[Hidden-tech] need thoughts on future search tools for kid's book

davidtoday at comcast.net davidtoday at comcast.net
Mon Apr 28 11:48:34 EDT 2008


Amy,

The good news is that "search" has moved a long way toward the practical
from its inception within the overall notion of Artificial Intelligence.
The challenge is that the path forward went through a compile-and-retrieve
stage and is still somewhat in that stage.  However, among with many other
ideas, it's beginning to move toward using faceted tools to collapse a set
of queries across the relevant ontologies (rules) for a given domain and its
detailed taxonomies (terms or jargon for domain-specific concepts).

Facets represent aspects or topics of interest.  Facets themselves turn out
to be simply one element in a broader array of tools that leverage new work
being done on advanced semantic technologies along lines that depart sharply
from the social networking and tagging often associated with semantics.

For example, your students of Africa can use facet-based tools to hone in on
the right mix of structured and unstructured material to resolve topics of
interest (a) in a domain centered on Africa, or perhaps (b) in alternative
domains centered on global warming or food shortage or post-colonial
political economy.  Interestingly, flexible faceted tools work equally well
for enterprise managers who need to take action on topics vital to their
business activity or organizational purpose (which define the domains within
which they have facets of interest).

Additional tools can "learn" entire domains and then use persistent agents
to provide preremptive alerts when anything new comes into view.  This is
highly relevant to support any process-based activity (again, such as
running an organization as mentioned above, or running a classroom aimed at
a given evolving topic, such as Africa).  Other analytic tools can assess
interest, intensity, and intent based on a person's interaction with any
choice-based system, which some outfits--or teachers--might find valuable.

You'll notice that nothing here has anything to do with a person's physical
network device, although displaying results is always a practical factor.

This all comes to mind because your question connected with a new hi-tech
non-profit that specializes in research on advanced semantic technologies as
described above.  I'm a founding member.  Please feel free to contact me
directly if you have questions--for example, do you think Dutton may see
value for you and them if your new book also discusses advanced semantic
technologies as noted above, such as facet-based market access tools, etc?

Best regards,

David Morf
Market Data Consulting
Complexity, context, pattern
136 Dartmouth Street
Holyoke, MA 01040
 
413-536-0944 (direct)
413-426-6059 (cell)
davidtoday at comcast.net 
 
A founding member of the Center for Semantic Excellence
www.semanticexcellence.org

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Hi all,

I've got a wonderful (I think) book coming out with Dutton next year 
called 2030. It's all about life in the future. The co-author is 
James Daly who founded Business 2.0 and works for George Lucas.

We'd be really, really grateful for advice on what the bots of the 
future will be (circa 2030). The original text is below and the 
editor's suggestion (pretty much dissed) is below that. Jim thought 
we ought to talk about "spiders," but that's so today.

Anyone out there have a thought on what search tools of the future 
will be like or called? This has to be something in R & D or 
conceptualized today. I'll try to get you an acknowledgement for your time.

best,

Amy Zuckerman
HT Founder


Here is the original text:

In social studies class you are studying Africa. Your teacher asks 
you to find an article on your desktop computer about the people of 
Central Africa. By 2030 there is so much information on the web that 
you need a software tool called a 'bot to help find the data. 'Bots 
are animated computer figures that ask questions to make your data 
search easier.

Here is my suggestion for changing it...

In social studies class you are studying Africa. Your teacher asks 
you to find an article on your desktop computer about the people of 
Central Africa.By 2030,computer memory has grown so large, that all 
knowledge since the dawn of civilization will be available on line. 
Using special "thinking" software called Artificial Intelligence, the 
computer will not only find the answer to your question but will also 
try to guess what else you might need before you ask it.


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