642 research outputs found
Generating collaborative systems for digital libraries: A model-driven approach
This is an open access article shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Copyright @ 2010 The Authors.The design and development of a digital library involves different stakeholders, such as: information architects, librarians, and domain experts, who need to agree on a common language to describe, discuss, and negotiate the services the library has to offer. To this end, high-level, language-neutral models have to be devised. Metamodeling techniques favor the definition of domainspecific visual languages through which stakeholders can share their views and directly manipulate representations of the domain entities. This paper describes CRADLE (Cooperative-Relational Approach to Digital Library Environments), a metamodel-based framework and visual language for the definition of notions and services related to the development of digital libraries. A collection of tools allows the automatic generation of several services, defined with the CRADLE visual language, and of the graphical user interfaces providing access to them for the final user. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by presenting digital libraries generated with CRADLE, while the CRADLE environment has been evaluated by using the cognitive dimensions framework
Digital Hypertexts vs. Traditional Books: An Inquiry Into Non-Linearity
The current study begins with an awareness that today’s media environment is characterized by technological development and a new way of reading caused by the introduction of the Internet. The researcher conducted a meta analysis framed within Technological Determinism to investigate the process of hypertext reading, its differences from linear reading and the effects such differences can have on people’s ways of mentally structuring their world. The relationship between literacy and the comprehension achieved by reading hypertexts is also investigated. The results show hypertexts are not always user friendly. People experience hyperlinks as interruptions that distract their attention generating comprehension and disorientation. On one hand, hypertextual jumping reading generates interruptions that finally make people lose their concentration. On the other hand, hypertexts fascinate people who would rather read a document in such a format even though the outcome is often frustrating and affects their ability to elaborate and retain information
Artificial intelligence as writing: knowledge-based hypertext systems as a medium for communication
This thesis is an exploration of a new metaphor for artificial intelligence (AI). Traditionally, the computer within AI has been viewed as an agent, one with which the user engages in a conversation. More recently certain researchers have proposed the notion that artificial intelligence (and indeed computing in general) can be more appropriately seen as a form of writing. Initially this thesis reviews the literature in this area, and aspects of AI which support the approach. Features of writing are then described which show parallels with AI. This then allows us to take lessons from the history and development of both traditional writing and the new computer-based writing systems to inform the design of a new type of artificial intelligence system. A design based on these features, called Running Texts is presented through a number of small examples. Issues that arise from these and possible future developments, based on the implementation are then discussed. A rationale for users choosing to learn a system such as Running Texts is proposed, as benefits from the psychological and social implications of writing can be applied to AI systems, when they are seen as writing. The same parallels point out potential problems, and suggest new ways to see the relation between AI and thought
METHODOLOGIES FOR DESIGNING AND DEVELOPING HYPERMEDIA APPLICATIONS
Hypermedia design, as any other design activity, may be observed according to two points of view: methods which
suggest milestones to guide the designer's work and process which concerns the actual detailed behavior of the
designer at work. Cognitive studies assess that mental processes involved in any design process show widely shared
human characteristics regardless to the used design method. Thereby, they provide general keys to help designers.
Thus, a hypertext design environment should equally consider the two dimensions of a hypertext design activity, in
particular it should support the natural design process specificities, mainly the incremental and opportunist aspects.
The paper focuses on the hypertext design as a computer supported human activity. It examines what is general both
in the design methods and in the design process of hypertexts in order to determine which general features are
helpful to designers. This analysis has raised from the observation of the behavior of MacWeb users during design
tasks. It is related to sound and well known results in cognitive science. The paper also describes how the proposed
features are implemented in the MacWeb system.Information Systems Working Papers Serie
Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001
This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences
Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001
This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences
Smartbook: Semantics Inside
This paper presents a vision for the future of the e-books which
entails further development of technologies that will facilitate the creation
and use of a new generation of "smart" books: e-books that are evolving,
highly interactive, customisable, adaptable, intelligent, and furnished with
a rich set of collaborative authoring and reading support services. The
proposed set of tools will be integrated into an intelligent framework for collaborative book authoring and experiencing called SmartBook. The paper
promotes the idea that the semantic technologies, intensively developed recently in connection with the Semantic Web initiative, can be incorporated
in the book and become the key factor of making it "smarter"
HyperTools for HyperTexts: Supporting Readers of Electronic documents
The most important factor determining the usability of electronic
documents (e.g. hypertexts) is neither the set of links within the
material nor the structure of the database but the availability
hypertools defined as a vast range of electronic tools to
support a diversity of reading activities. To illustrate this point,
an analysis is undertaken of reading done for the purpose of
using the information within a document to assist in tasks
involving planning, decision making, and problem solving.
Secondly, many readers start with the goals of finding,
comparing, and evaluating information. Tools can help them
realize these goals by supporting the activities of searching,
collecting, and manipulating information. Other tools help
people explore task requirements, enable them to preplan
details of their interaction with the text, enhance their use of
other tools, and optimize their screen-based working
environment. It is argued that the support available for people
working with electronic texts will not only offer many of of the
functions available to readers of printed text, but electronic tools
will also offer functionality that has no close counterpart in
printed media. Consequently, hypertools will change the way
readers do familiar tasks and facilitate tasks which are
exceedingly difficult to accomplish when working with
information on paper.
(Also cross-referenced as CAR-TR-675
A cognitive model of fiction writing.
Models of the writing process are used to design software tools for writers who work with computers. This thesis is concerned with the construction of a model of fiction writing. The first stage in this construction is to review existing models of writing. Models of writing used in software design and writing research include behavioural, cognitive and linguistic varieties. The arguments of this thesis are, firstly, that current models do not provide an
adequate basis for designing software tools for fiction writers.
Secondly, research into writing is often based on questionable assumptions concerning language and linguistics, the interpretation of empirical research, and the development of cognitive models. It is argued that Saussure's linguistics provides an alternative basis for developing a model of fiction writing, and that Barthes' method of textual analysis provides insight into the
ways in which readers and writers create meanings. The result of reviewing current models of writing is a basic model of writing, consisting of a cycle of three activities - thinking, writing, and reading. The next stage is to develop this basic model into a model of fiction writing by using narratology, textual analysis, and
cognitive psychology to identify the kinds of thinking processes that create fictional texts. Remembering and imagining events and scenes are identified as basic processes in fiction writing; in cognitive terms, events are verbal representations, while scenes are visual representations. Syntax is identified as another distinct
object of thought, to which the processes of remembering and
imagining also apply. Genette's notion of focus in his analysis of text types is used to describe the role of characters in the writer's imagination: focusing the imagination is a process in which a writer imagines she is someone else, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, and syntax. It is argued that a writer's story memory, influences his remembering and imagining;
Todorov's work on symbolism is used to argue that interpretation plays the role in fiction writing of binding together these two processes. The role of naming in reading and its relation to problem solving is compared with its role in writing, and names or signifiers are added to the objects of thought in fiction writing. It is argued that problem solving in fiction writing is sometimes concerned with creating problems or mysteries for the reader, and
it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, signifiers and syntax. All these findings are presented in the form of a cognitive model of fiction writing. The question of testing is discussed, and the use of the model in designing software tools is illustrated by the description of a hypertextual aid for fiction writers
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