Customisable chatbot as a research instrument

Abstract. Chatbots are proliferating rapidly online for a variety of different purposes. This thesis presents a customisable chatbot that was designed and developed as a research instrument for online customer interaction research. The developed chatbot facilitates creation of different bot personas, data management tools, and a fully functional online chat user interface. Customer-facing bots in the system are rulebased, with basic input processing and text response selection based on best match. The system uses its own database to store user-chatbot dialogue history. Further, bots can be assigned unique dialogue scripts and their profiles can be customised concerning name, description and profile image. In the presented validation studies, participants completed a task by taking part in a conversation with different bots, as hosted by the system and invoked through distinct URL parameters. Second, the participants filled in a questionnaire on their experience with the bot, designed to reveal differences in how the bots were perceived. Our results suggest that the chatbot’s personality impacted how customers experienced the interactions. Therefore, the developed system can facilitate research scenarios that deal with investigating participant responses to different chatbot personas. Future work is necessary for a wider range of applications and enhanced response control.Personoitava chatbot tutkimustyökaluna. Tiivistelmä. Chatbotit yleistyvät nopeasti Internetissä ja niitä käytetään enenevissä määrin useissa eri käyttötarkoituksissa. Tämä diplomityö esittelee personoitavan chatbotin, joka on kehitetty tutkimustyökaluksi verkon yli tapahtuvaan vuorovaikutustutkimukseen. Kehitetty chatbot sisältää erilaisten bottipersoonien luonnin, apuvälineitä datan käsittelyn, ja itse botin käyttöliittymän. Järjestelmän käyttäjille vastailevat bottipersoonat ovat sääntöihin perustuvia, niiden syötteet käsitellään suoraviivaisesti ja vastaukseksi valitaan vertailun mukaan paras ennaltamääritellyn skriptin mukaisesti. Järjestelmä käyttää omaa tietokantaa tallentamaan käyttäjä-botti keskusteluhistorian. Lisäksi boteille voidaan asettaa uniikki dialogimalli, ja niiden profiilista voidaan personoida URL-parametrillä nimi, botin kuvaus ja profiilikuva. Chatbotin tekninen toiminta todettiin tutkimuksella, jossa osallistujat suorittivat annetun tehtävän seuraamalla osittain valmista käsikirjoitusta eri bottien kanssa. Tämän jälkeen osallistujat täyttivät käyttäjäkyselyn liittyen heidän kokemukseensa botin kanssa. Kysely oli suunniteltu paljastamaan mahdolliset eroavaisuudet siinä, kuinka botin käyttäytyminen miellettiin keskustelun aikana. Käyttäjätestin tulokset viittaavat siihen, että chatbotin persoonalla oli vaikutus käyttäjien kokemukseen. Kehitetty järjestelmä siis pystyy mahdollistamaan tutkimusasetelmia, joissa tutkitaan osallistujien reaktioita erilaisten chattibottien persooniin. Jatkotyö kehitetyn chatbotin yhteydessä keskittyy monimutkaisempien käyttötarkoitusten lisäämiseen ja botin vastausten parantamiseen edistyksellisemmän luonnollisen kielen käsittelyn avulla

