Book review: User Models in Dialog Systems Edited by A. Kobsa and W. Wahlster (Springer-Verlag, 1989)

User Models in Dialog Systems is informative and thought-provoking. The book is based upon a user modeling conference held in 1986. Since then, the various contributors have obviously worked at adding tutorial and review material to the chapters to supplement the research reports. This is very useful, especially since the primary effect of the book will be to promote the idea that interactive software systems can eventually become intelligent partners in goal-directed dialogs with humans. The book is by no means an engineering handbook; it is primarily theoretical, but includes sketches of requirements specifications and feasibility demonstrations.