| Brainstorming can assist | | | | “Participants” means the clients attending the |
| organizations in generating creative ideas using | | | | brainstorming session, where every client is associated |
| teamwork and collaboration. However, the role of | | | | with an intelligent agent that serves as the client’s |
| information technology in brainstorming is merely that | | | | representative to deal with idea association. The Open |
| of an assistant that passively supports the progression | | | | Problem and Participants Component represents the |
| of brainstorming sessions rather than proactively | | | | given open problem and the participants and sends |
| engaging in the sessions. This paper integrates the | | | | two input parameters, Initial Idea and Clients, to CBDS. |
| unique association thinking of humans with an intelligent | | | | That is, this study assumes the existence of an initial |
| agent technique to devise an automated decision | | | | idea instance (possibly obtained from a user’s |
| agent called the Ideation Agent that can represent a | | | | needs) and a given set of ideation participants. |
| session participant who is actively participating in | | | | 2. Rated Ideas Notification Component. This receives |
| brainstorming. Agents are grounded on the three | | | | the set of valued ideas and the ideation map from the |
| association capabilities of human thinking (similarity, | | | | Idea Chosen Module and delivers them to the session |
| contiguity, and contrast). Furthermore, a Brainstorming | | | | participants. Hence, the participants cannot only obtain |
| Platform Outlet (BPO) is built to construct an | | | | successful results from brainstorming but also discover |
| environment where agents can learn and share their | | | | the causality among ideas. |
| knowledge with each other. | | | | 2. MyProfile Module. This comprises two parts: User |
| BRAINSTORMING is an | | | | Profile and Idea Knowledge Base. The User Profile |
| effective means of “getting a large number of | | | | stores fundamental information about a client. The Idea |
| ideas from a small number of people in a short | | | | Knowledge Base records every client’s domain |
| time”. The main aim of this system is to integrate | | | | knowledge, which comprises idea instances and the |
| the unique association thinking of humans with an | | | | relationships between these instances. That is, this |
| intelligent agent technique to devise an automated | | | | study assumes the existence of a given set of |
| decision agent called the Ideation Agent which can | | | | ideation participants and their relevant knowledge. |
| represent a session participant who is actively | | | | 3. Booktracking Agent. This forwards valued ideas to |
| participating in brainstorming. In general, e brainstorming | | | | every session participants’ Idea Knowledge Base, |
| generates more ideas than verbal brainstorming | | | | thus increasing the number of instances in each |
| groups. This improvement of e brainstorming over the | | | | participant’s Idea Knowledge Base. Accordingly, |
| conventional brainstorming process comes from | | | | clients can enhance their domain knowledge with each |
| factors such as production blocking and evaluation | | | | round of ideation. |
| apprehension. Furthermore, the number of ideas | | | | 4. Brainstorming Platform Outlet: In conventional |
| generated has been viewed as the dominant measure | | | | brainstorming, a blackboard is prepared for participants |
| of e-brainstorming effectiveness. | | | | to depict and share their creative ideas. The |
| Brainstorming review | | | | Brainstroming Platform Outlet acts as the brainstorming |
| Existing System | | | | platform. The Collective Brainstorming Blackboard |
| 1. Many existing systems are available but not fully | | | | receives system parameters Initial Idea and Clients |
| featured and unique. | | | | from the Open Problem and Participants Component, |
| 2. Also that system not ease for the humans and not | | | | then spontaneously initializes each client’s agent, |
| able to even considering or combining the three | | | | and builds a communication platform to provide an |
| association capabilities of human thinking (similarity, | | | | environment in which agents can learn and share their |
| contiguity, and contrast). | | | | knowledge. The objective of this module is to build a |
| 3. No way to enhance the existing Brainstorming | | | | tree-like ideation map comprising creative ideas |
| system. | | | | generated by SILAs for use by the Idea Chosen |
| That is, the current state of the art of | | | | Module (which selects qualified ideas, called Valued |
| e-brainstorming could possibly be advanced in the | | | | Ideas, from the ideation map). |
| following directions: | | | | 5. Ideation Agent. A agent is an intelligent agent that |
| 1. Learning capability for understanding the task. As | | | | represents its client to attend the brainstorming session |
| ideation proceeds, ideation participants need to share | | | | and manage the process of ideas association. The |
| and learn more information for a better understanding | | | | functions of a SILA are listed as follows: |
| of the task and to be able to generate ideas. | | | | 1. Receiving the Input Idea from the Collective |
| Moreover, the causality among the generated ideas | | | | Brainstorming Blackboard, |
| should be easy to characterize and then record in the | | | | 2. Accessing a client’s domain knowledge from |
| group memory. | | | | Personal Data Manger Component, |
| 1. 2. Continued adoption of additional external | | | | 3. Creating a creative idea based on its inference |
| stimuli. As ideation proceeds, ideation participants | | | | engine, and |
| should move beyond the limits of their working | | | | 4. Returning creative ideas to the Collective |
| memory and simultaneously think about all concepts on | | | | Brainstorming Blackboard. |
| their knowledge network. | | | | Hence, an ideation map is gradually constructed by |
| 3. Alleviation of attention exhaustion. In the conventional | | | | repeated interactions between the Collective |
| brainstorming process, participants are simultaneously | | | | Brainstorming Blackboard and SILAs. |
| present in the same place, think of ideas, and voice | | | | 6. Idea Generate Module. Brainstorming Platform Outlet |
| their opinions to the group members. Although current | | | | assigns a numeric value, called the Idea Select Indicator |
| e-brainstorming overcomes the spatial and distance | | | | (ISI), for every creative idea on the map when |
| limitation of conventional brainstorming with the | | | | constructing the ontology map. Accordingly, the Idea |
| technique of electronic communication, all participants | | | | Generate Module can perform a valued idea selection |
| must still be present at the brainstorming session at the | | | | as rated ideas according to a user-set criterion after a |
| same time to proceed with the discussion. | | | | brainstorming process finishes. For instance, a creative |
| The basic concepts | | | | idea is selected as a rated idea if its Idea Select Value |
| 1. User profile Module. This module has two | | | | (ISV) is over a particular bound. |
| components: | | | | However, the proposed mechanism still has limitations, |
| 1. Open Problem for discussion and Participants | | | | owing to the confined scopes of agent’s |
| Component. An “open problem” is an initial topic | | | | association capabilities. Future work will incorporate |
| or issue given to the system. This study defines an | | | | new association techniques and flexible agent ideation |
| open problem as an idea instance represented by a | | | | protocols and explore different semantic ontology and |
| specification defined in our idea ontology. | | | | idea evaluation systems. |