HANDLING CHANGE IN A PRODUCTION TASKBOT. EFFICIENTLY MANAGING THE GROWTH OF TWIZ, AN ALEXA ASSISTANT

A Conversational Agent aims to converse with users, with a focus on natural behaviour and responses. They can be extremely complex as there are several parts which constitute it, several courses of action and infinite possible inputs. As so, behaviour checking is essential, especially if used in a production context, as wrong behaviour can have big consequences. Nevertheless, developing a robust and correctly behaving Task Bot, should not hinder research and must allow for continuous improvement of vanguard solutions. Hence, manual testing of such a complex system is bound to encounter several limits, either on the extension of the testing or on the time consumption of developers’ work. As so, we propose the development of a tool to automatically test, with a much broader test surface, these highly sophisticated systems. We introduce a solution, which leverages past conversation replay and mimicking to generate synthetic conversations. This allows for time-savings on quality assurance and better change handling. A key part of a Conversational Agent is the retrieval component. This is responsible for the correct retrieval of information, that is useful to the user. In task-guiding assistants, the retrieval element should not narrow the user’s behaviour, by omitting tasks that could be relevant. However, achieving perfect information matching to a user’s query is arduous, since there could be a plethora of words the user could say in order to attempt to accomplish an objective. To tackle this, we make use of a semantic retrieval algorithm adapting it to this domain by generating a synthetic dataset.Um Agente Conversacional visa ter conversas com utilizadores, focando-se no comportamento e nas respostas naturais. Estes podem ser, no entanto, extremamente complexos. São várias as partes que os constituem, os fluxos possíveis e os pedidos que o utilizador pode fazer. Assim, a verificação de comportamento é essencial, especialmente se usada em um contexto de produção, pois o comportamento errado pode ter grandes consequências. No entanto, o desenvolvimento de um Task Bot robusto e de comportamento correto não deve prejudicar a pesquisa e deve permitir a melhoria contínua das soluções. Portanto, testagem manual de um sistema tão complexo depara-se com vários limites, seja na extensão do teste ou no consumo de tempo do trabalho dos developers. Assim, propomos também o desenvolvimento de uma ferramenta para testes automáticos, com uma frente de teste muito mais ampla, para estes sistemas sofisticados. Apresentamos uma solução que aproveita a repetição e a simulação de conversas anteriores para gerar conversas sintéticas. Isso permite reduzir o tempo gasto na verificação de qualidade e permite melhor adaptação a mudanças. Uma parte fundamental de um agente conversacional é o retriever. Esta é a componente responsável pela obtenção de informação relevante. Nos assistentes que têm como objetivo a orientação de tarefas, o retriever não deve restringir o comportamento do utilizador, ao omitir tarefas que possam ser relevantes. No entanto, obter uma correspondência perfeita de informações com o pedido do utilizador é árduo, pois pode haver uma infinidade de formas que o utilizador pode formular o seu pedido pretendendo o mesmo objetivo. Para ultrupassar este problema, utilizamos um algoritmo de retrieval semântico, adaptando-o ao domínio em questão através da geração de um conjunto de dados sintético

Spoken dialogue systems: architectures and applications

171 p.Technology and technological devices have become habitual and omnipresent. Humans need to learn tocommunicate with all kind of devices. Until recently humans needed to learn how the devices expressthemselves to communicate with them. But in recent times the tendency has become to makecommunication with these devices in more intuitive ways. The ideal way to communicate with deviceswould be the natural way of communication between humans, the speech. Humans have long beeninvestigating and designing systems that use this type of communication, giving rise to the so-calledSpoken Dialogue Systems.In this context, the primary goal of the thesis is to show how these systems can be implemented.Additionally, the thesis serves as a review of the state-of-the-art regarding architectures and toolkits.Finally, the thesis is intended to serve future system developers as a guide for their construction. For that

