Using Narratives to Convey Knowledge in Decision Making Support Systems

Abstract

Information systems, and specifically decision making support systems, present information to users in a variety of modes—raw data, tables, graphs, and others. Rarely, if ever, does an information system present information to users in a narrative or story-based format. The last three decades have seen a variety of research articles that have presented an argument, an example, or a reference to what can be termed narrative-based information systems (NBIS). This chapter traces this history as they contribute to the development of NBIS. This chapter traces this history as they contribute to the development of NBIS. Previous work has come from multiple disciplines and multiple streams within Information Systems. To date, there has been very little work done in this area, and it is hypothesized that the reason is in part due to the multi-disciplinary approach and the lack of a unified effort. In order to further the efforts of this area of research, a conceptual model of the history is developed. The paper concludes with areas for future research.