A network structure is becoming an omnipresent determinant in the organization of social and economic life. In a sense, a network outlines, encompasses, structures, and arranges the space of data, information, services, goods, things and people, and how they flow. However, a network is not able (neither is its aim) to organize a given space in the traditional, vertical arrangement. It is not an equivalent of flat structures, either; it is rather an energy and information entity applied in a given space (the territory, the area, the logistics of an enterprise) which, by playing on continuities and non-continuities, accelerates the exchange and commercialization of ideas (innovations, research, cooperation, joint services, projects and ventures). In the era of the multiplication of various network entities, it is more and more difficult to identify them, e.g. according to the criteria of key values. In addition, we more and more often deal with the phenomenon of pullulating overlapping pervasion, a takeover and interference of networks which for an average citizen gives a very blurred picture of reality (e.g. Tesco, IKEA, OBI, Kaufland; and their own-brand products which do not have the name of an individual manufacturer). This paper has the model character and presents a model of a Knowledge-based Opole Tourism Cluster (OKTW) as a network proposal for arranging the “knowledge-based” space of the Opole region in Poland. So far it hasn’t been possible to do empirical researches because OKTW is still in the process of creation.

1 EINLEITUNG Die Digitale Gesellschaft und die Entwicklungen, die mit dem Begriff Web 2.0 zusammengefasst werden, führen zu erheblichen Veränderungen in Unternehmen, im Privaten und ebenso an Hochschulen. Die Wissensvermittlung an Hochschulen beruht vielerorts auf Powerpoint-Folien, die weder webgestützt sind noch Interaktion ermöglichen oder unterstützen. Alternative Softwareansätze (z. B. prezi.com) und innovative Hardware (z. B. Smartboards, Tablet-PCs) bieten neue Möglichkeiten für einen interaktiven Wissensdialog. Gerade in der Lehre zur Digitalen Gesellschaft bzw. Informatik im Kontext sind Zusammenhänge zu vermitteln und zu diskutieren, die einerseits eine erhebliche soziotechnische Komplexität aufweisen und die andererseits eine aktive Einbeziehung der Studierenden und ihrer lebensweltlichen Erfahrung ermöglichen. Aus dieser Situation lässt sich die Aufgabenstellung ableiten, ein neues Dialogwerkzeug für den Einsatz in der Lehre zu entwickeln, welches sowohl die vorhandenen Schwächen der Powerpoint-Nutzung als auch die Möglichkeiten innovativer Bedien- und Navigationskonzepte berücksichtigt. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es primär, die Anforderungen an ein solches interaktives Dialogwerkzeugs aus der Literatur abzuleiten. Ferner sollen die prototypische Entwicklung und die Reflexion des Einsatzes einer webbasierten Software („DialogueMaps“), welche diesen Anforderungen genügt, beschrieben werden. Im Folgenden untersuchen wir zunächst die theoretischen Grundlagen und leiten daraus Anforderungen ab, welche an das zu entwickelnde Werkzeug gerichtet werden. Anschließend beschreiben wir kurz das agile Vorgehen bei der Entwicklung des Prototyps und die Grundzüge des Lösungsansatzes. Es folgen eine Darstellung des Einsatzes in einem Seminar zur Digitalen Gesellschaft und eine Reflexion der Nutzung in diesem Kontext.

Software frameworks for Realtime Interactive Systems (RIS), e.g., in the areas of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality (VR, AR, and MR) or computer games, facilitate a multitude of functionalities by coupling diverse software modules. In this context, no uniform methodology for coupling these modules does exist; instead various purpose-built solutions have been proposed. As a consequence, important software qualities, such as maintainability, reusability, and adaptability, are impeded. Many modern systems provide additional support for the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to create so called intelligent virtual environments. These methods exacerbate the above-mentioned problem of coupling software modules in the thus created Intelligent Realtime Interactive Systems (IRIS) even more. This, on the one hand, is due to the commonly applied specialized data structures and asynchronous execution schemes, and the requirement for high consistency regarding content-wise coupled but functionally decoupled forms of data representation on the other. This work proposes an approach to decoupling software modules in IRIS, which is based on the abstraction of architecture elements using a semantic Knowledge Representation Layer (KRL). The layer facilitates decoupling the required modules, provides a means for ensuring interface compatibility and consistency, and in the end constitutes an interface for symbolic AI methods. / Software Frameworks zur Entwicklung Echtzeit-interaktiver Systeme (engl. Realtime Interactive Systems, RIS), z.B. mit Anwendungen in der Virtual, Augmented und Mixed Reality (VR, AR und MR) sowie in Computerspielen, integrieren vielfältige Funktionalitäten durch die Kopplung verschiedener Softwaremodule. Eine einheitliche Methodik einer Kopplung in diesen Systemen besteht dabei nicht, stattdessen existieren mannigfaltige individuelle Lösungen. Als Resultat sinken wichtige Softwarequalitätsfaktoren wie Wartbarkeit, Wiederverwendbarkeit und Anpassbarkeit. Viele moderne Systeme setzen zusätzlich unterschiedliche Methoden der Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) ein, um so intelligente virtuelle Umgebungen zu generieren. Diese KI-Methoden verschärfen in solchen Intelligenten Echtzeit-interaktiven Systemen (engl. Intelligent Realtime Interactive Systems, IRIS) das eingangs genannte Kopplungsproblem signifikant durch ihre spezialisierten Datenstrukturen und häufig asynchronen Prozessflüssen bei gleichzeitig hohen Konsistenzanforderungen bzgl. inhaltlich assoziierter, aber funktional entkoppelter Datenrepräsentationen in anderen Modulen. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt einen Lösungsansatz für das Entkopplungsproblem mittels Abstraktion maßgeblicher Softwarearchitekturelemente basierend auf einer erweiterbaren semantischen Wissensrepräsentationsschicht. Diese semantische Abstraktionsschicht erlaubt die Entkopplung benötigter Module, ermöglicht eine automatische Überprüfung von Schnittstellenkompatibiltät und Konsistenz und stellt darüber hinaus eine generische Schnittstelle zu symbolischen KI-Methoden bereit.