Collective intelligence: creating a prosperous world at peace

XXXII, 612 p. ; 24 cmLibro ElectrónicoEn este documento se plantea un tema de interes general mas como lo es especificamente el tema de la evolucion de la sociedad en materia de industria y crecimiento de las actividades humanas en el aspecto de desarrollo de la creatividad enfocada a los mercadosedited by Mark Tovey ; foreword by Yochai Benkler (re-mixed by Hassan Masum) ; prefaces by Thomas Malone, Tom Atlee & Pierre Levy ; afterword by Paul Martin & Thomas Homer-Dixon.The era of collective intelligence has begun in earnest. While others have written about the wisdom of crowds, an army of Davids, and smart mobs, this collection of essays for the first time brings together fifty-five pioneers in the emerging discipline of collective intelligence. They provide a base of tools for connecting people, producing high-functioning teams, collaborating at multiple scales, and encouraging effective peer-production. Emerging models are explored for digital deliberative democracy, self-governance, legislative transparency, true-cost accounting, and the ethical use of open sources and methods. Collective Intelligence is the first of a series of six books, which will also include volumes on Peace Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, and Global Intelligence.Table of Contents Dedication i Publisher’s Preface iii Foreword by Yochai Benkler Remix Hassan Masum xi The Wealth of Networks: Highlights remixed Editor’s Preface xxi Table of Contents xxv A What is collective intelligence and what will we do 1 about it? (Thomas W. Malone, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence) B Co-Intelligence, collective intelligence, and conscious 5 evolution (Tom Atlee, Co-Intelligence Institute) C A metalanguage for computer augmented collective 15 intelligence (Prof. Pierre Lévy, Canada Research Chair in Collective Intelligence, FRSC) I INDIVIDUALS & GROUPS I-01 Foresight I-01-01 Safety Glass (Karl Schroeder, science fiction author 23 and foresight consultant) I-01-02 2007 State of the Future (Jerome C. Glenn & 29 Theodore J. Gordon, United Nations Millennium Project) I-02 Dialogue & Deliberation I-02-01 Thinking together without ego: Collective intelligence 39 as an evolutionary catalyst (Craig Hamilton and Claire Zammit, Collective-Intelligence.US) I-02-02 The World Café: Awakening collective intelligence 47 and committed action (Juanita Brown, David Isaacs and the World Café Community) I-02-03 Collective intelligence and the emergence of 55 wholeness (Peggy Holman, Nexus for Change, The Change Handbook) I-02-04 Knowledge creation in collective intelligence (Bruce 65 LaDuke, Fortune 500, HyperAdvance.com) I-02-05 The Circle Organization: Structuring for collective 75 wisdom (Jim Rough, Dynamic Facilitation & The Center for Wise Democracy) I-03 Civic Intelligence I-03-01 Civic intelligence and the public sphere (Douglas 83 Schuler, Evergreen State College, Public Sphere Project) I-03-02 Civic intelligence and the security of the homeland 95 (John Kesler with Carole and David Schwinn, IngeniusOnline) I-03-03 Creating a Smart Nation (Robert Steele, OSS.Net) 107 I-03-04 University 2.0: Informing our collective intelligence 131 (Nancy Glock-Grueneich, HIGHEREdge.org) I-03-05 Producing communities of communications and 145 foreknowledge (Jason “JZ” Liszkiewicz, Reconfigure.org) I-03-06 Global Vitality Report 2025: Learning to transform I-04 Electronic Communities & Distributed Cognition I-04-01 Attentional capital and the ecology of online social 163 conflict and think together effectively (Peter+Trudy networks (Derek Lomas, Social Movement Lab, Johnson-Lenz, Johnson-Lenz.com ) UCSD) I-04-02 A slice of life in my virtual community (Howard 173 Rheingold, Whole Earth Review, Author & Educator) I-04-03 Shared imagination (Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart, 197 Bootstrap) I-05 Privacy & Openness I-05-01 We’re all swimming in media: End-users