Group Thinking Support with A Multi-Agent Architecture

Creative group activities, e.g., development of new products, have recently increased in importance. Hence demands for groupware which is able to help stimulate human creativity grown. In this paper, aiming to achieve a system of groupware, we first propose a group thinking model based on the transition of the mentality of a thinking entity, and divide the group thinking into several basic tasks based on the model. We then describe a creative group thinking support system called ``AIDE,'' which we have been researching and developing. From our experience in developing and testing the uses of AIDE, we have ascertained that a multi-agent architecture is very suitable for achieving a group thinking support system.