1. Collaboration: Bad Words and Strong Documents
COOP2006 7th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, Marseille, May 10, 2006
Cooperative Systems Design:
Seamless Integration of Artifacts and Conversations - Enhanced Concepts of Infrastructure for Communication
Collaboration: Bad Words and Strong Documents
Michael Buckland
Summary and powerpoint at
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

2. All documents are artifacts but are all artefacts documents?
Conversations use words
but words are problematic.
Three perspectives:
Looking in: Design of cooperative systems.
Looking out: Documents in society
Looking sideways: Words in documentation.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

3. Documents pervade society!
Documents in society
-- Lawyers and law courts use documents as evidence, as proof.
-- Educators use documents (textbooks, instructional materials) to teach, to empower and diminish teachers.
-- Scientists use documents (articles, offprints) as the archive of achievement and for personal status.
-- Media specialists and publicists use documents to persuade.
-- Governments use documents to exercise social control.
-- Religions use documents for authority and adherence.
-- Patriots use documents to commemorate and for loyalty.
-- Artists create documents to inspire and to challenge.
-- Commerce is based on documented transactions. The transition to reliable digital documents is a major challenge in commerce
-- etc., etc.
Documents pervade society!
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

4. What is a document?
“Tout indice concret ou symbolique, conservé ou enregristré, aux fins de représenter, de reconstituter ou de prouver un phénomène ou physique ou intellectuel.” Suzanne Briet Qu’est-ce que la documentation (1951; English translation 2006).
“Any concrete or symbolic indexical sign, preserved or recorded towards the ends of representing, of reconstituting, or of proving a physical or intellectual phenomenon.”
Is a star a document?
Is a stone in the river a document?
Is an antelope a document?
A phenomenological, semiotic perspective
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

5. Elements of a document Document -- perceived Universe of documents
Document – expressed
-- Code, language
-- Mode of expression
-- Technology
Universe of documents
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

6. 1. Phenomenological aspect: Documents are objects perceived as signifying something. The status of being a “document” is not inherent but attributed (given to) an object. Meanings are always constructed by observers.
2. Cultural codes: All forms of expression depend on some some shared understandings, language in a broad sense. Convergence here is cultural convergence or interpretation.
Character Status
3. Media Types: Different type of expression have evolved: Texts, images, numbers, diagrams, art …
4. Physical Media: Paper; film; analog magnetic tape; bits;….
Anything perceived as a DOCUMENT (=1) has cultural (2), type (3), and physical (4) aspects.
Being digital affects directly only aspect 4.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

7. Collections of documents need indexing
Documentary languages: Subject headings, classification, etc.
Indexer is forward-looking: Using words for future use:
Briet: “Comme le chien du chasseur – tout à fait en avant, guidé, guidant” (Like a hunting dog, out in front, guided and guiding).
Indexer is backward-looking: “About X” necessarily refers to past discussion / dialog / description concerning what is now named X.
Indexing is inscribed in a point in time; time continues. So all indexing is necessarily obsolescent.
Names and technology: Mention (using this word) is not Meaning (having this sense).
. . . and worse!
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

8. Language evolves differently in different social groups
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

9. Dialects and contexts Ludwig Wittgenstein:
Language games: meaning is constituted through activity / language usage (different contexts)
Language regions: language games differ in different language zones (different dialects)
 Language is disambiguated within contexts and specialized dialects.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

10. Words and Documentation: Indexing and searching problem
Concept
Space
Concept
Space
Match!
Text
Question
Search
Statement
Document
Representation
Author
Searcher
Mapping between searcher’s words and indexing system terms
Mapping between author’s words and indexing terminology
Mapping between search query and document metadata
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

11. Individuals from different communities need different help
Did you mean…
Specialty
Specialty
Search
Statement
Specialty
Specialty
Specialty
Specialty Term
Based on the idea that different specialties (discourses) have different dialects = vocabularies and will therefore suggest different contexts (terms) for a question posed.
Specialty
Specialty
Information Collection
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

12. Exploratory Search Interfaces: Medical specialties
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

13. Performance of Search Term Recommender: Ohsumed
First 3 suggested:
Recall: 26%
Precision: 25.6%
Because the average number of assigned controlled vocabulary terms is lower than in the Inspec collection (3 versus 7), especially the recall but also precision values at the various cut-off levels can be expected to be higher. The results show that the improvement of the specialty search term recommenders over the general search term recommender is much higher in this collection. The specialty STRs achieve a 17.1% better recall rate and a 18.1% better precision rate.
As with the Inspec collection, the specialty STRs show a more marked improvement in the highest ranked predictions: for the three first suggested controlled vocabulary terms, the improvement over the general STR is 26% for recall and 25.6% for precision.
Recall and precision at 10 cut-off levels for specialty and general search term recommenders (averaged over 33 specialties) in the Ohsumed collection.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

14. Exploratory search term interfaces in different discourses
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

15. Effect on retrieval of using specialists’ words in Inspec
Effect on retrieval of using specialists’ words in Inspec. Four degrees of specialization: Entire data base -- Computers & Control -- Computer Hardware -- Circuits & Devices.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

16. Exploratory Search Interfaces by Vivien Petras
Inspec: Physics, engineering, computing, control
Medline (Ohsumed)
Acknowledgements: This presentation draws on the work of Robert Fairthorne, Fredric Gey, Ray Larson, Vivien Petras, Patrick Wilson, and others and the support of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles

17. See also:
FIDDLES
Thank you!
April 19
COOP2006, Marseilles