Edinburgh Napier University

  Co-operation is presented as a technique for radically improving human-computer interaction with complex knowledge bases during problem-identifying and problem-solving tasks. A study of human-human co-operation literature indicated the importance of creating an environment where the refinement of solutions can be based on argument and the resolution of differing viewpoints, as it is through this interaction that the nature of the problem is revealed. To bring about such an environment, the work identified and created three mechanisms now considered to be central to human-computer co-operation; goal-oriented working (GOW), an agreed definition knowledge base (ADKB), and a model which, using problem-domain rules, stimulates the interaction between the user and the machine: the partner model (PM). To identify the requirements of the co-operative machine more completely, a software exemplar was constructed, using the task metaphor of spatial design. The result of the work is the implementation of a machine software architecture which demonstrates the functioning of co-operation. This co-operative computer, its evaluators believe, supports a user-machine interaction having a totally new and different quality. The machine architecture and software tools and techniques developed in the work can form the foundation for building future co-operative systems