must be able 201 to keep secrets (Mitch Ratcliffe, BuzzLogic & Tetriad) I-05-02 Working openly (Lion Kimbro, Programmer and 205 Activist) I-06 Integral Approaches & Global Contexts I-06-01 Meta-intelligence for analyses, decisions, policy, and 213 action: The Integral Process for working on complex issues (Sara Nora Ross, Ph.D. ARINA & Integral Review) I-06-02 Collective intelligence: From pyramidal to global 225 (Jean-Francois Noubel, The Transitioner) I-06-03 Cultivating collective intelligence: A core leadership 235 competence in a complex world (George Pór, Fellow at Universiteit van Amsterdam) II LARGE-SCALE COLLABORATION II-01 Altruism, Group IQ, and Adaptation II-01-01 Empowering individuals towards collective online 245 production (Keith Hopper, KeithHopper.com) II-01-02 Who’s smarter: chimps, baboons or bacteria? The 251 power of Group IQ (Howard Bloom, author) II-01-03 A collectively generated model of the world (Marko 261 A. Rodriguez, Los Alamos National Laboratory) II-02 Crowd Wisdom and Cognitive Bias II-02-01 Science of CI: Resources for change (Norman L 265 Johnson, Chief Scientist at Referentia Systems, former LANL) II-02-02 Collectively intelligent systems (Jennifer H. Watkins, 275 Los Alamos National Laboratory) II-02-03 A contrarian view (Jaron Lanier, scholar-in-residence, 279 CET, UC Berkeley & Discover Magazine) II-03 Semantic Structures & The Semantic Web II-03-01 Information Economy Meta Language (Interview with 283 Professor Pierre Lévy, by George Pór) II-03-02 Harnessing the collective intelligence of the World- 293 Wide Web (Nova Spivack, RadarNetworks, Web 3.0) II-03-03 The emergence of a global brain (Francis Heylighen, 305 Free University of Brussels) II-04 Information Networks II-04-01 Networking and mobilizing collective intelligence (G. Parker Rossman, Future of Learning Pioneer) II-04-02 Toward high-performance organizations: A strategic 333 role for Groupware (Douglas C. Engelbart, Bootstrap) II-04-03 Search panacea or ploy: Can collective intelligence 375 improve findability? (Stephen E. Arnold, Arnold IT, Inc.) II-05 Global Games, Local Economies, & WISER II-05-01 World Brain as EarthGame (Robert Steele and many 389 others, Earth Intelligence Network) II-05-02 The Interra Project (Jon Ramer and many others) 399 II-05-03 From corporate responsibility to Backstory 409 Management (Alex Steffen, Executive Editor, Worldchanging.com) II-05-04 World Index of Environmental & Social 413 Responsibility (WISER) By the Natural Capital Institute II-06 Peer-Production & Open Source Hardware II-06-01 The Makers’ Bill of Rights (Jalopy, Torrone, and Hill) 421 II-06-02 3D Printing and open source design (James Duncan, 423 VP of Technology at Marketingisland) II-06-03 REBEARTHTM: 425 II-07 Free Wireless, Open Spectrum, and Peer-to-Peer II-07-01 Montréal Community Wi-Fi (Île Sans Fil) (Interview 433 with Michael Lenczner by Mark Tovey) II-07-02 The power of the peer-to-peer future (Jock Gill, 441 Founder, Penfield Gill Inc.) Growing a world 6.6 billion people would want to live in (Marc Stamos, B-Comm, LL.B) II-07-03 Open spectrum (David Weinberger) II-08 Mass Collaboration & Large-Scale Argumentation II-08-01 Mass collaboration, open source, and social 455 entrepreneurship (Mark Tovey, Advanced Cognitive Engineering Lab, Institute of Cognitive Science, Carleton University) II-08-02 Interview with Thomas Homer-Dixon (Hassan 467 Masum, McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health) II-08-03 Achieving collective intelligence via large-scale argumentation (Mark Klein, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence) II-08-04 Scaling up open problem solving (Hassan Masum & 485 Mark Tovey) D Afterword: The Internet and the revitalization of 495 democracy (The Rt. Honourable Paul Martin & Thomas Homer-Dixon) E Epilogue by Tom Atlee 513 F Three Lists 515 1. Strategic Reading Categories 2. Synopsis of the New Progressives 3. Fifty-Two Questions that Matter G Glossary 519 H Index 52

