Jun Fujima

Clip, connect, clone: combining application elements to build custom interfaces for information access

Many applications provide a form-like interface for requesting information: the user fills in some fields, submits the form, and the application presents corresponding results. Such a procedure becomes burdensome if (1) the user must submit many different requests, for example in pursuing a trial-and-error search, (2) results from one application are to be used as inputs for another, requiring the user to transfer them by hand, or (3) the user wants to compare results, but only the results from one request can be seen at a time. We describe how users can reduce this burden by creating custom interfaces using three mechanisms: clipping of input and result elements from existing applications to form cells on a spreadsheet; connecting these cells using formulas, thus enabling result transfer between applications; and cloning cells so that multiple requests can be handled side by side. We demonstrate a prototype of these mechanisms, initially specialised for handling Web applications, and show how it lets users build new interfaces to suit their individual needs.

C3W: clipping, connecting and cloning for the web

Many of todays Web applications support just simple trial-and error retrievals: supply one set of parameters, obtain one set of results. For a user who wants to examine a number of alternative retrievals, this form of interaction is inconvenient and frustrating. It can be hard work to keep finding and adjusting the parameter specification widgets buried in a Web page, and to remember or record each result set. Moreover, when using diverse Web applicationsin combination - transferring result data from one into the parameters for another - the lack of an easy way to automate that transfer merely increases the frustration. Our solution is to integrate techniques for each of three key activities: clipping elements from Web pages to wrap an application; connecting wrapped applications using spreadsheet-like formulas; and cloning the interfaceelements so that several sets of parameters and results may behandled in parallel. We describe a prototype that implements this solution, showing how it enables rapid and flexible exploration ofthe resources accessible through user-chosen combinations of Web applications. Our aim in this work is to contribute to research on making optimal use of the wealth of information on the Web, by providing interaction techniques that address very practical needs.

Meme Media for Clipping and Combining Web Resources

The publication and reuse of intellectual resources using the Web technologies provide no support for us to clip out any portion of Web pages, to combine them together for their local reuse, nor to publish the newly composed object as a new Web page for its reuse by other people. This paper shows how the meme-media architecture is applied to the Web to provide such support for us. This makes the Web work as a shared repository not only for publishing intellectual resources, but also for their collaborative reediting. We will propose a general framework for clipping arbitrary Web contents as live objects, for defining IO ports on such a clip, and for the recombination and linkage of such clips based on both the original and some user-defined relationships among them. In our previous works, we proposed two separate frameworks for these three purposes; one works for the first two, and the other for the last. Here we will propose a unified framework for these three purposes, as well as its detailed internal mechanisms. Then we show how it can be easily applied to various legacy Web applications to develop innovative services.

Spreadsheet-based Framework for Interactive 3D Visualization of Web Resources

We propose a spreadsheet-based visualization framework for end-users to generate and modify multiple 3D visualizations of data-sets from various Web resources. In this paper, first, we provide a 3D component-based access mechanism to Web resources. It allows users to access various Web resources using only 3D visual components interactively. Second, we provide an interactive 3D visualization mechanism. It enables users to construct multiple 3D visualizations of data-sets from various Web resources just by combining 3D visual components. Third, we provide 2D components for communicating between a spreadsheet and 3D components. Users can export necessary functions of 3D components and define synchronization between these components and cells on a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet environment allows us to define relationships among cells, and copy these relationships through a copy and paste manipulation. By using these mechanisms, users can create multiple visualizations in parallel in order to compare different visualization results simultaneously for different visualization parameters just through a users direct manipulation.

Subjunctive interfaces in exploratory e-learning

E-learning deals with knowledge management, for sure, and knowledge management very frequently results in learning. So far, there is an obviously close relationship between the two disciplines. However, deeper insights do not arise easily. Here we investigate how one approach to enhancing information-access interfaces may inspire an improvement in knowledge management for e-learning. Subjunctive interfaces support users in investigating and visualizing information obtained in parallel through multiple enquiries. A wide spectrum of exploratory e-learning approaches may benefit from adopting and adapting the subjunctive interface concept.

