Knowledge Data And Computer Assisted Decisions

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Data, Expert Knowledge and Decisions, held in Hamburg, FRG, September 3-5, 1989

Cross-disciplinary research on how computer-assisted decision making can be supported by sophisticated data analysis techniques and recent developments in knowledge-based systems research are described in this volume, with emphasis on marketing applications. Aspects dealt with include market-share analysis (spreadsheet based), media planning, stochastic market modelling, marketing data analysis and new product introduction management (all knowledge-based, partly using PROLOG). These contributions emphasize links between decision support, expert knowledge research and marketing. Other application areas are debt and credit management and personnel disposition (KEE based), portfolio management (PROLOG based) and vehicle scheduling. Concrete interconnections between data analysis and marketing can be seen in the contributions on classification and unfolding of market data, market segmentation by forced classification, conjoint analysis applications, ideal point product mapping, MDS in telecommunications pricing and multi-mode marketing data evaluations.

It is a great privilege and pleasure to write a foreword for a book honor ing Wolfgang Gaul on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Wolfgang Gaul is currently Professor of Business Administration and Management Science and the Head of the Institute of Decision Theory and Management Science, Faculty of Economics, University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany. He is, by any measure, one of the most distinguished and eminent scholars in the world today. Wolfgang Gaul has been instrumental in numerous leading research initia tives and has achieved an unprecedented level of success in facilitating com munication among researchers in diverse disciplines from around the world. A particularly remarkable and unique aspect of his work is that he has been a leading scholar in such diverse areas of research as graph theory and net work models, reliability theory, stochastic optimization, operations research, probability theory, sampling theory, cluster analysis, scaling and multivariate data analysis. His activities have been directed not only at these and other theoretical topics, but also at applications of statistical and mathematical tools to a multitude of important problems in computer science (e.g., w- mining), business research (e.g., market segmentation), management science (e.g., decision support systems) and behavioral sciences (e.g., preference mea surement and data mining). All of his endeavors have been accomplished at the highest level of professional excellence.

Most would agree that the acquisition of problem-solving ability is a primary goal of education. The emergence of the new information technologiesin the last ten years has raised high expectations with respect to the possibilities of the computer as an instructional tool for enhancing students' problem-solving skills. This volume is the first to assemble, review, and discuss the theoretical, methodological, and developmental knowledge relating to this topical issue in a multidisciplinary confrontation of highly recommended experts in cognitive science, computer science, educational technology, and instructional psychology. Contributors describe the most recent results and the most advanced methodological approaches relating to the application of the computer for encouraging knowledge construction, stimulating higher-order thinking and problem solving, and creating powerfullearning environments for pursuing those objectives. The computer applications relate to a variety of content domains and age levels.

In the last decade there have been rapid developments in the field of computer-based learning environments. A whole new generation of computer-based learning environments has appeared, requiring new approaches to design and development. One main feature of current systems is that they distinguish different knowledge bases that are assumed to be necessary to support learning processes. Current computer-based learning environments often require explicit representations of large bodies of knowledge, including knowledge of instruction. This book focuses on instructional models as explicit, potentially implementable representations of knowledge concerning one or more aspects of instruction. The book has three parts, relating to different aspects of the knowledge that should be made explicit in instructional models: knowledge of instructional planning, knowledge of instructional strategies, and knowledge of instructional control. The book is based on a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held at the University of Twente, The Netherlands in July 1991.

This book examines emerging developments in the decision support system (DSS) field as it enters its third decade. The book is based on the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Recent Developments in Decision Support Systems held in Italy in June 1991. The contributors are an international assortment of active DSS researchers who offer diverse perspectives on DSSs and examine recent advances in the field. There are four major parts to the book. Part 1 is concerned with DSS foundations, including concepts, theories, frameworks and models. Part 2 examines DSS development in terms of tools and methods for building DSSs. Part 3 is concerned with DSS usage and evaluation. Part 4 concludes with presentations of specific DSS applications. Researchers, graduate students and practitioners in the DSS field will find that the book provides a stimulating and current treatment of DSS topics, helping to usher in the next decade of DSS advances.

International Federation of Classification Societies The International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) is an agency for the dissemination of technical and scientific information concerning classification and data analysis in the broad sense and in as wide a· range of applications as possible; founded in 1985 in Cambridge (UK) from the following Scientific Societies and Groups: British Classification Society -BCS; Classification Society of North America -CSNA; Gesellschaft fUr Klassifikation -GfKl; Japanese Classification Society -JCS; Classification Group of Italian Statistical Society - COSIS; Societe Francophone de Classification -SFC. Now the IFCS includes the following Societies: Dutch-Belgian Classification Society - VOC; Polish Classification Section - SKAD; Portuguese Classification Association - CLAD; Group-at-Large; Korean Classification Society -KCS. Biannual Meeting of the Classification and Data Analysis Group of SIS The biannual meeting of the Classification and Data Analysis Group of Societa Italiana di Statistica (SIS) was held in Pescara, July 3 -4, 1997. The 69 papers presented were divided in 17 sessions. Each session was organized by a chairperson with two invited speakers and two contributed papers from a call for papers. All the works were referred. Furthermore, during the meeting a discussant was provided for each session. A short version of the papers (4 pages) was.published before the conference.