1,683 research outputs found
An Agent Based Approach To Finding Expertise In The Engineering Design Environment
No full textDuring the engineering design process people need to locate colleagues with knowledge to resolve a problem. As identified by discussions with practicing designers the use of computer based systems that assist users with finding such expertise will become increasingly important. In this paper we discuss the development of an agent based Expertise Finder suitable for use within an engineering design environment. A key feature of our approach is that the Expertise Finder returns both recommended contacts and supporting documentation. The Expertise Finder bases its results on information held within the organisation, for example publications, human resource records, and not on personally compiled CVs or user maintained records. The recommendations are presented to the user with due regard to the social context. The technology used in the exemplar application allows the development of distributed, interchangeable agents that use real time data to find expertise
Approaches to Locating Expertise using Corporate Knowledge
No full textIn many organisations people need to locate colleagues with knowledge and information to resolve a problem. Computer based systems that assist users with finding such expertise are increasingly important to industrial organisations. In this paper we discuss the development of Expertise Finders suitable for use within the engineering design environment as illustrated through the use of a scenario. A key feature of this work is that the Expertise Finder returns both recommended contacts and supporting documentation. The Expertise Finder bases its results on information held within the organisation, for example on-line publications repositories, human resource records and not on individually compiled Curriculum Vitaes or other forms of user maintained records. The recommendations are presented to the user with due regard to the social context, and are supported by the documents used to make the recommendation
An open hypermedia link service architecture supporting multiple context models
No full textOpen hypermedia concerns itself with finding ways to provide links between information using systems that allow the direct manipulation of links. These systems are generally built in component fashion, a major component will be the Link Service. This thesis extends previous work on building link services for the World Wide Web in order to improve the quality of linking that can be provided. A link service delivers links into Web pages dynamically, this allows the system the opportunity to adapt the links to suit the user and content. The more general form of this adaption is to deliver links in some context. The core of this work is to examine how to generalise the delivery of links in context so that new context models and techniques can be introduced without writing a new link service each time. This thesis examines the problem of defining models of context and how different models are often incompatible. It introduces a new architecture for exploring methods of providing links in context. The architecture consists of a core infrastructure along with a method for dynamically changing the components of the system concerned with the link model and the computation process for generating the final link to deliver. The effectiveness of the architecture is explored through the undertaking of a number of projects using real-world data. The limits of the design are explored and the analysis focuses on how successful it is possible to be given the goals set.</p
Experiences in designing highly adaptable expertise finder systems
No full textA strategy or method for identifying an expert is at the core of any Expertise Finder system. The strategy used must reflect the social requirements of the organisation and its assets, culture and technology. An Expertise Finder strategy must attempt to emulate the steps a member of that organisation would do to find the answer to their questions. Our collaboration with a large manufacturing enterprise has helped us evolve an approach to building Expertise Finder systems. Our approach contains the required flexibility to cope with the mix of technological, social and legacy factors that make each deployment of an Expertise Finder system very different to any other. The component based design allows a deployer to customise the basic system to utilise their relevant technical resources and then to build a unique strategy algorithm to produce a valid set of recommendations. The design produces challenging questions of how to produce a procedure for designing, deploying and evaluating the Expertise Finder strategy. This paper discusses the evolution of this design strategy and summarises our experiences to date
First observation of the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff
No full textThe High Resolution Fly's Eye Detector has observed the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff at the level of 5sigma. The flux of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from 10^17.2eV to 10^20.2eV has been measured. From the features seen in the spectrum it is found to
be consistent with extra-galactic Cosmic Rays of a light composition (mostly protons). A detector simulation is used to calculate the aperture of the experiment. Data-Monte Carlo comparisons are shown as
a check of the accuracy of the simulation. Systematic effects of the detector and analysis are described and the effect on energy scale are presented.
We have carried out a study of the cosmic ray shower development. The results are compared to Monte Carlo simulations and theoretical predictions. This is the first time data has been analyzed in this way at such high energies. Events are found to agree with the Gaisser-Hillas profile which is used as input to the Monte Carlo and to calculate the primary particle energy.
Finally the Telescope Array (TA) experiment is described and its proposed Low Energy Extension (TALE). The effect of using a faster FADC system on the geometrical reconstruction is investigated. The results from this study will be used in the design of TALE electronics.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-133)by Gareth Hughe
Making tea: iterative design through analogy
No full textThe success of translating an analog or manual practice into a digital interactive system may depend on how well that translation captures not only the functional what and how aspects of the practice, but the why of the process as well. Addressing these attributes is particularly challenging when there is a gap in expertise between the design team and the domain to be modeled. In this paper, we describe Making Tea, a design method foregrounding the use of analogy to bridge the gap between design team knowledge and domain expertise. Making Tea complements more traditional user-centered design approaches such as ethnography and task analysis. In this paper, we situate our work with respect to other related design methods such as Cultural Probes and Artifact Walkthroughs. We describe the process by which we develop, validate and use analogy in order to maximize expert contact time in observation, interviews, design reviews and evaluation. We contextualize the method in a discussion of its use in a project we ran to replace a paper-based analytical chemistry lab book with an interactive system for use in a pervasive lab environment
Academic information management: an open linking approach
No full textThis paper describes a Web based document management system developed as a Lotus Domino application and the continuing research work of providing users with a variety of link services and agents that enhance the basic content of the system. The system is designed for use by administration personnel in an academic environment taking into account the wide variety of systems and methods already in use. Users do not need to know how to author Web pages as the source material for the system are files produced by common word processors. The system features a number of management tools to complement this concept written into the Domino application. The document management system is complemented by the use of an open linking service to dynamically cross-reference the documents
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
An Agent Based Approach to Finding Expertise
Get PDFIn many organisations people need to locate colleagues with knowledge and information to resolve a problem. Computer based systems that assist users with finding such expertise are increasingly important to organizations and scientific communities. In this paper we discuss the development of an agent based expertise finder (EF) suitable for use within an academic research environment. A key feature of this work is that the EF returns both recommended contacts and supporting documentation. The EF bases its results on information held within the organisation, for example publications, human resource records and not on CVs or user maintained records. The recommendations are presented to the user with due regard to the social context, and are supported by the documents used to make the recommendation. The technology used allows the development of distributed, interchangeable agents that use realtime data to find expertise. It is our intention to use this approach within manufacturing and other knowledge intensive organisations
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