Meme media for the knowledge federation over the web and pervasive computing environments

Although Web technologies enabled us to publish and to browse intellectual resources, they do not enable people to reedit and redistribute intellectual resources, including not only documents but also tools and services, published in the Web. Meme media technologies were proposed to solve this problem, and to accelerate the evolution of intellectual resources accumulated over the Web. Meme media technologies will make the Web work as a pervasive computing environment, i.e., an open system of computing resources in which users can dynamically select and interoperate some of these computing resources to perform their jobs satisfying their dynamically changing demands. Federation denotes ad hoc definition and/or execution of interoperation among computing resources that are not a priori assumed to interoperate with each other. We define knowledge federation as federation of computing resources published in the form of documents. This paper reviews and reinterprets meme media technologies from a new view point of knowledge federation over the Web and pervasive computing environments. It focuses on the following four aspects of meme media technologies: (1) media architectures for reediting and redistributing intellectual resources, (2) client-side middleware technologies for application frameworks, (3) view integration technologies for the interoperation and graphical integration of legacy applications, and (4) knowledge federation technologies for pervasive computing environments.

Media Multiplicity at Your Fingertips: Direct Manipulation Based on Webbles

Webble Technology is the most recent form of Intelligent Pad. Webbles are objects in a browser window that allow for direct manipulation by drag and drop. One may pick up any Webble and move it over any other one for operational combination. The new Webble is plugged into the previous one and data between them flow through predefined slots. Human users may reconfigure the slot connections of Webbles as necessary. The technology is ready to deal with a great multiplicity of media ranging from text, audio, pictures and video through building blocks of interactive laboratories to highly abstract objects such as decision trees and partial recursive functions. This makes Webbles particularly appropriate for e-learning. The paper aims at an intense workshop discussion of the reach of the technology putting emphasis on the didactic potential of directly manipulating a manifold of digital media types.

Meme Media and Knowledge Federation

This paper first clarifies two major difficulties that prevents our maximum utilization of web resources; the difficulty to find appropriate ones, and the difficulty to make them work together. It focuses on the latter problem, and proposes ad hocknowledge federation technologies as key technologies for its solution. Then it reviews our groups 15 year research on meme media, as well as his 6 year research on their application to ad hocknowledge federation of web resources. Then it proposes an extension of the Web to the memetic Web. This extension is brought by the recent significant revision of the 2D meme media architecture. Finally it shows some new applications of these technologies.

Web Application Orchestration Using Excel

Form-based Web applications described in HTML can be easily used by end-users. In order to enable end-users to define a series of tasks by combining multiple Web resources, it is necessary to provide an orchestration environment for Web applications. A spreadsheet is one of the most popular applications for office workers. It provides an end- user programming environment. In this paper, we propose a spreadsheet-based environment for end-users to orchestrate multiple Web applications. First, we provide a method for embedding various Web resources in spreadsheet cells as visual components in order to reuse them on the spreadsheet. Second, we propose an access method for embedded components using the special function in the formula language. Our approach enables users to define the complex coordination of multiple Web applications on the spreadsheet using the formula language.

Meme Media and Meme Pools for Re-editing and Redistributing Intellectual Assets

While the current Web technologies have allowed us to publish intellectual assets in world-wide repositories, to browse their huge accumulation, and to download some assets, we have no good tools yet to flexibly re-edit and redistribute such intellectual assets for their reuse in different contexts. This paper reviews the IntelligentPad and Intelligent-Box meme media architectures together with their potential applications, proposes both the use of XML/XSL or XHTML to define pads, and a world-wide web of meme pools. When applied to Web documents and services, meme media and meme pool technologies allow us to annotate Web pages with any types of meme media objects, and to extract and make any portions of them work as meme media objects. We can functionally combine such extracted meme media objects with each other or with other application meme media objects, and redistribute composite meme media objects for their further reuses by other people.