1.4.7 Mixed initiative

The initiative is shared between the dialogue participants.

The initiative is shared between the dialogue participants. It cannot be said, however, to be freely mixed, as there are constraints as to the responsibilities each agent is better capable to meet. Therefore, the human user keeps the initiative as to the higher goals involved in the task problem. The system takes care of more bottom level details involved in realising those goals. Although it cannot make original suggestions on the higher level, it can point to the need of a goal shift, if it judges that there might be a problem based on environmental constraints. See TRAINS dialogue example (Section 1.3.3); In [5] the user defines an underspecified goal. In [6] the system identifies the goal partly, recognises the underspecification, and asks for further specification before it can deal with the details.}