Information Outlook, August 2008

Volume 12, Issue 8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2008/1007/thumbnail.jp

Study, Analysis and Modeling of IP Multimedia systems on next generation networks providing mobile and fixed multimedia services

Not availabl

Flexible virtual learning environments: a schema-driven approach using sematic web concepts

Flexible e-Iearning refers to an intelligent educational mechanism that focuses on simulating and improving traditional education as far as possible on the Web by integrating various electronic approaches, technologies, and equipment. This mechanism aims to promote the personalized development and management of e-learning Web services and applications. The main value of this method is that it provides high-powered individualization in pedagogy for students and staff.Here, the thesis mainly studied three problems in meeting the practical requirements of users in education. The first question is how a range of teaching styles (e.g. command and guided discovery) can be supported. The second one is how varieties of instructional processes can be authored. The third question is how these processes can be controlled by learners and educators in terms of their personalized needs during the execution of instruction.In this research, through investigating the existing e-Iearning approaches and technologies, the main technical problems of current virtual learning environments (VLEs) were analyzed. Next, by using the Semantic Web concepts as well as relevant standards, a schema-driven approach was created. This method can support users' individualized operations in the Web-based education. Then, a flexible e-learning system based on the approach was designed and implemented to map a range of extensive didactic paradigms. Finally, a case study was completed to evaluate the research results. The main findings of the assessment were that the flexible VLE implemented a range of teaching styles and the personalized creation and control of educational processes

An investigation into user interface factors impacting on user experience: Pastel accounting case study

The purpose of this research is to propose metrics to evaluate the user interface factors that impact on the user experience of Software Accounting Applications (SAAs) used to support the accounting business activities in Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) operating in developing countries. The research commences by outlining the conceptual background that introduces the study. In the introductory chapter, the problems together with the objectives that motivate the significance of the study are presented. In the same chapter, the overall research focus and how each of the research questions are treated to accomplish the intended goals are defined. In Chapter 2, the typical accounting business activities for SMMEs operating in developing countries are investigated. Findings from the preliminary survey revealed that Pastel accounting is the commonly used SMME accounting application used in developing countries. Inventory management, cash book processing, preparation of financial statements, customer and supplier documents processing are revealed as the most prevalent SMME accounting activities. This chapter highlights the problems that inhibit the implementation and the delivery of full benefits of using these SAAs. After indentifying the SAA problems, user experience aspects of the SAA are addressed in Chapter 3. User experience (UX) is defined and existing UX evaluation criteria are discussed. The findings form the basis for choosing the applicable criteria for evaluating the User Interface (UI) factors impacting on the UX of Pastel accounting. The proposed user experience evaluation metrics are described in Chapter 4. A discussion on how the metrics are implemented and what UI aspect they measure is presented. The research design and methodology followed is discussed in Chapter 5. The chapter outlines the possible research philosophy, strategy, methods and data collecting methods. A choice is made about the appropriate approach to answer the stated research questions to satisfy the intended overall research objective. A phenomenologist, qualitative inductive approach is adopted in the study. A contextual inquiry case-study strategy is chosen as applicable to this research. Data is collected using expert reviews, user observation and subjective questionnaires. After the choice of the research techniques, the case study results are presented and analysed in Chapter 6. It is found that Pastel UI is attractive and the users are happy with the visual design of the application. The major factors that impact on Pastel accounting are its lack of 4 feedback and its complexity which makes it difficult for first time users to use the application and the paucity of the help function. After the observed findings, the conclusions and recommendations of the research are presented in Chapter 7. It has been concluded that Pastel accounting UI fails to captivate a positive user experience for first-time users; the users do not find the expected help from the Help function and are often left wondering about the status of the system and the outcome of their actions on a task. Recommendations on how designers would make Pastel user interface more helpful, easy to use, and provide adequate feedback are presented in Chapter 7

Spoken dialogue systems: architectures and applications

171 p.Technology and technological devices have become habitual and omnipresent. Humans need to learn tocommunicate with all kind of devices. Until recently humans needed to learn how the devices expressthemselves to communicate with them. But in recent times the tendency has become to makecommunication with these devices in more intuitive ways. The ideal way to communicate with deviceswould be the natural way of communication between humans, the speech. Humans have long beeninvestigating and designing systems that use this type of communication, giving rise to the so-calledSpoken Dialogue Systems.In this context, the primary goal of the thesis is to show how these systems can be implemented.Additionally, the thesis serves as a review of the state-of-the-art regarding architectures and toolkits.Finally, the thesis is intended to serve future system developers as a guide for their construction. For that