From bayle@fuji.Stanford.EDU Wed Mar 9 00:59:33 1994 Return-Path: Received: from fuji.Stanford.EDU by Xenon.Stanford.EDU with SMTP (5.61+IDA/25-CS-eef) id AA05275; Wed, 9 Mar 94 00:59:32 -0800 Received: by fuji.Stanford.EDU (4.1/inc-1.0) id AA28936; Wed, 9 Mar 94 00:59:30 PST Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 00:59:30 PST From: bayle@fuji.Stanford.EDU (Michael Bayle) Message-Id: <9403090859.AA28936@fuji.Stanford.EDU> Subject: Group Six Assignment 7 (HTML) Content-Type: text/x-html Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Courtesy-Of: NCSA Mosaic 2.1 on Sun X-Url: file://localhost/home/fuji/bayle/cs147_assn7_grp6.html Apparently-To: bayle@fugi Apparently-To: lack@leland.Stanford.EDU Apparently-To: adamnash@cs.Stanford.EDU Apparently-To: parnold@CS.Stanford.EDU Apparently-To: parsifal@leland.Stanford.EDU Status: RO Group 6 Assignment 7

Group 6 Assignment 7

Adam Nash, Mike Bayle, Perry Arnold, Afra Zomorodian, Lindsey Lack

Computer Science 147 March 9, 1994

Basic Ontology of the Web Space

After browsing through the Web, we feel that the most significant distinctions are:

The Web creates one cybermachine from the many computers on the network. The distinctions between the many machines disappear in the Web. There is one space of information which can be used by everyone on the single WWW cybermachine.

In the Web, one is able to access any information (text, graphics, etc.) immediately by clicking on the object. Since all the information resides in one space, the old ontology of graphical distinctions evaporates.

The Web combines the ability to access not only hypertext files, but other files, ftp sites, WAIS servers, and gopher servers through one program. Thus, the user can avoid command line arguments and directly manipulate what s/he wants to see.

In the Web, one can access information (WWW pages) from an arbitrary location (not dependent on location, platform, or time).

The Web ontology is the integration and collection of information from many sites (different points on the Web space) in creating new knowledge.

Three Different Guide Structures

I. The Lens Navigational System

The lens navigational system is having a personal lens which reflects the user's preferences and interests. This guidance system mimics normal human perception. A human usually sees only what s/he is interested in seeing, as the human's attention is often focused on the area of perception which is important to her/him by background, interests, ideology, etc. For example, when David Liddle looks at NeXTSTEP, all he sees are "big limestone obelisks." When Steve Jobs looks at the same interface, on the otherhand, he probably sees the pinnacle of human achievement. Clearly, Liddle and Jobs have different "lenses" with which they monitor the environment. These lenses, however, have to be created in some way. One good start for shaping such lenses would be direct user input in form of preferences. Using neural nets, however, one can have a smart system which recognizes the individ ual's particular eccentricities and fine-tunes lenses.

The lens system filters down the entire Web to match one's personality. Therefore, it works for most types of users. For example, this will definitely work best for the beginning user in developing a source page which links out to points of that user's interest. For the advanced user who needs to organize large amounts of information, this particular system might not be appropriate because it is not a categorization method, but a Web-shrinking method.

II. The Global Navigation System

The global navigation system will the give the user the ability to VIEW the entire Web. Specifically, it will present the user with a picture of the Globe. At this point, the user has the option to just browse the world by clicking on spots and travelling to that location (say if s/he wants to go to Russia). If the user doesn't know exactly geographically where s/he wants to go, they can do a search for something and different continents/countries will highlight (and afford selecting) if they contain information relating to the query. For instance, if you wanted to find information about Lenin (which may or may not be contained at Web sites in Russia), you would search for Lenin and the system would highlight the relevant places. As you zoom in, more geographical locaters are highlighted. Each of these levels would contain relevant information (if there was a search) and allow the user to zoom further (i.e. state level, city level, block level). Since many locations might be highlighted af ter a search, the level of affordance for visting each site will be categorized by a continuum to inform the user the relevant importance of each one.

The global navigation system allows the user to visualize the paths where they are getting information. It is quite intuitive to click on a physical representation of where you want to go. This clearly will give the user a chance to browse and collect information from many sites in the world (Web space), thus creating new knowledge. A key factor in this system is you will never become completely lost. One can always zoom back and see where they are on the map (either locally or globally).

III. Travel Agency

The main idea behind the travel agency is that users provide guided tours for other users on the system. A tour is created by a proficient user who browses through the net and links some interesting sites. The tours are then added to the travel agency which ranks them according to subject. So a novice user interested in some subject, let's say HCI, can take "Terry's Adventures in Wonderland" which would be a guided tour on the Web, showing interesting sites. The tourist can leave the tour at any time and browse on her/his own without fear of getting lost, since s/he can return to the guide at any time on command. These tours could also be ranked by a continuum of ratings given by the "tourists" who can comment on their experience with the tour and thus create a potential for quality growth and competition amongst Net-Surfers. Net-Geeks can flaunt how good their tours are and pr ovide entertainment (music videos, gifs, etc.) Some examples are: Gerhard's "Exotic Erotic", Eric Roberts' "Fun with Point ers", etc.

This navigation system is tailored for the novice user. The main approach is having the proficient user teach the Web to the novice. By providing some safe and interesting pathways to the novice user, the unexplored regions of the Web become familiar to that user. Since the user is not afraid of getting lost, these pathways become channels through which the user can browse through the Web, design her/his own tours, and become a proficient user. In a way, this navigation system is a mentor system.