Scott A. Moore

On automated message processing in electronic commerce and work support systems: speech act theory and expressive felicity

Electronic messaging, whether in an office environment or for electronic commerce, is normally carried out in natural language, even when supported by information systems. For a variety of reasons, it would be useful if electronic messaging systems could have semantic access to, that is, access to the meanings and contents of, the messages they process. Given that natural language understanding is not a practicable alternative, there remain three approaches to delivering systems with semantic access: electronic data interchange (EDI), tagged messages, and the development of a formal language for business communication (FLBC). We favor the latter approach. In this article we compare and contrast these three approaches, present a theoretical basis for an FLBC (using speech act theory), and describe a prototype implementation.

A Foundation for Flexible Automated Electronic Communication

In this paper the author describes a formal language for communication based on linguistics--more specifically, a theory of natural language communication and models of natural language conversations. The language has a small number of general message types that are formally defined by their intended effects on the recipient. For each message type he defines a standard automated method of responding that depends only on the message type and is independent of the messages content. For more complex conversations he provides methods for responding that do depend on the content. In this system, a messages sender--automated or human--constructs and sends a message knowing that he cannot know, but can only predict, how it will be interpreted. The agent receiving the message interprets it and then uses it as a basis for inferring how he should respond. The message interpretation mechanism for this language is reusable, modular, and shared by all applications. The benefit of this communication system is that it makes the communication infrastructure more flexible, easier to modify, easier to expand, and more capable.

KQML & FLBC: contrasting agent communication languages

Communication languages for agents and otherwise have been designed to minimize the size of the message and to function more as data-passing protocols. Little emphasis has been placed on the flexibility of the languages or the transparency of the messages meaning. The author analyzes the recently defined formal semantics of KQML, which is used as the exemplar of agent communication languages. Based on this, he then specifies an FLBC message whose effects would be more or less equivalent. The purpose of this is to compare standard agent based languages (KQML in this case) with one that more directly represents the meaning of the message. The results indicate that the latter type of language makes message composition more powerful, message decomposition feasible, and has the by-product of instantly defining many more possibly useful messages.

On obligation, time, and defeasibility in systems for electronic commerce

A logical system is proposed for storing and reasoning about business messages. This system is envisioned to have mechanisms for reasoning defeasibly, reasoning about time, and reasoning about obligation. The authors describe how these capabilities allow the asking of questions that could otherwise not be asked about a message database. Further research opportunities are described.<<ETX>>

On Conversation Policies and the Need for Exceptions

The author describes a system for defining conversation policies that allows conversants to exchange explicit representations of how they use messages to get things done. This system allows conversation policies to be defined for one or more conversation partners. It does not require that every partner be aware of the other’s conversation policies; however, it does provide more capabilities if partners have this information. It also does not require that conversing agents have the same capabilities. Most importantly, its use of modular conversation policies, acceptance of deviations from them, and its method of dynamically combining the policies encourages constructing policies that are relatively simple to interpret and manage.

Message management systems: concepts, motivations, and strategic effects

Abstract:This paper motivates the need for system-level message management software. It begins by considering information flows in the workplace as a source of potential gains in efficiency. We next investigate work-flow automation and electronic data interchange (EDI) as indicative of current technologies applied to work processes and message management. Having described current technology and our vision of work processes, we propose an alternative, general-purpose, software technology for supporting application-to-application communication. Problems of EDI, of process-to-process communication, and of describing information items are discussed in terms of the communication problems they present. We then justify the need for this kind of software and layout the criteria (or plausibility conditions) for evaluating a proposal for this sort of system software. The use of a formal communication language is proposed as a common solution to these problems. This proposal is examined in the context of the EDI pro...

Categorizing automated messages

Abstract The author discusses a field study that investigates the relationship between a linguistic theory called speech act theory (SAT) and automated electronic messages. The results reveal that standards for both electronic data interchange and inter-application communication messages have the structure predicted by SAT. This provides some evidence supporting computerized systems based on SAT. The benefits of such systems are that they would be easier to construct and support than existing systems.

Depicting the Use and Purpose of Documents to Improve Information Retrieval

In this paper we discuss a new kind of information system that helps people be ready for information work and locate documents. This system differs from a traditional information retrieval system by relying extensively on descriptions of both how a document is used and the purposes it is used for. These descriptions are gathered as the document is electronically used and manipulated (e.g., by a word processor or e-mail system). A formal language represents this information.

Testing speech act theory and its applicability to EDI and other computer-processable messages

This paper discusses a small empirical study that investigates the relationship between electronic commerce and a linguistic theory called speech act theory (SAT). The study reveals that electronic data interchange messages and inter-application communication messages have the structure predicted by SAT. This should encourage information systems (IS) researchers to continue investigating SAT, IS practitioners to consider basing message structures on a SAT framework, and speech act theorists who support this theory.

Message management systems at work: prototypes for business communication

In this article, we describe two applications based on a system for office communication that is more flexible and expressive than other systems. This system allows the computerization of tasks that previously required manual intervention because of each tasks complexity. The applications, one automating office tasks and the other simulating a bicycle industry, highlight the systems ability to accommodate changes to the communication language. They also highlight the utility of both the formal language used by the system and the inferential model of communications used to interpret the messages.