The order of things: activity-centred information access

• Published in: Computer networks (Amsterdam, Netherlands : 1999) Netherlands : 1999), 1998-04, Vol.30 (1), p.359-367
• Main Authors: Chalmers, Matthew, Rodden, Kerry, Brodbeck, Dominique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access and visualization; Access to information; Activity; Applications; Applied sciences; Collaborative filtering; Computer science; control theory; systems; Content analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Heterogeneous data; Indexing; Information retrieval; Information systems. Data bases; Memory organisation. Data processing; Software; Studies; URLs; User centred design; World Wide Web
• ISSN: 0169-7552; 1389-1286; 1872-7069
• DOI: 10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00069-5

This paper focuses on the representation and access of Web-based information, and how to make such a representation adapt to the activities or interests of individuals within a community of users. The heterogeneous mix of information on the Web restricts the coverage of traditional indexing techniques and so limits the power of search engines. In contrast to traditional methods, and in a way that extends collaborative filtering approaches, the path model centres representation on usage histories rather than content analysis. By putting activity at the centre of representation and not the periphery, the path model concentrates on the reader not the author and the browser not the site. We describe metrics of similarity based on the path model, and their application in a URL recommender tool and in visualising sets of URLs.