A system for Using Knowledge of Narratives for Optimizing Workspaces to Enhance Reasoning (KNOWER)

The wealth of data provided by modern information fusion (IF) tools to intelligence analysts exceeds their ability to effectively process, exploit, and disseminate actionable intelligence. This issue arises because these IF tools define information value and usage statically, and consider analysts rational and deterministic system components, rather than dynamic, critically thinking individuals who may exhibit biases and cognitive overload. To overcome those issues, we propose to design a novel IF system for Using Knowledge of Narratives for Optimizing Workspaces to Enhance Reasoning (KNOWER). Our solution consists of three main thrusts. First, we will develop a framework for using narrative within IF to provide a more naturalistic, intuitive means for framing human consumption and communication of information. Second, we will use that framework in the design of a workspace that provides intuitive interfaces for composing, reasoning about, and refining analytical hypotheses derived from IF in terms of narratives. Third, we will design IF methods that can respond to analyst information needs, expressed in terms of narrative elements. We will design and demonstrate KNOWER to establish the feasibility of our approach, and to establish an evaluation plan and performance metrics for Phase II.