Building up Shared Knowledge with Logical Information Systems

Logical Information Systems (LIS) are based on Logical Concept Analysis, an extension of Formal Concept Analysis. This paper describes an application of LIS to support group decision. A case study gathered a research team. The objective was to decide on a set of potential conferences on which to send submissions. People individually used Abilis, a LIS web server, to preselect a set of conferences. Starting from 1041 call for papers, the individual participants preselected 63 conferences. They met and collectively used Abilis to select a shared set of 42 target conferences. The team could then sketch a publication planning. The case study provides evidence that LIS cover at least three of the collaboration patterns identified by Kolfschoten, de Vreede and Briggs. Abilis helped the team to build a more complete and relevant set of information (Generate/Gathering pattern); to build a shared understanding of the relevant information (Clarify/Building Shared Understanding); and to quickly reduce the number of target conferences (Reduce/Filtering pattern).