Webrogue: meet web people

WebRogue is an application for virtual presence over the Web. It is implemented by coupling a Web client and a Chat client, so that each time the user downloads a Web page he or she can see who is connected to that site and chat with them. Users can decide to talk in couples, or simply speak loud, so that anyone that is watching that page can listen, or even scream so that everybody on the web-site can listen. Additionally two or more users can decide to form a group and surf together, one of them being the leader, that the others will follow. Whenever the leader changes URL, the page loaded on the browsers of anybody else in the group will change accordingly. The goal of WebRogue is to enable the birth of online communities around web-sites of interest, allowing exchange of opinions, in a free, non moderated manner, between site visitors and site owners, and thus it is designed with freedom of speech in mind. Nobody can moderate a WebRogue channel, no subscription or authentication is required, and the service doesnt rely on any particular application to be installed server-side in web-sites, for them to become meeting points for WebRogue users.267-27

Eiha?!?: XML per l'organizzazione di URL con distribuzione multimodale

La crescita esponenziale di risorse presenti in rete ed il largo sviluppo di strumenti per l'accesso multimodale ad internet fanno sorgere nuovi problemi di gestione dell'informazione quali la ricerca di contenuti e la formattazione dei contenitori. In questo contesto ed all'interno del progetto europeo Vision abbiamo costruito un manuale telematico interattivo della cultura e del territorio della Sardegna. Questa raccolta di dati e stata progettata anche come piattaforma di sperimentazione di nuove tecnologie quali l'XML e le sue applicazioni. Il risultato ottenuto e un servizio multimodale, denominato Eiha?!?, fruibile attraverso PC, cellulari e PDA

DART: the distributed agent based retrieval toolkit

The technology of search engines is evolving from indexing and classification of web resources based on keywords to more sophisticated techniques which take into account the meaning and the context of textual information and usage. Replying to query, commercial search engines face the user requests with a large amount of results, mostly useless or only partially related to the request; the subsequent refinement, operated downloading and examining as much pages as possible and simply ignoring whatever stays behind the first few pages, is left up to the user. Furthermore, architectures based on centralized indexes, allow commercial search engines to control the advertisement of online information, in contrast to P2P architectures that focus the attention on user requirements involving the end user in search engine maintenance and operation. To address such wishes, new search engines should focus on three key aspects: semantics, geo-referencing, collaboration/distribution. Semantic analysis lets to increase the results relevance. The geo-referencing of catalogued resources allows contextualisation based on user position. Collaboration distributes storage, processing, and trust on a world-wide network of nodes running on users’ computers, getting rid of bottlenecks and central points of failures. In this paper, we describe the studies, the concepts and the solutions developed in the DART project to introduce these three key features in a novel search engine architecture

A collaborative, semantic and context-aware search engine

Search engines help people to find information in the largest public knowledge system of the world: the Web. Unfortunately its size makes very complex to discover the right information. The users are faced lots of useless results forcing them to select one by one the most suitable. The new generation of search engines evolve from keyword-based indexing and classification to more sophisticated techniques considering the meaning, the context and the usage of information. We argue about the three key aspects: collaboration, geo-referencing and semantics. Collaboration distributes storage, processing and trust on a world-wide network of nodes running on users’ computers, getting rid of bottlenecks and central points of failures. The geo-referencing of catalogued resources allows contextualisation based on user position. Semantic analysis lets to increase the results relevance. In this paper, we expose the studies, the concepts and the solutions of a research project to introduce these three key features in a novel search engine architecture.213-21

WebRogue : Virtual presence in web sites

WebRogue is an application for virtual presence over the Web. It provides the Web Browser with a chat subwindow that allows users connected to the same Web site to meet, share opinions and cooperate in a totally free, non moderated and uncensored environment. Each time the user loads a Web page in the Web Browser, WebRogue opens a discussion channel in a centralized server application, that is completely decoupled from the Web server, using the URL of the Web site as a key. Thus whenever a new page is loaded the user can see who is connected, as if entering a physical site. Interactivity is supported by means of two type of commands: comunication commands allow synchronous interaction as with chat or instant messaging software; Social commands allow cooperation: group surfing, exchange of visit-cards and wait in line.</p

WebRogue: Rendezvous in a web place

In this paper, we describe the nuts and bolts of WebRogue. WebRogue is an internet tool, which bridges the gap between the virtual presence in a website and the full interaction with other users browsing the same page. The rationale behind WebRogue is simple indeed: a web browser and a chat client are linked together and each time the user loads a web page, he/she can see who is connected to that site and can start an end-to-end chat session with the other users. This allows web surfers to spontaneously aggregate around sites of interest, as happens in the real world, without being limited or controlled in any way by site owners. Additionally, WebRogue provides users with many functionalities to allow sophisticate interactions, such as whispering (sending private messages), screaming (sending a chat message that anyone can read), joining a group of users for group surfing and waiting in line.</p

Evaluation of Trippple: a field analysis

This paper illustrates a field research performed with a team of experts involved in the evaluation of Trippple, a system aimed at supporting the different phases of a tourist trip, in order to provide feedback and insights, both on the functionalities already implemented (that at the time of evaluation were available only as early and very unstable prototypes), and on the functionalities still to be implemented. We show how the involvement of professionals helped to focus on challenging aspects, instead of less important, cosmetic, issues and resulted profitable in terms of early feedback, issues spotted, and improvements suggeste

A collaborative, semantic and context aware search engine

Search engines help people to find information in the largest public knowledge system of the world: the Web. Unfortunately its size makes very complex to discover the right information. The users are faced lots of useless results forcing them to select one by one the most suitable. The new generation of search engines evolve from keyword-based indexing and classification to more sophisticated techniques considering the meaning, the context and the usage of information. We argue about the three key aspects: collaboration, geo-referencing and semantics. Collaboration distributes storage, processing and trust on a world-wide network of nodes running on users' computers, getting rid of bottlenecks and central points of failures. The geo-referencing of catalogued resources allows contextualisation based on user position. Semantic analysis lets to increase the results relevance. In this paper, we expose the studies, the concepts and the solutions of a research project to introduce these three key features in a novel search engine architecture.</p