“Who Needs To Know?”: How Different Aspects Of The User\u27s Situation Are Important For Answering Different Query Types

Prior research has established that various aspects of the user’s situation, collectively called the user model, affect what information is relevant. The purpose of our research is to refine this idea by exploring how different aspects of the user model are salient for different question types. Our methodology follows tradition in studying real intermediary elicitations for clues about what aspects of the user model are important, except that we analyze how this differs across question types. We find that there are more elicitations about the background of the user’s task and about the relevance of particular information for longer-answer questions than for short-answer questions, but surprisingly, no more elicitations regarding the sufficiency of particular information. The practical application of our research is to guide human or automated respondents to focus on the user details that are most important for different types of question

DYNAMIC HYPERTEXT SYNTHESIS FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Hypertext navigation alone is insufficient for efficient Information Retrieval (IR). Previous attempts to combine IR techniques with hypertext have been confined to the pre-authored structure of a document. In this paper we extend computer-science methods to synthesize a tailor-made hypertext document in response to each user's query. The synthesis technique can also be used to automatically create a pre-authored hypertext document according to an author's specifications.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

A RE-UNIFICATION OF TWO COMPETING MODELS FOR DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL

Two competing approaches for document retrieval were first identified by Robertson et al (Robertson, Maron et al. 1982) for probabilistic retrieval. We point out the corresponding two competing approaches for the Vector Space Model. In both the probabilistic and Vector Space models, only one of the two competing approaches has received significant research attention, because of the unavailibility of sufficient data to implement the second approach. Because it is now feasible to collect vast amounts of feedback data from users, both approaches are now possible. We therefore re-visit the question of a unification of both approaches, for both probabilistic and Vector Space models. This unification of approaches differs from that originally proposed in (Robertson, Maron et al. 1982), and offers unique advantages. Preliminary results of a simulation experiment are reported, and an outline is provided of an ongoing field study.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Patterns of Document Access in Searching and Browsing

In the current work, we investigate the feasibility of using past experience to predict which documents will be accessed by users. Document access may be viewed as a surrogate measure of relevance, in which case the discussion here regards a method to improve retrieval effectiveness. But our main concern here is with users\u27 access patterns per se. The prediction of future document accesses based on the past, is applied to two different IR services, (a) browsing and (b) keyword search. A straightforward method using conditional probabilities shows promise in both cases, while very different access patterns are observed for users of the two different IR services. These results have potential technical uses in improving document retrieval, and also shed light on the very significant differences between users of different IR-related services

PARTIAL COORDINATION: A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION AND FAILURE ANALYSIS

Partial coordination is a new method for cataloging documents for subject access. It is especially designed to enhance the precision of document searches in online environments. This paper reports a preliminary evaluation of partial coordination which shows promising results compared with full text retrieval. We also report the difficulties in empirically evaluating the effectiveness of automatic full-text retrieval in contrast to mixed methods such as partial coordination which combine human cataloging with computerized retrieval. Based on our study we propose research in this area will substantially benefit from a common framework for failure analysis and a common data set. This will allow information retrieval researchers adapting "library style" cataloging to large electronic document collections, as well as those developing automated or mixed methods, to directly compare their proposals for indexing and retrieval. This paper concludes by suggesting guidelines for constructing such a testbed.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling Approach for Analyzing a Model with a Binary Indicator as an Endogenous Variable

In this paper, we focus on PLS-SEM’s ability to handle models with observable binary outcomes. We examine the different ways in which a binary outcome may appear in a model and distinguish those situations in which a binary outcome is indeed problematic versus those in which one can easily incorporate it into a PLS-SEM analysis. Explicating such details enables IS researchers to distinguish different situations rather than avoid PLS-SEM altogether whenever a binary indicator presents itself. In certain situations, one can adapt PLS-SEM to analyze structural models with a binary observable variable as the endogenous construct. Specifically, one runs the PLS-SEM first stage as is. Subsequently, one uses the output for the binary variable and latent variable antecedents from this analysis in a separate logistic regression or discriminant analysis to estimate path coefficients for just that part of the structural model. We also describe a method—regularized generalized canonical correlation analysis (RGCCA)—from statistics, which is similar to PLS-SEM but unequivocally allows binary outcomes

PRE-COORDINATION + POST-COORDINATION = THE CASE FOR PARTIAL COORDINATION

The introduction of computerized post-coordination has solved many of the problems of pre-coordinated subject access. However, the adoption of computerized post-coordination results in the loss of some precoordination benefits. Specifically, the effect of hiding terms within the context of others is lost in post-coordination which gives lead status to every document term, This results in spurious matches of terms out of context. Library patrons and Internet searchers are increasingly dissatisfied with subject access performance, in part because of unmanageably large retrieval sets. The need to enhance precision and limit the size of retrieval sets motivates this work which proposes partial coordination, an approach which incorporates the advantages of computer search with the ability of precoordination to limit spurious partial matches and thereby enhance precision.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Don’t Look Here: Off-Limits Words Bias Play in the ESP Game

Social computation is a paradigm in which a software application supports social interaction, but whose real purpose is the data trail that is left by that interaction, such as tags, recommendations, and so on. We explore a possible imperfection in the data that is generated by these games. Specifically, we investigate whether the data generated by previous participants influences the data that is generated by subsequent participants. We investigate this in the context of the ESP game. A feature of the ESP game is that words that have been generated by previous players are off-limits to subsequent players. The idea of this feature is to ensure that the system accumulates a variety of different words for each image. We consider the possibility that ironically, players are actually biased to suggest words that are related to the taboo words themselves. Based on anchoring and priming theories, we predict that the words players suggest will be related to the taboo words, and that this phenomenon will limit the variety of words that are collected for a given image. An empirical experiment confirms these predictions. This effect threatens to limit the potential value of socially generated information in many applications including recommender systems and ESP-like tagging systems, where later contributors are exposed to the inputs provided by earlier contributors

A Virtual Market for Teaching Electronic Market Concepts in Information Systems Education

The Internet has radically altered the context in which business information systems are deployed. Before the Internet, the study of information systems focused on intra-company systems and decisions. Internet connectivity has brought a new focus on markets, market systems, and market-oriented decisions. This new focus on reactive markets requires new teaching methods that can model the behavior of markets and the role of information and information systems in markets. We present an e-market simulation as a means for teaching market-oriented information systems concepts

The Power of Focal Points is Strong: Coordination Games with Labels and Payoffs

People’s ability to coordinate on salient labels has been widely reported since Schelling. However, it is not known how players behave when label salience conflicts with payoff dominance. We consider such games by independently varying the two elements, focusing especially on cases where the two criteria conflict. We also introduce a new form of the game, in which players choose labeled strategies in response to a stimulus. In games with no reference stimulus, behavior is consistent with a simple model, according to which strategic players assume their naïve counterparts choose the higher payoff. In games with a reference stimulus, behavior is consistent with a model in which strategic players assume their naïve counterparts choose the label that is more salient to them, except perhaps where the two labels’ salience are very similar, in which case the higher payoff is chosen. A key finding is that in the presence of a stimulus, play is best explained by a model in which players choose according to label salience, even against the combination of payoff and risk dominance