A user evaluation of hierarchical phrase browsing

Phrase browsing interfaces based on hierarchies of phrases extracted automatically from document collections offer a useful compromise between automatic full-text searching and manually-created subject indexes. The literature contains descriptions of such systems that many find compelling and persuasive. However, evaluation studies have either been anecdotal, or focused on objective measures of the quality of automatically-extracted index terms, or restricted to questions of computational efficiency and feasibility. This paper reports on an empirical, controlled user study that compares hierarchical phrase browsing with full-text searching over a range of information seeking tasks. Users found the results located via phrase browsing to be relevant and useful but preferred keyword searching for certain types of queries. Users experiences were marred by interface details, including inconsistencies between the phrase browser and the surrounding digital library interface

Report of the Stanford Linked Data Workshop

The Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) conducted at week-long workshop on the prospects for a large scale, multi-national, multi-institutional prototype of a Linked Data environment for discovery of and navigation among the rapidly, chaotically expanding array of academic information resources. As preparation for the workshop, CLIR sponsored a survey by Jerry Persons, Chief Information Architect emeritus of SULAIR that was published originally for workshop participants as background to the workshop and is now publicly available. The original intention of the workshop was to devise a plan for such a prototype. However, such was the diversity of knowledge, experience, and views of the potential of Linked Data approaches that the workshop participants turned to two more fundamental goals: building common understanding and enthusiasm on the one hand and identifying opportunities and challenges to be confronted in the preparation of the intended prototype and its operation on the other. In pursuit of those objectives, the workshop participants produced:1. a value statement addressing the question of why a Linked Data approach is worth prototyping;2. a manifesto for Linked Libraries (and Museums and Archives and …);3. an outline of the phases in a life cycle of Linked Data approaches;4. a prioritized list of known issues in generating, harvesting & using Linked Data;5. a workflow with notes for converting library bibliographic records and other academic metadata to URIs;6. examples of potential “killer apps” using Linked Data: and7. a list of next steps and potential projects.This report includes a summary of the workshop agenda, a chart showing the use of Linked Data in cultural heritage venues, and short biographies and statements from each of the participants

Semantic security: specification and enforcement of semantic policies for security-driven collaborations

Collaborative research can often have demands on finer-grained security that go beyond the authentication-only paradigm as typified by many e-Infrastructure/Grid based solutions. Supporting finer-grained access control is often essential for domains where the specification and subsequent enforcement of authorization policies is needed. The clinical domain is one area in particular where this is so. However it is the case that existing security authorization solutions are fragile, inflexible and difficult to establish and maintain. As a result they often do not meet the needs of real world collaborations where robustness and flexibility of policy specification and enforcement, and ease of maintenance are essential. In this paper we present results of the JISC funded Advanced Grid Authorisation through Semantic Technologies (AGAST) project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/agast) and show how semantic-based approaches to security policy specification and enforcement can address many of the limitations with existing security solutions. These are demonstrated into the clinical trials domain through the MRC funded Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES) project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/votes) and the epidemiological domain through the JISC funded SeeGEO project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/seegeo)

Animal-Computer Interaction: a Manifesto (2011) and sections from Towards an Animal-Centred Ethics for Animal-Computer Interaction (2016)

Reprint of journal article "Animal-Computer Interaction: a Manifesto" (2011) and of sections of journal article "Towards an Animal-Centred Ethics for Animal-Computer Interaction" (2016

Identity in research infrastructure and scientific communication: Report from the 1st IRISC workshop, Helsinki Sep 12-13, 2011

Motivation for the IRISC workshop came from the observation that identity and digital identification are increasingly important factors in modern scientific research, especially with the now near-ubiquitous use of the Internet as a global medium for dissemination and debate of scientific knowledge and data, and as a platform for scientific collaborations and large-scale e-science activities.

The 1 1/2 day IRISC2011 workshop sought to explore a series of interrelated topics under two main themes: i) unambiguously identifying authors/creators & attributing their scholarly works, and ii) individual identification and access management in the context of identity federations. Specific aims of the workshop included:

• Raising overall awareness of key technical and non-technical challenges, opportunities and developments.
• Facilitating a dialogue, cross-pollination of ideas, collaboration and coordination between diverse – and largely unconnected – communities.
• Identifying & discussing existing/emerging technologies, best practices and requirements for researcher identification.

This report provides background information on key identification-related concepts & projects, describes workshop proceedings and summarizes key workshop findings

Using ICT tools to manage knowledge: a student perspective in determining the quality of education

