William Jones' "Personal Information Management"
I particularly enjoyed Jones' section on Keeping actions. Bookmarking websites, filing information, and setting reminder alerts on emails are common things I do everyday so it was easy to relate to this section within the paper. I agree that sometimes although information needs to be saved or 'kept' it does become frustrating to have to go through the bookmarking process. I myself like to use the bookmarks toolbar within firefox which actually is a time-staking process. First I have to click the bookmarks button on the Apple Toolbar, then I select Bookmark this page. After this the bookmark window pops open and I'm prompted to name the Bookmark, decide it's location, and then tag it if I wish. Once I select that I want the bookmark on the toolbar and then I name it, I've spent almost an entire minute just saving the page. Rather than reading more about the topic or starting a new search, I'm stuck saving the page and wasting time.
I do agree that although saving information/sites is very beneficial, but what about those times where you forget where you saved the bookmark, what the actual name of the bookmark was. Just because you save something, doesn't entirely mean you'll remember what you had it saved as months later.
Lastly I laughed at Jones' description of "placing or leaving information in piles" as an alternative to filing. I have to admit that it's actually my preferred choice for filing:) Rather than file information/papers/letters in their respective places, I'd rather lump them in one big pile in the corner of my desk. Although it allows for easy access, I do spend an absurd amount of time fingerlicking and flipping through 100 pages just to find that old quiz to study from.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Reading Response 15
Cathy Marshall's "Do Tags Work?"
Marshall wrote a very interesting piece on tags and attempts to prove to us how they aren't all they're cracked up to be. I enjoyed Marshall's article and liked how she attempted to add a little humor in the mix. I also agree with her that tags may not be the best way to categorize and label photos but it really depends on the situation. I'm a huge fan of tagging pictures on Facebook. Of course when you have a name and that name has a profile it's much easier to tag someone in a photo and for it to be much more organized. In other situations I've noticed student's who study abroad take tons of pictures of famous buildings, statues, monuments and none of them have them tagged, just captioned. This is where it becomes difficult I'd think to tag a photo of a structure or scene.
I found her example of tags being verbs to be very interesting. I guess what she was trying to point out was that it isn't normal for a searcher to consider a tag to be a verb and unfortunately, using "spin" was actually the best tag for the search for the Milan Bull Mosaic. Most user's will query "Milan Bull" and finish with that, but if it became common knowledge that tags can also be verbs, maybe users will be able to form better queries when searching for their images.
Marshall wrote a very interesting piece on tags and attempts to prove to us how they aren't all they're cracked up to be. I enjoyed Marshall's article and liked how she attempted to add a little humor in the mix. I also agree with her that tags may not be the best way to categorize and label photos but it really depends on the situation. I'm a huge fan of tagging pictures on Facebook. Of course when you have a name and that name has a profile it's much easier to tag someone in a photo and for it to be much more organized. In other situations I've noticed student's who study abroad take tons of pictures of famous buildings, statues, monuments and none of them have them tagged, just captioned. This is where it becomes difficult I'd think to tag a photo of a structure or scene.
I found her example of tags being verbs to be very interesting. I guess what she was trying to point out was that it isn't normal for a searcher to consider a tag to be a verb and unfortunately, using "spin" was actually the best tag for the search for the Milan Bull Mosaic. Most user's will query "Milan Bull" and finish with that, but if it became common knowledge that tags can also be verbs, maybe users will be able to form better queries when searching for their images.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Reading Response 14
Small-Scale Classification Schemes
The whole idea of small-scale classification schemes was very interesting to me once I started to relate it to video gaming. If I'm understanding it correctly, in a game like World of Warcraft, if items are categorized by Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, is that one form of a classification scheme? Slots on a character are Helm, Shoulder, Chest, Wrist, Hands, Leggings, Belt. When broken down there are some many different classifications that become so commonplace when playing the game you don't realize how they have helped organize the game in a fashion that keeps it very easy to understand. Also, although there are numerous races for players to choose from they have to pick a "class" for their character (shaman, mage, warrior, etc).
These small-scale classification schemes seem to pop up more often now that I've studied them and how they relate to my everyday life. When I relate Warcraft to a small-scale classification scheme am I right in that assumption? Is there more involved that I'm not considering. Obviously different examples of a classification scheme include ontologies, a thesaurus, and taxonomys among others, but does the example I gave detailing equipment slots, player classes, and item levels equate to a small-scale classification scheme?
