Beyond searching and browsing
This event took place on Thursday 17 March 2005 at 12:30
Tom Heath KMi, The Open University
The web provides a platform for users to perform many varied tasks; finding information, exploring new ideas, and communicating with others are just a few examples. However, not all tasks that users perform (or wish to perform) on the web are well supported by current tools and technologies. Interaction with web resources tends to be dominated by searching and browsing, and attempts to understand user actions on the web have focused mainly on these modes. Furthermore, the tools that support these modes, such as web browsers and search engines often take little account of the user, and the contexts in which they exist.
In this seminar I will briefly introduce scenarios of tasks performed online using current tools. These scenarios will be considered in the light of existing taxonomies of online actions, and I will introduce a new classification of the tasks people perform on the web. A case will be made that tools should take greater account of a user?s context if they are to aid task performance, and I will outline my proposals for task-focused Semantic Web tools that draw on a user?s social context.
Download PowerPoint Presentation (468Kb ZIP file)
This event took place on Thursday 17 March 2005 at 12:30
The web provides a platform for users to perform many varied tasks; finding information, exploring new ideas, and communicating with others are just a few examples. However, not all tasks that users perform (or wish to perform) on the web are well supported by current tools and technologies. Interaction with web resources tends to be dominated by searching and browsing, and attempts to understand user actions on the web have focused mainly on these modes. Furthermore, the tools that support these modes, such as web browsers and search engines often take little account of the user, and the contexts in which they exist.
In this seminar I will briefly introduce scenarios of tasks performed online using current tools. These scenarios will be considered in the light of existing taxonomies of online actions, and I will introduce a new classification of the tasks people perform on the web. A case will be made that tools should take greater account of a user?s context if they are to aid task performance, and I will outline my proposals for task-focused Semantic Web tools that draw on a user?s social context.
Download PowerPoint Presentation (468Kb ZIP file)
Future Internet
KnowledgeManagementMultimedia &
Information SystemsNarrative
HypermediaNew Media SystemsSemantic Web &
Knowledge ServicesSocial Software
Social Software is...
Interacting with other people not only forms the core of human social and psychological experience, but also lies at the centre of what makes the internet such a rich, powerful and exciting collection of knowledge media. We are especially interested in what happens when such interactions take place on a very large scale -- not only because we work regularly with tens of thousands of distance learners at the Open University, but also because it is evident that being part of a crowd in real life possesses a certain 'buzz' of its own, and poses a natural challenge. Different nuances emerge in different user contexts, so we choose to investigate the contexts of work, learning and play to better understand the trade-offs involved in designing effective large-scale social software for multiple purposes.
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