Utilization of organizational memory in distributed GDSS

Abstract

Existing GDSS(Group Decision Support System)s are focusing mainly on providing structure for group decision making and supporting communication through computer systems. However, decision quality can be improved by reusing information in organizational memory which is an accumulation of organizational learning from organization``s past activities or decision making. Some researches on GDSS tried to store and provide decision and decision rationale, but merely storing them is far from fully utilizing organizational memory. In this thesis, a general approach for building an information system to support the use of organizational memory is suggested, which focuses on active reminding by the system, sharing retrieved information among the participants, importing information from external sources, and construction of memory with minimal effort. A design of GDSS for asynchronous and distributed environment based on the approach is presented. With the designed system, generation of ideas, discussion on selected ideas, and final selection of alternatives through voting can be performed sequentially. A prototype system under WWW(World-Wide-Web) environment is also presented that uses information retrieval technology as a core part.