Hunter Gatherer

schraefel, m.c., David Modjeska, Daniel Wigdor, Yuxiang Zhu. Hunter Gatherer: Interaction Support for the Creation and Management of Within-Web-Page Collections. Technical Report CSRG-437, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. Version of this paper in submission to CHI Letters.

Abstract: Hunter Gatherer is an interface that lets Web users carry out three main tasks: (1) collect components from within Web pages; (2) represent those components in a collection; (3) edit those component collections. Our research shows that while the practice of making collections of content from within Web pages is common, it is not frequent, due in large part to poor interaction support in existing tools. We engaged with users in task analysis as well as iterative design reviews in order to understand the interaction issues that are part of within-Web-page collection making and to design an interaction that would support that process. We report here on that design development, as well as on the evaluations of the tool that evolved from that process. These evaluations confirm the effectiveness of Hunter Gatherer for facilitating within-Web-page collection making and management. Aside from the practical aspects of the tool, the interaction supported by Hunter Gatherer also has implications for Intellectual Property in terms of facilitating the concept and practice of users repurposing Web data.

schraefel, m.c., Yuxiang Zhu. "Interaction Design for Web-Based, Within-Page Collection Making." Proceedings of The Twelfth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia August 14-18, 2001 University of Aarhus, �rhus, Denmark. Forthcoming.

A common issue in Web browsing is how to manage information found while browsing or searching. The usual approach is either to bookmark an entire page when perhaps only one element is relevant, or to copy information from the page and paste it into a second application, such as a text editor. Neither approach is sufficient. Bookmark over capture data; copying and pasting components implies that users must shift task focus from search tasks to information management tasks. This forced divided attention [8] between knowledge discovery and information management generally compromises both tasks. In this paper, we look at the iterative process to determine requirements for a tool that would support the gathering process. In particular, we consider how these observations (and tool to evaluate them) have raised other questions about this interactive process, and how by further evaluation, we hope to develop a Web-based design heuristics for collection making of within-page components.

Intensional Hypertext

Wadge, Wm. and m.c. schraefel "A Complementary Approach for Adaptive and Adaptable Hypermedia: Intensional Hypertext," Third Workshop on Adaptive Hypermedia, August 15, 2001. Aarhus. Proceedings in Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science, forthcoming.

Abstract. In this paper we describe a methodology and an authoring/publishing tool for adaptable Web documents (user-determined adaptable Web pages) as a complementary approach to Adaptive Hypermedia. Our approach is based on intensional logic, the logic of assertions and expressions, which vary over a collection of contexts or possible worlds. In our approach the contexts are sets of values for parameters which specify the current user profile as supplied by the current Web page URL, and the latest user input. The author produces generic (multi-version) source in the form of HTML with extra markup delimiting parts that are sensitive (in various ways) to the parameters. This source (in what we call Intensional Markup Language) is translated into a Perl-like language called ISE (Intensional Sequential Evaluator). To generate the appropriately adapted individual pages, the server runs the ISE program in the appropriate context. The program produces HTML that, when displayed in the user�s browser, is rendered into the desired adaptation of the requested page. Although this intensional approach was originally designed to work without any explicit user model, we can extend it (and make the documents adaptive as well as adaptable) simply by incorporating a user model that monitors the user and computes some of the profile parameters.

schraefel, m.c. "ConTexts: Adaptable Hypermedia." P. Brusilovsky, O. Stock, C. Strapparava (Eds.) Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-Based Systems International Conference, AH 2000, Trento, Italy, August 2000. Proceedings. Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 1892, 369-375.

This paper introduces intensional (a kind of adaptable) hypermedia to the adaptive hypermedia community. In particular, it introduces the architecture for IHTML and the design methodology for ConTexts. It points to how this approach complements the user modeling approach of adaptive hypermedia

W. Wadge, G. Brown, m. c. schraefel, T. Yildirim, "Intensional HTML", Proc 4th Int. Workshop PODDP '98, Springer Verlag (LNCS 1481), pp128-139 (1998).

An overview of Intensional HTML and its implementation for web document versioning. This is the first major refereed paper on Intensional HTML. It explains how IHTML makes multiple versions of a site practicable to author. It also explains the "best match" semantics for IHTML version selection

schraefel, m.c., "A thousand papers for ISLIP '97," The Tenth International Symposium for Intensional Programming Languages, Victoria, B.C., pp. 41-45, 1997.

A discussion of a sample application of ConTexts for representing a single essay as a multi-versioned, demand driven document, from simple precise to in depth discussion, at user set levels of expertise and perspective; how the ConText interface will reflect this kind of "tuning" vs "surfing".

schraefel, m.c., "ConTexts: intensional document creation, delivery and retrieval," Pacific Rim Conference on Communications, Computers and Signal Processing, (PACRIM IEEE) Victoria, B.C.,pp. 417-419, August, 1997.

The paper describes the rationale for and implementation design of ConTexts, a document rendering prototype. ConTexts are web-based documents which are rendered on-the-fly based on user interaction with the document. ConTexts are based on models of demand driven data flow, and intensional programming.

Virtual Communities

m.c. schraefel, Janet Ho, Mark Chignell, Michael Milton "Building Virtual Communities for Research Collaboration" AIWoRC'00 An International Working Conference and Industrial Expo on new advances and emerging trends in Next Generation Enterprises, Buffalo, NY, April 27 - 29, 2000.

This paper discusses the problem of how to grow and evolve virtual infrastructures that support the development and growth of geographically dispersed research communities. It will describe ongoing research into personalization within a collaborative environment intended as a �virtual campus�. As part of this research we will provide initial reports on a project that is developing collaborative workspaces for dispersed research teams, and we will review relevant literature pertaining to the use of online collaborative workspaces to build virtual communities.