Within the e-learning context of a university, technology has the potential to facilitate the knowledge interaction between the source (instructor) and the recipient (students). From a literature review, it can be concluded that prior studies have not explored the types of channels that encourage knowledge transfer in this environment. For example, how explicit knowledge travels through the e-learning environment and goes through interaction processes and is received and acquired is largely unknown. According to Alavi & Leidner (2001), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can help speed up the processes of transferring knowledge from those who have knowledge to those seeking knowledge. Within the university context, technologies such as email, Internet, IRC chat, bulletin boards and tools such as WebCT and BlackBoard have the potential to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and act as a link between source and recipient. Effective knowledge transfer has to consider effective knowledge acquisition, which are therefore inexplicably linked. Nonaka's spiral model addresses knowledge acquisition through spiraling processes in which an individual would be able to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and vice versa. According to Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) there are four types of interaction, which give way to the conversion of one form of knowledge into another, namely tacit-to-tacit, tacit-to-explicit, explicit-to-tacit and explicit-to-explicit. In an academic environment, this can be studied as the source, either transferring tacit or explicit knowledge, and similarly as the recipient, receiving knowledge either in tacit or explicit form. Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) also refer to this as the SECI model, where SECI stands for Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination and Internalisation. This 'Research in Progress' reports the outcomes of a study undertaken to understand how and to what extent knowledge spiraling processes and accompanying characteristics of SECI can be ICT-enabled to contribute towards the studying and learning processes for university education. A survey instrument was developed for this purpose and it is currently undergoing peer-review and other customary validity and reliability tests. Once the instrument is validated, it will be administered on about 50 tertiary students. It is hoped that the results obtained from this survey will be reported in the QIK 2005 conference

Things.info - how to create a WEB platform representing all man-made objects and their relationships

The research question is how to create the appropriate (highly usable, rapidly scalable, modifiable by all internet users) web and mobile platform for Things.info - visualised interactive database of world’s man-made physical objects and their relationships? Thesis covers theoretical background, poses underlying assumptions and critical success factors to accomplish the task in question. Two critical success factors – early adopters and high usability - are studied experimentally. Possible early adopters are identified through qualitative interviews. User experience testing is carried out based on lean UX theory and using interactive prototype. Overall, lean startup and agile software development methods are recommended to develop the platform in question.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2656162~S1*es

Automatic rule verification for digital building permits

Dissertação de mestrado em Modelação de Informação na Construção de Edifícios BIM A+O sector da construção está a enfrentar grandes mudanças nas exigências do cliente e do mercado, empurrando para a transformação digital e para uma indústria orientada para os dados. Os governos tomaram parte ativa nesta mudança, apoiando a digitalização de processos como o das licenças de construção, introduzindo a utilização de modelos de informação de construção (BIM). A investigação sobre a digitalização do licenciamento municipal de construções mostrou grandes avanços no que diz respeito à extração de regras de forma interpretável e à automatização de verificações; contudo, a conciliação entre as definições semânticas do modelo de construção e os conceitos definidos nos regulamentos está ainda em discussão. Além disso, a validação da acuidade das informações incluídas nos modelos de construção relativamente às definições do regulamento é importante para garantir a qualidade ao longo do processo de licença de construção. Esta dissertação visa propor um fluxo de trabalho híbrido para verificar a informação extraída explicitamente do modelo BIM e a informação implicitamente derivada das relações entre elementos, seguindo as disposições contidas nos regulamentos no contexto de Portugal. Com base em alguma revisão de literatura, foi proposto um novo processo, e foi desenvolvido um código Python utilizando a biblioteca IfcOpenshell para apoiar a automatização do processo de verificação, tradicionalmente realizada por técnicos nos gabinetes de licenciamento municipal. Os elementos desenvolvidos neste documento foram comprovados num estudo de caso, demonstrando que a validação híbrida pode ajudar a detetar erros de modelação e melhorar a acuidade da informação durante a apresentação inicial de modelos para um processo de licença de construção. Os resultados indicam que a inclusão de uma validação automática do modelo contra definições regulamentares pode ser introduzida para melhorar o grau de certeza da qualidade da informação contida no Modelo de Informação, além disso, a proposta de métodos que produzem resultados a partir de informação implícita pode alargar as capacidades do esquema IFC. Contudo, os esquemas desenvolvidos neste trabalho estão ainda em constante revisão e desenvolvimento e têm limitações de aplicabilidade em relação a certas classes do IFC.The construction sector is facing major changes in the client and market requirements, pushing towards the digital transformation and a data driven industry. Governments have taken an active part in this change by supporting the digitalization of processes such as the one for building permits by introducing the use of building information models (BIM). The research on the digitalization of the building permit has shown great advancements in regarding the rule extraction in interpretable ways and the automation of the verification; however, the conciliation between the building model semantic definitions and the concepts defined in the regulations is still in discussion. Moreover, the validation of the correctness of the information included in building models regarding the regulation definitions is important to guarantee the quality along the digital building permit process. This dissertation aims to propose a hybrid workflow to check the information extracted explicitly from the BIM model and the information implicitly derived from relationships between elements by following the provisions contained in the regulations in the context of Portugal. Based on some context and literature review, a process reengineering was proposed, and a Python code was developed using the IfcOpenShell library to support the automation of the verification process, traditionally carried out by technicians in the building permit offices. The elements developed in this document were proven in a case-study, demonstrating that the hybrid validation can help to detect modelling errors and improve the certainty of correctness of information during the initial submission of models for a building permit process. The results indicate that the inclusion of an automated validation of the model against regulation definitions can be introduced to improve the degree of certainty of the quality of the information contained in the Building Information Model, moreover the proposal of methods that produce results from implicit information can extend the capabilities of the IFC schema. However, the scripts developed in this work are still under constant review and development and have limitations of applicability in relation to certain IFC classes.Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme – ERASMUS