The whole idea of small-scale classification schemes was very interesting to me once I started to relate it to video gaming. If I'm understanding it correctly, in a game like World of Warcraft, if items are categorized by Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, is that one form of a classification scheme? Slots on a character are Helm, Shoulder, Chest, Wrist, Hands, Leggings, Belt. When broken down there are some many different classifications that become so commonplace when playing the game you don't realize how they have helped organize the game in a fashion that keeps it very easy to understand. Also, although there are numerous races for players to choose from they have to pick a "class" for their character (shaman, mage, warrior, etc).
These small-scale classification schemes seem to pop up more often now that I've studied them and how they relate to my everyday life. When I relate Warcraft to a small-scale classification scheme am I right in that assumption? Is there more involved that I'm not considering. Obviously different examples of a classification scheme include ontologies, a thesaurus, and taxonomys among others, but does the example I gave detailing equipment slots, player classes, and item levels equate to a small-scale classification scheme?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Reading Response 13
Dumais - Data-driven approaches to Information Access
This was a very interesting article simply because I just read another article in my 500 class dealing with the same issues in information retrieval. Like the article says it can be quite frustrating when developing a query for a topic dealing with a word such as saturn when there are multiple meanings. For example if you are looking to find quick information on the planet saturn, when you first type saturn into Google your top two results happen to be detailing the car company and not the planet. This forces a searcher to reformulate his query which is something that I find very interesting. It's almost a science in how one can shape, trim and form the perfect query to find the answers/information they are looking for.
What's even more interesting is this idea of question answering systems. Systems that will provide you with an actual answer to your question rather than documents or sites like a Google search engine would. I feel like for awhile these systems will have to field simple questions such as Who Killed Abraham Lincoln but it will be very impressive when they become sophisticated enough to answer a question like Who Killed Abraham Lincoln and what gun was used?. Multipart questions seem like they would be very difficult for these systems, or maybe it's just not even possible. I'd really love to be able to give one a try.
This was a very interesting article simply because I just read another article in my 500 class dealing with the same issues in information retrieval. Like the article says it can be quite frustrating when developing a query for a topic dealing with a word such as saturn when there are multiple meanings. For example if you are looking to find quick information on the planet saturn, when you first type saturn into Google your top two results happen to be detailing the car company and not the planet. This forces a searcher to reformulate his query which is something that I find very interesting. It's almost a science in how one can shape, trim and form the perfect query to find the answers/information they are looking for.
What's even more interesting is this idea of question answering systems. Systems that will provide you with an actual answer to your question rather than documents or sites like a Google search engine would. I feel like for awhile these systems will have to field simple questions such as Who Killed Abraham Lincoln but it will be very impressive when they become sophisticated enough to answer a question like Who Killed Abraham Lincoln and what gun was used?. Multipart questions seem like they would be very difficult for these systems, or maybe it's just not even possible. I'd really love to be able to give one a try.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Reading Response 12
The Semantic Web
This is what I'm talking about. This is the type of article I like to read. I couldn't think of a better way to describe the capabilities of the Semantic Web than how it was presented in the first five paragraphs. The anecdote used was a great way to take stray from the technical terms and definitions of the power of semantic web and to put it forth in a way that someone could easily see how beneficial it will be.
I really liked how in the story Pete was able to reformulate the plan within his own parameters. Rather than starting all over the agent immediately adapted to the previous parameters along with the new ones and provided Pete with a new plan while also notifying him of some possible deficiencies.
Semantic Web almost has a robotic feel to it. Whether it be R2-D2 or the creepy villain robot in that Will Smith thriller I-Robot. It's as if it's able to use what it already knows from our current web and it's able to branch out further and branch the communication barriers between humans and computers.
I'd really like to see some sort of timetable or prediction on win many think Semantic Web will be used at the level that our current Internet is today. It's great to think of this as the future but it would be nice to see how long we'll have to wait to be able to use the real thing.
This is what I'm talking about. This is the type of article I like to read. I couldn't think of a better way to describe the capabilities of the Semantic Web than how it was presented in the first five paragraphs. The anecdote used was a great way to take stray from the technical terms and definitions of the power of semantic web and to put it forth in a way that someone could easily see how beneficial it will be.
I really liked how in the story Pete was able to reformulate the plan within his own parameters. Rather than starting all over the agent immediately adapted to the previous parameters along with the new ones and provided Pete with a new plan while also notifying him of some possible deficiencies.
