Transferring knowledge from active expert to end-user environment

An Active Expert methodology towards knowledge acquisition is proposed. Briefly this methodology implies that the expert should take as active a part as possible in the creation of the knowledge base. The knowledge engineer should act more like a teacher of knowledge structuring, as a tool designer and as a catalyst in the dialogue between the expert and the end-users. By doing so, many of the well-known problems with inter-human conflicts, knowledge engineer filtering, expert and end-user acceptance and maintenance could be reduced. The methodology has been developed during a 10-year period with three practical projects and a close cooperation with research in tool-based knowledge acquisition as the main empirical material. A major part of the paper is devoted to a description of the Active Expert methodology divided into 10 phases. Each phase is exemplified with material from practical projects.