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KnowOS: A Knowledge Operating System
Created by stuart on: Mon, 15 May 2006 18:12:01 GMT, Last modification: Mon, 15 May 2006 18:12:01 GMT

An operating system in which knowledge, rather than files or tables, is the primary representational basis. Used to implement BioBike.

Document location: http://nostoc.stanford.edu/Docs/KnowOS.html

Whereas Unix and Windows are operating systems for ASCII strings and files, and there are operating systems for tables (such as Oracle), a knowledge operating System (or "KnowOS") is an operating system for knowledge!

Currently used to implement BioBike, a biology-specific programming language embedded in an integrated biological knowledge-base, made available over the web. This implementation has many of the facilities of an operating system, including an integrated file system and multi-processing, but the representational basis for BioBike is knowledge, not files or tables.

The KnowOS is essentially a web-based Lisp environment, providing apparent persistence of complex data and processes, internal and external application integration, multi-user management, and user interface tools for dealing with networks of complex objects. We explain the KnowOS vision, how we approached it, the pros and cons of what we did, how the implementation stands up to the vision, and where we are going with this project.

The linked web page is a summary of a longer paper: M Travers, JP Massar, and J Shrager (June 2005) The (Re)Birth of the Knowledge Operating System. International Lisp Conference, Stanford, CA. [pdf]

Authors

Jeff Shrager | JP Massar | Mike Travers

Tags

Bio-Informatics | Biology | Expert Systems | Applications

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