Interactive Search and Information Organization: Methods to Support Searching, Learning and Sensemaking

Analyzing and exploring large object collections or retrieving specific information from it are tasks we frequently perform. While searching for specific bits of information in the Web is for many common information needs already well supported by existing search technologies, more challenging explorative (re)search tasks that require combining, linking, structuring and analyzing (sub)sets of data are not yet appropriately supported. Typical examples are law and patent search and investigative journalism, but also research in the digital humanities would strongly benefit from tools that support interactive exploration of complex and feature rich collections like historical archives or social networks and media. This talk will point out underlying issues and motivates how exploratory (re)search processes can be supported by user adaptive technologies. The talk will especially focus on methods that are able to use rich metadata and contextual information of huge data collections – e.g. extracted from user interaction and ontologies – as bias or constrained for interactive and collaborative searching, learning and sensemaking.

Andreas Nürnberger Faculty of Computer Science Otto von Guericke, University Magdeburg, Germany