Beyond Knowledge Engineering

Knowledge engineering stems from E. A. Figenbaum's proposal in 1977,but it will enter a new decade with the new challenges. This paperfirst summarizes three knowledge engineering experiments we haveundertaken to show possibility of separating knowledge developmentfrom intelligent software development. We call it the ICAX mode ofintelligent application software generation. The key of this modeis to generate knowledge base, which is the source of intelligenceof ICAX software, independently and parallel to intelligentsoftware development. That gives birth to a new and more generalconcept "knowware". Knowware is a commercialized knowledge modulewith documentation and intellectual property, which is computeroperable, but free of any built-in control mechanism, meeting someindustrial standards and embeddable in software/hardware. Theprocess of development, application and management of knowware iscalled knowware engineering. Two different knowware life cyclemodels are discussed: the furnace model and the crystallizationmodel. Knowledge middleware is a class of software functioning inall aspects of knowware life cycle models. Finally, this paperalso presents some examples of building knowware in the domain ofinformation system engineering.