Re: Wanting focus on the bigger picture...

What you are describing is, I think, one of many possibilities. I usually
(coming from the mobile community) describe this in terms of changing the
information set as the user changes location.

I think the imperative thing is to enable a more convenient user experience. By
enabling the system to draw conclusions about the user and his request for
information, we can avoid things like 2000 irrelevant hits in AltaVista, or
answering 500 questions to get personalized news. Since the scarce commodity we
are all competing for on the web is user attention, we have to make sure that he
gets what he wants (and gets satisfied), rather than gets something he did not
want (and gets frustrated and does not come back). Profiling the user and the
service, and using the semantic web on those profiles, will enable that.

Simplicity for the user is the name of the game.

Johan

Julian Klappenbach wrote:

> I've followed the discussion here for a few days.  Although I appreciate the
> kind of granularity with which details are discussed here, I'm a little lost
> as far as the possible paths this technology will take.  I've read some
> FAQs, and some publications, including this month's Sciam release, so I'm
> not completely clueless...
>
> My question is:  how will this impact the user experience.  What are the use
> cases for this technology as it applies to search engines and / or agents.
> I have yet to see a detailed, step by step sequence defined about how a user
> will instruct an agent to perform a task, the kind of user interface that
> could be provided, and how this interface will be defined.  Similarly, what
> kinds of interfaces will software systems provide each other?  I realize
> that there are existing resources out there that descibe this, so please
> point the way if this is the case.
>
> I can see something like:
>
> *       User wants to buy a ticket to see a MLB game.
> *       User turns to their Agent application, which provides an interface
> based on its current ontology set
> *       User selects "purchase", which automatically changes the UI to
> conform to their preferred ontology for purchasing goods and services
> *       User selects ticket, which causes relations between ticket and
> ticket types to be queried
> *       User selects MLB game, which causes relations between ballparks,
> teams, and games to be queried
> *       User is informed that tickets may be purchased direct from
> park/team, or from private individuals
> *       User selects the game, date, and seating arrangement desired, and
> indicates that they will buy from either a private individual or vendor
> depending on lowest price and closest seating arrangment.  Preference is
> given to seating.
> *       User is informed when the purchase has been made.
> *       Tickets delivered, User goes to game
>
> Every step in the sequence provides the user with a new interface that is
> generated from the available metadata on the step the user is engaged in.
> Ontological servers would each support their own set of metadata about a
> given subject/activity/topic, and most often will serve a specific genre of
> data.  Ontological servers can also be grouped into trusted organizations,
> either by peer or by client.
>
> Am I off base here?  Are there more possibilities?  What are the methods for
> discovery, and how would the RDF and other desciption files be structured
> for the sequence detailed above?  How could interaces be generated from
> metadata?  I'm curious about how members of this group envision that this
> all fits together, and would be delighted by a response if you have time.
>
> >From what I understand, I see this as one of the most exciting frontiers of
> research and development in technology.  What is done here could change
> everything, combining the predicate based systems with knowledge discovery
> and negotiation ala the WWW.
>
> I thank you for your time and patience in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Julian

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  Johan Hjelm, Senior Specialist
     Ericsson Research Japan

  Read more about my recent book
http://www.wireless-information.net
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