Developing a Tool for Knowledge Integration: Initial Results

Knowledge integration is the task of incorporating new information into existing knowledge. The task is difficult because the consequences of an addition to an extensive knowledge base can be numerous and subtle. Current methods for automated knowledge acquisition largely ignore this task, although it is increasingly important with the move toward large scale, multifunctional knowledge bases. To study knowledge integration, we propose to develop and evaluate a knowledge-acquisition tool that helps with extending a knowledge base through interaction with a knowledge engineer. An initial prototype of this tool has been implemented and demonstrated on a complex extension to a large knowledge base.