Developing Knowledge Management Systems from a Knowledge-Based and Multi-Agent Approach

Developing knowledge management systems is a complicated task since it is necessary to take into account how the knowledge is generated, how it can be distributed in order to reuse it, and other aspects related to the knowledge flows. On the other hand, many technical aspects should also be considered such as what knowledge representation or retrieval technique is going to be used. To find a balance between both aspects is important if we want to develop a successful system. However, developers often focus on technical aspects, giving less importance to knowledge issues. In order to avoid this, we have developed a model to help computer science engineers to develop these kinds of systems. In our proposal we first define a knowledge life cycle model that, according to literature and our experience, ponders all the stages that a knowledge management system should give support to. Later, we describe the technology (software agents) that we recommend to support the activities of each stage. The article explains why we consider that software agents are suitable for this end and how they can work in order to reach their goals. Moreover, a prototype that uses these agents is also described.