Semantic Web almost has a robotic feel to it. Whether it be R2-D2 or the creepy villain robot in that Will Smith thriller I-Robot. It's as if it's able to use what it already knows from our current web and it's able to branch out further and branch the communication barriers between humans and computers.
I'd really like to see some sort of timetable or prediction on win many think Semantic Web will be used at the level that our current Internet is today. It's great to think of this as the future but it would be nice to see how long we'll have to wait to be able to use the real thing.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Reading Response 11
Gruber 1995 - Ontologies as a Specification Mechanism
The first question I would have after reading over these two section's in Gruber's article is whether or not an ER diagram can be described as an ontology map? They seem very similar and while I have some experience in the field of ER diagrams in relation to databases I actually hadn't come across the word ontology (or maybe I have and just wasn't paying attention). Is there a difference between the two?
I'd be lying if I said that this particular reading wasn't very difficult for me to get through. It involves a lot of new terms that I've never seen or read about so I'm sitting here with more questions that responses. Another thing I was hoping to get a better understanding of was Gruber's comments about "The Knowledge Level" perspective. I guess I didn't completely understand the definition or the explanation that was given in terms of agents and actions.
If I had to give a definition of my own for ontologies it would probably be a representation of a set of concepts based on a certain topic and the relationships between those concepts. I hope that is right, or at least I'm on the right track.
The first question I would have after reading over these two section's in Gruber's article is whether or not an ER diagram can be described as an ontology map? They seem very similar and while I have some experience in the field of ER diagrams in relation to databases I actually hadn't come across the word ontology (or maybe I have and just wasn't paying attention). Is there a difference between the two?
I'd be lying if I said that this particular reading wasn't very difficult for me to get through. It involves a lot of new terms that I've never seen or read about so I'm sitting here with more questions that responses. Another thing I was hoping to get a better understanding of was Gruber's comments about "The Knowledge Level" perspective. I guess I didn't completely understand the definition or the explanation that was given in terms of agents and actions.
If I had to give a definition of my own for ontologies it would probably be a representation of a set of concepts based on a certain topic and the relationships between those concepts. I hope that is right, or at least I'm on the right track.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Reading Response 10
Let Semantics Bring Sophistication to Your Applications
I completely agree with Coffin when he discusses how search's become too literal with your queries and it's something I deal with on a daily basis. It occurs quite often when searching for help with certain software nowadays especially when that software happens to have its name pulled from a completely different subject, like Green Pepper for example.
I hope it's okay but after reading the short bit about Semantic Web I wanted to focus my reading response more on that topic and the W3C link the article provided on Semantic at the very bottom. The whole idea behind Semantic Web is quite amazing and is definitely something completely new to me. One question I had and couldn't seem to find an answer for is how close is Semantic Web to actually being put in place and used. I'm not sure if that's a stupid question or if it's currently being tested to this day but I noticed the quotes phrased "Semantic Web is expected to..." Expected to when? When will this type of coding be realistic and how will it affect our current world wide web once it's finally unleashed?
If the introduction of a Semantic Web comes about, it's pretty amazing to think that it would change those Green Pepper queries from the expected results of recipes and cooking techniques to reviews and how-to's for the new software. I'm still a little confused about how it all would work but it is a pretty astounding concept.
I completely agree with Coffin when he discusses how search's become too literal with your queries and it's something I deal with on a daily basis. It occurs quite often when searching for help with certain software nowadays especially when that software happens to have its name pulled from a completely different subject, like Green Pepper for example.
I hope it's okay but after reading the short bit about Semantic Web I wanted to focus my reading response more on that topic and the W3C link the article provided on Semantic at the very bottom. The whole idea behind Semantic Web is quite amazing and is definitely something completely new to me. One question I had and couldn't seem to find an answer for is how close is Semantic Web to actually being put in place and used. I'm not sure if that's a stupid question or if it's currently being tested to this day but I noticed the quotes phrased "Semantic Web is expected to..." Expected to when? When will this type of coding be realistic and how will it affect our current world wide web once it's finally unleashed?
If the introduction of a Semantic Web comes about, it's pretty amazing to think that it would change those Green Pepper queries from the expected results of recipes and cooking techniques to reviews and how-to's for the new software. I'm still a little confused about how it all would work but it is a pretty astounding concept.
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