BAsCET blackboard is a common workspace for all the agents. It is simply called Workspace in Copycat. It is the place where all the problem's initial data are located. They are instances of Concept Network nodes. They're called Blackboard's objects. They can be bound together.
Each object is described by these attributes:
- content
- description (depending on the application)
- father
- the node whose it is an instance
- importance
- depends on the number of incoming links from other Blackboard objects, on the activation value and on the conceptual importance of its "father"
- happiness
- measures the happiness of the agent that built it, and also of the agents that confirmed its place in the current solution. When the agent did not explicitly give a value, it is automatically computed, according to the object's links (and other knowledge, specific to the application)
- eminence
- say whether or not the object is interesting to treat: when it is important and its happiness value is low. The formula e = ( i + 1 ) x ( 100 - h ) / 101 indicates that if happiness h is high and importance i is low then eminence e is low.