S haring P ertinent I nformation in
D ynamically E volving R epositories
• Projects generate large amounts of information
– Proposals, Progress Reports, Results
• Projects comprised of loosely integrated teams need to keep members apprised of pertinent project information
– Computer Science
• ETH,Clever,Social Assistant Project,CSLR
– Cognitive Science
• Clever, CSLR
– Health Sciences
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• because, “Innovation comes from outside the city walls.” - Kouichi Kishida, SRA
• to avoid duplicative work
• to increase social capital--who knows what?
• to create opportunities for more fluid collaboration (the type that can exists within a group)
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

“Ooooh, this is exciting! Our first practical application for the
Internet!
OK, should I do a search under
6/14/01 or ‘suffocation’?”

Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• Adaptable - the user can adapt the system to his or her needs (e.g., My Yahoo!)
– Manber, U., Patel, A., & John, R. (2000). Experience with
Personalization on Yahoo! Communications of the ACM,
43 (8), 35-39 )
• Adaptive - system actively adapts to the user’s needs (e.g., Amazon.com)
– Hirsh, h., Basu, C., & Davison, B. D. (2000). Learning to
Personalize. Communications of the ACM, 43 (8), 102-106.
– Mobasher, B., Cooley, R., & Srivastava, J. (2000). Automatic personalization based on Web usage mining.
Communications of the ACM, 43 (8), 142 - 151.
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• Rule-based approach
• User Attributes
– Enables the collection of metadata about users and their usage patterns
– e.g., last login date, books purchased -> interest
• Classifier Rules
– Classifies Users based on their attributes
– e.g., recent user,
• Selection Rules - Matches content (based on meta data) to user class (based on attributes)
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• Rule-based approach is OK for e-commerce because content and users are well-categorized by marketing groups
– E.g., Books -> Romance, Mystery,, etc.
– E.g., Merchandise -> Automotive, Home Improvement, etc.
• Claim:Dynamic Information Repositories are too complex and large rule bases are unmanageable.
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• Some of the techniques mentioned are necessary but not sufficient
• Social Filtering - Amazon.com
– “Dear Andrew Gorman, We have noticed that many of our customers who have purchased albums by Kenny
Burrell also enjoy music by Miles Davis…”
• Semantic Analysis (LSA?)
– “Here are things that are similar to the things you (or your group) have contributed.”
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

Social Factors affecting the adoption of information systems
• Disparity in work and benefit - “Who does the work and who receives the benefit?”
• Critical mass and Prisoner’s dilemma
• Disruption of social process
• Unobtrusive accessibility
• Adoption process - Grassroots roots vs.. Mandate
Grudin, J. (1994). “Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers” Communications of the ACM, 37 (1),
92-105 )
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

Col eman Institute Portal
EDC R efl ecti on Space
Mobi li ty for All
Web2g ether
MAPS
Applicat ion
Lay er
SPIDER
Advanced Infor mation Retrieval
Enhanced U ser M odeli ng
Persona M anagement
Di scussion Forum
Fil e R epository
Social Fil ter ing
Fram ework
BEA's WebLogic
Application Server
Personali zati on Server
User Manag ement
EJB Container
J2EE
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01

• Group Collaboration (Coleman Institute)
• Extensible Library
– Picture Library (I-Mail and MAPS)
– Software (WebTogether)
– Prompting Scripts (MAPS)
• Coleman Institute Portal
Andy Gorman - Center for LifeLong Learning and Design 6/14/01