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<Paper uid="W01-1016">
  <Title>Component-based multimodal dialog interfaces for mobile knowledge creation</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1 Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Knowledge management is concerned with promoting the creation and dissemination of knowledge in organizations. A variety of technologies, in particular information technologies can support this process. One way in which information technology has contributed to knowledge management is through computer networks, which have provided individuals with easy access to information not stored in their own office. The knowledge worker was now able to remain seated at her desk and share data and information with other individuals seated at desks thousands of kilometers away. Mobile data communication technology brings another improvement, as access to the entry points to the network is no longer confined to the office: networking anytime, anywhere, as the slogan goes. The next step in this process of removing access restrictions to information should target the user interface of the entry points, viz.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> the information interfaces. For historical reasons their design is still inspired partly by the communication needs of machines, and certainly by the office-bound scenario featuring large computer screens and keyboards. Human beings in movement however use speech for the exchange of information along with visual representations such as text and graphics. To bring such multimodal communication to mobile computer devices is an important issue for naturalizing information access. However, this paper argues that much beyond such principled considerations, multimodal interfaces are imperative for information access from mobile devices. The paper presents building-blocks and constraints for the development of such multimodal interfaces and systems, and describes the emerging knowledge management scenario that companies should understand well in order to be prepared for this new strategic technology.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> Section 2 develops the case for multimodal interfaces to mobile data services, e.g. in the approaching 3G telecommunication infrastructures.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> Section 3 presents our view on what are the building-blocks for a technological infrastructure that will foster ubiquitous multimodal interfaces to large numbers of data services in the business environment. Section 4 is more technically specific and describes our proposal for a general software architecture that provides for easy implementation of multimodal dialog interfaces. Section 5 discusses the question of how the multi-modal interfaces can be mapped to heterogeneous data sources. With the technical picture in place, section 6 reviews the management theory concept of knowledge management practices, to prepare the ground for section 7, which considers whether multimodal interface techniques will trigger new knowledge management practices in companies.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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