J. Alfredo Sánchez

Conveying mood and emotion in instant messaging by using a two-dimensional model for affective states

We discuss the development and initial experiences with an instant messaging (IM) system that has been enhanced with functionality that facilitates the expression of affective states. This functionality is based on: (1) the use of a graphical, two-dimensional base model developed by psychology researchers; (2) refinements of the base model to allow for increased precision in the expression of affective states while exchanging messages; and (3) the definition of meaningful icons associated with the aforementioned model. Experiments have been conducted which show that users are able to take advantage of the proposed IM enhancements when trying to convey affect.

Towards mood-oriented interfaces for synchronous interaction

This paper presents an approach to representing emotions in synchronous text-based communication which facilitates setting, conveying and perceiving an intended mood in a continuing fashion. We posit that, while chatting, users typically remain in a continual mood for relatively extended periods of time, as compared to the instantaneous representation provided by mechanisms such as smiley faces and emoticons. In order to explore our hypothesis, we built a prototypical instant messaging environment that provides a persistent representation of mood. This representation is based upon a bi-dimensional valence-arousal model of emotions. We report on initial results that indicate that synchronous text-based communication benefits from this approach.

MiBiblio: personal spaces in a digital library universe

This paper describes MiBiblio, a highly personalizable interface to large collections in digital libraries. MiBiblio allows users to create virtual places we term personal spaces. As users find useful items in the repositories, they organize these items and keep them handy in their personal spaces for future use. Personal spaces may also be updated by user agents.

Mutant: agents as guides for multiple taxonomies in the floristic digital library

INTRODUCTION Taxonomy is the study of the general principles of scientific classification. A taxonomy provides a particular way to organize entities in a given realm according to specific criteria. Taxonomies are valuable resources in identifying and understanding newly discovered objects or concepts. Frequently, however, multiple taxonomies exist for the same entities. These arise because different viewpoints serve different purposes or simply because scientists do not always agree on how knowledge can best be organized. We focus on an agentbased solution to the problem of providing access to multiple taxonomic perspectives for a large collection of data. We instantiate this approach in a digital library in which agents serve as guides through multiple plant taxonomies for a distributed community of users interested in botany.

AGS: introducing agents as services provided by digital libraries

This paper presents an architecture for digital libraries that introduces user agents as one of the services available to publishers, librarians and patrons. User agents are the fundamental component of an emerging style of human-computer interaction based on the concept of delegation and indirect management of tasks. In the agent-enabled digital library architecture, termed “AGS”, service providers define classes of agents that describe helpful tasks for patrons. Patrons, in turn, delegate work by selecting agents from the available agent classes and assigning specific tasks to be performed. AGS enables the development of agents that rely on a wide variety of construction approaches while maintaining a unified view of an active environment. AGS is intended to serve as a testbed to investigate alternative user interfaces to digital libraries and, in particular, a host of unexplored issues raised by the introduction of user agents.

HyperActive: extending an open hypermedia architecture to support agency

Agency and hypermedia have both been suggested as powerful means to cope with future information management and human-computer interaction requirements. However, research projects have included interface agents only marginally in the context of hypermedia systems. This article proposes a set of criteria for characterizing interface agents and offers a perspective view of ongoing research in the field using those criteria as a framework. The need to provide a supporting infrastructure that facilitates testing and experimentation of interface agents is stressed. The article describes an existing open hypermedia architecture and introduces an extended architecture that includes provisions to support the development and operation of interface agents. A prototype instantiating this system architecture is presented, as well as an initial assessment of the potential and requirements of interface agents in a hypermedia environment.

Personal spaces in the context of OAI

We describe MiBiblio 2.0, a highly personalizable user interface for a federation of digital libraries under the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). MiBiblio 2.0 allows users to personalize their personal space by choosing the resources and services they need, as well as to organize, classify and manage their workspaces including resources from any of the federated libraries. Results can be kept in personal spaces and organized into categories using a drag-and-drop interface.

An agent-based approach to the construction of floristic digital libraries

This paper describes an agent-assisted approach to the construction of floristic digital libraries, which consist of very large botanical data repositories and related services. We propose an environment, termed Chrysalis, in which authors of plant morphologic descriptions can enter data into a digital library via a web-based editor. An agent that runs concurrently with the editor suggests potentially useful morphologic descriptions based on similar documents existing in the library. Benefits derived from the introduction of Chrysalis include reduced potential for errors and data inconsistencies, increased parallelism among descriptions, and considerable savings in the time regularly spent in visually checking for parallelism and manually editing data.

PoPS: mobile access to digital library resources

Mobile devices not only represent new opportunities for accessing digital libraries (DLs) but also pose a number of challenges given the diversity of their hardware and software features. We describe a framework aimed at facilitating the generation of interfaces for access to DL resources from a wide range of mobile devices.

Generation of usable interfaces for mobile devices

We report on our work aimed at the generation of interfaces for mobile devices that comply with usability guidelines. We conducted a usability study that led to the definition of ten general usability guidelines for mobile devices. We then modified our existing software platform for mobile interface generation so that it enforces the proposed usability guidelines.