User prefer to have an information displayed is LOW CONTEXT THEN

The recommended Communication Tool is CHAT IF

User prefer to have an information displayed is HIGH CONTEXT AND

User STRONGLY DISAGREE that all users should have equal involvement (not based on hierarchical

position) THEN

The recommended Attention Attractor is BEEPING SOUND and WINDOWS BLINKING

After the facts are collected from users, the system will produce conclusions of the recommended tools and features for the group. The following are examples of rules taken directly from the ICEES knowledge base for recommended communication tool, recommended working tool, and:

echo "Recommended Communication Tool to use:<br>"; $HLC1[0]=$rec[2]; $HLC1[1]=$rec[3]; $HLC1[2]=$rec[4]; $indexvalueHLC1[0]=0; $indexvalueHLC1[1]=1; $indexvalueHLC1[2]=2; array_multisort($HLC1,SORT_DESC,$indexvalueHLC1); for($i=0;$i<=2;$i++) { if($indexvalueHLC1[$i]==0) { echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Chat"; } else { if($indexvalueHLC1[$i]==1) { echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Audio"; } else { echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Video"; } } echo "(".$HLC1[$i]."%)<br>"; }

echo "<br>Recommended Working Tool to use:<br>"; $HLC2[0]=$rec[5]; $HLC2[1]=$rec[6]; $HLC2[2]=$rec[7]; $indexvalueHLC2[0]=0; $indexvalueHLC2[1]=1; $indexvalueHLC2[2]=2; array_multisort($HLC2,SORT_DESC,$indexvalueHLC2); for($i=0;$i<=2;$i++) { if($indexvalueHLC2[$i]==0) {

echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Text based – Collaboration writing"; }

else

{

if($indexvalueHLC2[$i]==1) {

echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Middle – document editing"; }

else {

echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Visual based – whiteboard /drawing tool"; }

}

echo "(".$HLC2[$i]."%)<br>"; }

echo "<br>The usage of polling/survey tool for decision making:<br>"; $Ind[0]=$rec[8]; $Ind[1]=$rec[9]; $indexvalueInd[0]=0; $indexvalueInd[1]=1; array_multisort($Ind,SORT_DESC,$indexvalueInd); for($i=0;$i<=0;$i++) { if($indexvalueInd[$i]==0) { echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;High"; } else { echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Low"; } //echo "(".$Ind[$i]."%)<br>"; echo "<br>"; }