Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-unix!quintus!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!hwcs!hci!gilbert
From: gilbert@hci.hw.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: interviewing experts
Message-ID: <169@glenlivet.hci.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Feb 88 11:16:39 GMT
References: <4662@venera.isi.edu> <2300001@hpmwtla.HP.COM>
Reply-To: gilbert@hci.hw.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Organization: Scottish HCI Centre
Lines: 28

In article <2300001@hpmwtla.HP.COM> garyb@hpmwtla.HP.COM (Gary Bringhurst) writes:
>
>Would I be out of place to ask that cognitive psychologists who wish to 
> contribute to AI study a little computer science in return?
Hear! hear! (and some psychology too :-) )
>
>I suppose I'm just tired of well meaning zealots jumping into the foray.
 (reference to Knoweldge Engineering tutors with no computing knowledge)

Whilst sceptical about much AI, it's my opinion that in 10 years time,
Knowledge Engineering will be seen as one of the most important
contributions of AI to Systems Design.  Why? - because the skills
required for succesful knowledge elicitation are applicable to ALL
systems design.  The result is that computer specialists who would
never have attended 'useless' courses or read up on 'Participative design' 
and 'end-user involvement' have been seduced into learning about some
central skills in these design approaches (KE is still weak on
organisational/operations modelling though).  So, even if Expert
Systems never become the dominant systems technology, we will have
more systems specialists who do know how to find out what people
want. So, those well-meaning zealots, ignorant of computing, but
knowlegeable about human issues, have, in the promise of Intelligent
Systems and big profits, at last found a way to influence and educate
more computing professionals.  Pass the quiche!
-- 
Gilbert Cockton, Scottish HCI Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Chambers St.,
Edinburgh, EH1 1HX.  JANET:  gilbert@uk.ac.hw.hci   
ARPA: gilbert%hci.hw.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk UUCP: ..{backbone}!mcvax!ukc!hci!gilbert