Michael Sanford Nilan

A re-examination of relevance: toward a dynamic, situational definition

Abstract Although relevance judgments are fundamental to the design and evaluation of all information retrieval systems, information scientists have not reached a consensus in defining the central concept of relevance. In this paper we ask two questions: What is the meaning of relevance? and What role does relevance play in information behavior? We attempt to address these questions by reviewing literature over the last 30 years that presents various views of relevance as topical, user-oriented, multidimensional, cognitive, and dynamic. We then discuss traditional assumptions on which most research in the field has been based and begin building a case for an approach to the problem of definition based on alternative assumptions. The dynamic, situational approach we suggest views the user — regardless of system — as the central and active determinant of the dimensions of relevance. We believe that relevance is a multidimensional concept; that it is dependent on both internal (cognitive) and external (situational) factors; that it is based on a dynamic human judgment process; and that it is a complex but systematic and measurable phenomenon.

Exploring Web users’ optimal flow experiences

Characterizations of users’ experiences on the Web are beginning to appear. Recently released research suggests that Internet use may reduce psychological well‐being, for instance by increasing loneliness and depression. Our current study implies that using the Internet may provoke enjoyable experiences through the flow state, which may in turn positively influence an individual’s subjective well‐being and improve a person’s happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect. By surveying 304 Web users through an open‐ended questionnaire, this study captures a picture of Web users’ flow experiences regarding their optimal situations on the Web. Results suggest that using the World Wide Web is an activity that facilitates flow, which generates an optimal, extremely enjoyable experience with total involvement and concentration. Symptoms and dimensions of flow states on the Web are reported directly from subjects’ responses, such as merging of action and awareness, a loss of self‐consciousness, the sense of time distortion, enjoyment, and telepresence.

Toward a reconceptualization of information seeking research: focus on the exchange of meaning

This paper reports the results of a preliminary study of interpersonal information seeking interactions between a user and a human information source. The study showed that users specify their information needs (uncertainty) largely in terms of what they know (certainty) during the interaction. The articulated certainty and uncertainty in the interaction can be classified as utterances focusing on either the topic (what the user is talking about) or comment (how that topic fits in with the users situation or problem). We suggest that user studies in information seeking research should conceptually realign from an emphasis on users uncertainty- and topic-based matching to the inclusion of users certainty and comment dimensions in order to develop a more linguistically robust, multi-dimensional approach to matching for information retrieval.

Organisations as virtual communities: a sense-making approach for uniting knowledge consumers and knowledge workers

We propose virtual communities created around specific problems or ranges of problems on which organisations and consumers collaborate to solve. We propose two independent but compatible conceptualisations of sense-making behaviour as theoretic and methodological approaches for the basic interaction in virtual communities where dealing with problems is the primary activity.

Conceptualizing Virtual Collaborative Work

The purpose of this paper is to define the phenomena associated with virtual collaborative work from both a cognitive and social cognitive perspective. The authors put forth an approach that assumes all people are natural sense-makers, sense-givers and organizers. The authors posit that the collaborative work we observe within both informal (ad hoc teams or communities) and formal (organizational) environments derives from fundamental, ubiquitous cognitive and social behavior intimately tied to context-specific problems or situations. The paper begins by challenging the need to re-define terms like “virtual” and “team” in a manner which works to subtly shift the focus of study from “proximal vs. distributed” to the more fruitful “fundamental behavior vs. technological constraints.” The paper then presents a framework for virtual collaborative work and discusses its implications on issues related to teams, leadership, creativity, and the design and use of information technology.