Sven Schwarz

Weakly-structured workflows for knowledge-intensive tasks: an experimental evaluation

Knowledge work cannot typically be modeled sufficiently by classical, static process models. To enable a process-oriented knowledge management (KM) approach under these circumstances, the concept of weakly-structured workflows has been developed. This approach intertwines process modeling and workflow enactment and facilitates active information support in dynamically changing environments. Furthermore, the approach allows process knowledge itself to be used as a valuable resource in KM. In order to investigate whether this approach is viable and useful for supporting knowledge-intensive activities we designed and performed a comprehensive experimental evaluation. We outline the conceptual approach and realization in an agent-based software framework for organizational memories and describe the experimental settings. The results of the experiment demonstrate the viability of our key concepts.

Text 2.0

We discuss the idea of text responsive to reading and argue that the combination of eye tracking, text and real time interaction offers various possibilities to en- hance the reading experience. We present a number of prototypes and applications facilitating the users gaze in order to assist comprehension difficulties and show their benefit in a preliminary evaluation.

A context model for personal knowledge management applications

In the research project EPOS we build a pro-active, context-sensitive support system to aid the user with his knowledge work, which is mostly about searching, reading, creating, and archiving of documents. In order to avoid distracting the user, the context gathering is realized by installable user observation plugins for standard applications such as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. The main part of this paper is about the definition of a context model for the personal knowledge management domain. The context model incorporates only contextual elements relevant to satisfy the knowledge workers potential information need. It stores only information items known to the user (such as links to his own documents, folders, etc.), as well as, shared ontologies to assure an understanding of the context. The context is modeled in RDF/S and can be retrieved by contextaware applications from the context support system via an XML-RPC call.

Gnowsis adapter framework: treating structured data sources as virtual RDF graphs

The integration of heterogenous data sources is a crucial step for the upcoming semantic web – if existing information is not integrated, where will the data come from that the semantic web builds on? In this paper we present the gnowsis adapter framework, an implementation of an RDF graph system that can be used to integrate structured data sources, together with a set of already implemented adapters that can be used in own applications or extended for new situations. We will give an overview of the architecture and implementation details together with a description of the common problems in this field and our solutions, leading to an outlook on the future developments we expect. Using our presented results, researchers can generate test data for experiments and practitioners can access their desktop data sources as RDF graph.

The text 2.0 framework: writing web-based gaze-controlled realtime applications quickly and easily

We created a simple-to-use framework to construct gaze-responsive applications using web technology focussing on text. A plugin enables any compatible browser to interpret a new set of gaze handlers that behave similar to existing HTML and JavaScript mouse and keyboard event facilities. Keywords like onFixation, onGazeOver, and onRead can be attached to parts of the DOM tree and are triggered on the corresponding viewing behavior. The plugin is part of a distributed architecture featuring a remote gaze provider and a number of assisting services and tools. Using this framework we implemented a number of applications providing help on comprehension difficulties.

Contextualized Knowledge Acquisition in a Personal Semantic Wiki

The use of semantic representations in document-oriented environments --- as formal annotations or embedded instances of a formal knowledge base --- is seen as an enabling technology for intelligent services which may help knowledge workers in tasks like finding, structuring, or assessing information. Also, a high level of formalization has potential to directly support problem solving, e.g., by the application of inferencing services. A coupling of textual and formal representations in document-centered knowledge work raises, amongst others, two questions: i) How can the acquisition of formal knowledge in such an environmentbe facilitated? ii) How can the potential complexity of formal annotationsduring a documents life and use cycle be adequately handled? We present the Mymory workbench as an approach to investigate and tackle these challenges. Mymory is based on a semantic wiki system and supports manual as well as automated annotations of wiki documents. These annotations can be framed by automatically obtained models of the users work context, establishing situation-oriented structuring of annotations which can be exploited in semantic search and adapted document presentation.

Weaving Personal Knowledge Spaces into Office Applications

The paper presents recent developments in our research on Semantic Desktop for personal knowledge management supported by an ecosystem of applications and plug-ins using the knowledge worker’s Personal Information Model (PIMO) – a formal representation of his mental model for knowledge work – in everyday applications. We explain how the infrastructure enables the availability of the PIMO as one vocabulary throughout different applications as well as mobile access, the importance of the mental model in the PIMO, and how to get direct benefits from the PIMO in daily activities. We also address steps towards building a Group Information Model from individual PIMOs within the ecosystem.

Mymory: enhancing a semantic wiki with context annotations

For document-centric work, meta-information in form of annotations has proven useful to enhance search and other retrieval tasks. The Mymory project uses a web-based workbench based on the semantic wiki Kaukolu that allows annotating texts both with concepts modeled in the users personal information model and other ontologies in a flexible way. Annotations get enriched with contextual information gathered by a context elicitation component. Reading annotations are created with the help of an eyetracker. In the demonstration, we use contextualized annotations and semantic search using annotations in order to support knowledge workers in the domain of software licenses.

EPOS : evolving personal to organizational knowledge spaces

EPOS will leverage the user´s personal workspace with its manyfold native information structures to his personal knowledge space and in cooperation with other personal workspaces contribute to the organizational knowledge space which is represented in the organizational memory. This first milestone presents results from the project´s first year in the areas of the personal informational model, user observation for context elicitation, collaborative information retrieval and information visualization.

Diary generation from personal information models to support contextual remembering and reminiscence

Human remembering is a process vulnerable to producing errors in addition to unintentional forgetting which is often undesired. To support contextualised remembering and reminiscence we propose an application that is able to write diaries on demand. Without any considerable effort these diaries can be generated for every period of a persons life that is reflected in their personal information model. This model is a cornerstone of the Semantic Desktop approach which serves as the ecosystem that helps us realize our vision. In this paper, we describe our concept in more detail and also provide an overview of related diary and timeline applications. Additionally, we present a proof of concept implementation as well as results of an early user experience evaluation. Finally, we give an outlook on remaining challenges to be tackled as well as possible future work.