An investigation into knowledge acquisition using a group decision support system

Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) previously have been used to facilitate a variety of group activities. This study explores the use of a GDSS to facilitate knowledge acquisition from multiple experts to build a help-service expert system for an information center. Observations from this study indicate that a GDSS can facilitate knowledge acquisition from a group of experts by documenting knowledge electronically, supporting parallel knowledge extraction from several experts, offering a structured process, and providing a collaborative atmosphere which facilitates group interactions, resolves conflicts, and enriches the domain of expertise. The findings show that structured analysis techniques are useful in planning for knowledge acquisition, the participation of end users is important, and that a designated primary expert is helpful when multiple experts are involved.