Declarative Programming for Knowledge Management

Knowledge means power – but only if it is available at the right time, the right place, and in the hands of the right people. Structured, engineered, repeatable methodsto gather,transport,andapplyknowledgearecollectivelycalledkno- edge management. Declarative programming strives for the ideal of programming by wish: the user states what he or she wants, and the computer ?gures out how to achieve it. Thus, declarative programming splits into two separate parts: methods for humans on how to write wishes, and algorithms for computers that ful?l these wishes. Knowledgemanagementisnowrecognizedasaneconomickeyfactor.Decl- ative programming has matured far beyond the research stage of a merely - teresting formal logic model to one of the powerful tools in computer science. Nowadays,no professionalactivity isthinkable without knowledgemanagement, and companies increasingly need to document their business processes. Here, declarative programming carries the promise to be a shortcut to not only do- menting but also implementing knowledge-based enterprises. This volume presents a selection of papers presented at the 16th Inter- tional Conference on Applications of Declarative Programming and Knowledge Management, INAP 2005,held in October 2005 at Waseda University, Fukuoka, Japan. These papers re?ect a snapshot of ongoing research and current app- cations in knowledge management and declarative programming. Further, they provide reality checks and many pointers for readers who consider introducing related technologies into their products or working environments. Skimming through the table of contents, technology managers as well as - plementorswillbesurprisedonthewidescopecoveredbythisselectionofpapers. If you think of knowledge streams as supply, manufacturing, or distribution chains, you will see that it all ?ts together.