The ENRICHER Method for Human Machine Symbiotics & Smart Data: A Socially Responsible Approach to the Intelligent Augmentation of Knowledge Work

The systems development community is in need of a new culture, embodied in methodologies which assert human knowledge and dignity in technology development effort, especially where automation shapes working-life. Recent research, though limited, provides initial evidence to suggest industry 4.0 factory environments can satisfy the goals of human dignity and improved productivity amongst knowledge workers by developing human-centred systems. This paper looks at the unique differences between human and machine intelligences and introduces human-machine symbiotic, evolutionary development approaches. It extends the work of human centred systems in industry 4.0 settings into a very different knowledge work context: archiving cultural heritage, which has received little attention to date in IFAC.

The Insyte-Cooley Research Lab (I-CRL) using action research have sown the seeds of a new culture embodied in a systems development process called “ENRICHER” which valorises human knowledge with positive results. Extensible machine-readable knowledge models are co-evolved by both technologists and users which support digitisation.