This discussion of the utilization by computer designers and users of metaphors as organizing structures for dealing with the complexity of behavior of human/computer interfaces begins by identifying three types of metaphor that describe various aspects of human-computer interface design, i.e., activity, mode of interaction, and task domain. The…

Unlike conventional information retrieval systems, natural language processing (NLP) systems translate queries automatically into the language of the system. This paper discusses the potential impact of NLP on both the indexing and retrieval of text and examines some current NLP projects and systems that have established knowledge bases in narrow…

This paper explores languages for communicating precise ideas within limited domains, which include mathematical notation and general purpose and high level computer programming languages. Low-level properties of such natural artificial languages are discussed, with emphasis on those in which names are chosen for concepts and symbols are chosen…

Compares artificial intelligence and information retrieval paradigms for natural language understanding, reviews progress to date, and outlines the applicability of artificial intelligence to question answering systems. A list of principal artificial intelligence software for database front end systems is appended. (CLB)

Citing increased attention now focused on networking in organizational contexts, this paper addresses two networking questions related to an organization's strategic purpose: how the organization's formal and informal networking channels are connected, and how they are managed and maintained. Thought processing is defined as a networking system…