While automated game playing systems like Deep Blue perform excellent within their domain, handling a different game or even a slight change of rules is impossible without intervention of the programmer. Considered a great challenge for Artificial Intelligence, General Game Playing is concerned with the development of techniques that enable computer programs to play arbitrary, possibly unknown n-player games given nothing but the game rules in a tailor-made description language. A key to success in this endeavour is the ability to reliably extract hidden game-specific features from a given game description automatically. An informed general game player can efficiently play a game by exploiting structural game properties to choose the currently most appropriate algorithm, to construct a suited heuristic, or to apply techniques that reduce the search space. In addition, an automated method for property extraction can provide valuable assistance for the discovery of specification bugs during game design by providing information about the mechanics of the currently specified game description. The recent extension of the description language to games with incomplete information and elements of chance further induces the need for the detection of game properties involving player knowledge in several stages of the game. In this thesis, we develop a formal proof method for the automatic acquisition of rich game-specific invariance properties. To this end, we first introduce a simple yet expressive property description language to address knowledge-free game properties which may involve arbitrary finite sequences of successive game states. We specify a semantic based on state transition systems over the Game Description Language, and develop a provably correct formal theory which allows to show the validity of game properties with respect to their semantic across all reachable game states. Our proof theory does not require to visit every single reachable state. Instead, it applies an induction principle on the game rules based on the generation of answer set programs, allowing to apply any off-the-shelf answer set solver to practically verify invariance properties even in complex games whose state space cannot totally be explored. To account for the recent extension of the description language to games with incomplete information and elements of chance, we correctly extend our induction method to properties involving player knowledge. With an extensive evaluation we show its practical applicability even in complex games.

A network structure is becoming an omnipresent determinant in the organization of social and economic life. In a sense, a network outlines, encompasses, structures, and arranges the space of data, information, services, goods, things and people, and how they flow. However, a network is not able (neither is its aim) to organize a given space in the traditional, vertical arrangement. It is not an equivalent of flat structures, either; it is rather an energy and information entity applied in a given space (the territory, the area, the logistics of an enterprise) which, by playing on continuities and non-continuities, accelerates the exchange and commercialization of ideas (innovations, research, cooperation, joint services, projects and ventures). In the era of the multiplication of various network entities, it is more and more difficult to identify them, e.g. according to the criteria of key values. In addition, we more and more often deal with the phenomenon of pullulating overlapping pervasion, a takeover and interference of networks which for an average citizen gives a very blurred picture of reality (e.g. Tesco, IKEA, OBI, Kaufland; and their own-brand products which do not have the name of an individual manufacturer). This paper has the model character and presents a model of a Knowledge-based Opole Tourism Cluster (OKTW) as a network proposal for arranging the “knowledge-based” space of the Opole region in Poland. So far it hasn’t been possible to do empirical researches because OKTW is still in the process of creation.

1 EINLEITUNG Die Digitale Gesellschaft und die Entwicklungen, die mit dem Begriff Web 2.0 zusammengefasst werden, führen zu erheblichen Veränderungen in Unternehmen, im Privaten und ebenso an Hochschulen. Die Wissensvermittlung an Hochschulen beruht vielerorts auf Powerpoint-Folien, die weder webgestützt sind noch Interaktion ermöglichen oder unterstützen. Alternative Softwareansätze (z. B. prezi.com) und innovative Hardware (z. B. Smartboards, Tablet-PCs) bieten neue Möglichkeiten für einen interaktiven Wissensdialog. Gerade in der Lehre zur Digitalen Gesellschaft bzw. Informatik im Kontext sind Zusammenhänge zu vermitteln und zu diskutieren, die einerseits eine erhebliche soziotechnische Komplexität aufweisen und die andererseits eine aktive Einbeziehung der Studierenden und ihrer lebensweltlichen Erfahrung ermöglichen. Aus dieser Situation lässt sich die Aufgabenstellung ableiten, ein neues Dialogwerkzeug für den Einsatz in der Lehre zu entwickeln, welches sowohl die vorhandenen Schwächen der Powerpoint-Nutzung als auch die Möglichkeiten innovativer Bedien- und Navigationskonzepte berücksichtigt. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es primär, die Anforderungen an ein solches interaktives Dialogwerkzeugs aus der Literatur abzuleiten. Ferner sollen die prototypische Entwicklung und die Reflexion des Einsatzes einer webbasierten Software („DialogueMaps“), welche diesen Anforderungen genügt, beschrieben werden. Im Folgenden untersuchen wir zunächst die theoretischen Grundlagen und leiten daraus Anforderungen ab, welche an das zu entwickelnde Werkzeug gerichtet werden. Anschließend beschreiben wir kurz das agile Vorgehen bei der Entwicklung des Prototyps und die Grundzüge des Lösungsansatzes. Es folgen eine Darstellung des Einsatzes in einem Seminar zur Digitalen Gesellschaft und eine Reflexion der Nutzung in diesem Kontext.

