Exploring the Possibilities of Using Expert Interfaces to Hypertext Databases for Business Information Storage and Retrieval: A Case Study of the Addis Ababa Business Community
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Date
1997-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Information Technology (IT) has brought significant changes in the business world. The
business community in Addis Ababa can get significant benefit from the appropriate use of
IT. Integration of hypertext and expert systems technology has brought a new dimension
to modern information retrieval, because it can help expert users in browsing and navigating
while non-expert users can get an expert guidance to retrieve relevant information.
Definition, components, historical developments of hypertext and its differences with
conventional information retrieval systems have been discussed followed by a discussion on
the expert systems technology. The benefits of integration of these two technologies have
been discussed along with brief description of some software tools with particular reference
to KnwoledgePro.
Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce (AACC) provides trade information to its members.
However, almost all the respondents in a survey underlined that their information
requirements are not met by the existing faciliti es. This result is found to be statistically
significant at any acceptable significance level (X2(1)=87.8370, p=O.O). Information
requirements of various business sectors have been identified. More than seventy percent of
the business houses surveyed possess IT equipment ranging from fax, computers and
communication facilities though computer usage is mostly related to word processing
application s. Most respondents of the survey indicated their willingness to expand the IT
faci li ties and were wi lling to pay for their required business information.
Design consid erat ions of an integrated expert and hypertext business information system
have been discussed and a quick prototyping approach has been used to develop a
prototype business information system. Hardware and software requirements and the
implementation issues have been discu ssed. The prototype system consi sting of a hypertext
database coupled with an expert user interface would improve the business information
facilities in AACC.
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Exploring the Possibilities of Using Expert