Knowledge Space Theory (KST) links in several ways to Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Recently, the probabilistic and statistical aspects of KST have been further developed by several authors. We review part of the recent results, and describe some of the open problems. The question of whether the outcomes can be useful in FCA remains to be investigated.

Wissen, Wissenssammlungen und Wissensordnungen haben sich im Laufe der Jahre verändert, ebenso wie die Wissensproduktion, die Schaffung neuen Wissens, die Wissenschaft selbst. Der Baum des Wissens, arbor porphyriana oder auch arbor scientiae war seit der Antike eine gültige Metapher und das Klassifikationsschema für die Struktur des Wissens, die epistemologische Ordnung. So lehnte auch Denis Diderot die Ordnung seiner berühmten Enzyklopädie an die Baumstruktur des Wissens von Francis Bacon an. (...)

The present work deals with Description Logics (DLs), a class of knowledge representation formalisms used to represent and reason about classes of individuals and relations between such classes in a formally well-defined way. We provide novel results in three main directions. (1) Tractable reasoning revisited: in the 1990s, DL research has largely answered the question for practically relevant yet tractable DL formalisms in the negative. Due to novel application domains, especially the Life Sciences, and a surprising tractability result by Baader, we have re-visited this question, this time looking in a new direction: general terminologies (TBoxes) and extensions thereof defined over the DL EL and extensions thereof. As main positive result, we devise EL++(D)-CBoxes as a tractable DL formalism with optimal expressivity in the sense that every additional standard DL constructor, every extension of the TBox formalism, or every more powerful concrete domain, makes reasoning intractable. (2) Non-standard inferences for knowledge maintenance: non-standard inferences, such as matching, can support domain experts in maintaining DL knowledge bases in a structured and well-defined way. In order to extend their availability and promote their use, the present work extends the state of the art of non-standard inferences both w.r.t. theory and implementation. Our main results are implementations and performance evaluations of known matching algorithms for the DLs ALE and ALN, optimal non-deterministic polynomial time algorithms for matching under acyclic side conditions in ALN and sublanguages, and optimal algorithms for matching w.r.t. cyclic (and hybrid) EL-TBoxes. (3) Non-standard inferences over general concept inclusion (GCI) axioms: the utility of GCIs in modern DL knowledge bases and the relevance of non-standard inferences to knowledge maintenance naturally motivate the question for tractable DL formalism in which both can be provided. As main result, we propose hybrid EL-TBoxes as a solution to this hitherto open question.

The capability of changing beliefs upon new information in a rational and efficient way is crucial for an intelligent agent. Belief change therefore is one of the central research fields in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for over two decades. In the AI literature, two different kinds of belief change operations have been intensively investigated: belief update, which deal with situations where the new information describes changes of the world; and belief revision, which assumes the world is static. As another important research area in AI, reasoning about actions mainly studies the problem of representing and reasoning about effects of actions. These two research fields are closely related and apply a common underlying principle, that is, an agent should change its beliefs (knowledge) as little as possible whenever an adjustment is necessary. This lays down the possibility of reusing the ideas and results of one field in the other, and vice verse. This thesis aims to develop a general framework and devise computational models that are applicable in reasoning about actions. Firstly, I shall propose a new framework for iterated belief revision by introducing a new postulate to the existing AGM/DP postulates, which provides general criteria for the design of iterated revision operators. Secondly, based on the new framework, a concrete iterated revision operator is devised. The semantic model of the operator gives nice intuitions and helps to show its satisfiability of desirable postulates. I also show that the computational model of the operator is almost optimal in time and space-complexity. In order to deal with the belief change problem in multi-agent systems, I introduce a concept of mutual belief revision which is concerned with information exchange among agents. A concrete mutual revision operator is devised by generalizing the iterated revision operator. Likewise, a semantic model is used to show the intuition and many nice properties of the mutual revision operator, and the complexity of its computational model is formally analyzed. Finally, I present a belief update operator, which takes into account two important problems of reasoning about action, i.e., disjunctive updates and domain constraints. Again, the updated operator is presented with both a semantic model and a computational model.