1. LAME DUCKS AND FLYING DOGS

2. Information in the digital era ……. (and why you can’t always get what you want) Colin Mc Cullough, eMedia, 14 December 2001

3. The aim of this presentation? - to show we expect too much from today’s web - to show the web was designed for humans not machines - to show why it should be designed for machines - to point (tentatively) to how things MAY improve FAR

4. Which brings up back to ……… ?

5. Why such a silly example? Because it shows the web is not contextual Because it shows we have created in the web a cyber- bicycle for coast to coast or intercontinental travel …and because then we complain!

6. So let us look at and ‘s

7. Any ideas what we find on a search engine? Lame duck?

8. An excellent Californian wine (only $8.50 a bottle) …….. A small publishing house ……… A way of describing LOTS (and lots) of people …….

9. ….and very little about our aquatic friend, the duck

10. We can repeat this exercise for our canine friend And the results would be similar ‘s The flying DOG

11. Basically, therefore, …………. we have a communication problem The stupid web doesn’t understand what I want

12. Why? Simple answer! The web finds words not concepts It has nothing to do with the way I think …. and could care even less about it And don’t complain…it was made to do just that

13. So, I’m right – we expect to much But what about my claim????? It’s designed for humans …not machines? And even worse, and I am telling you I think that’s bad!

14. My defense is simple mathematics The WWW has about 2 billion visible pages They increase by some 7.5 million per day (that’s 312,500 pages an hour) (only 5,200 pages a minute) (O.K….it’s only about 90 pages per second) It’s the largest knowledge repository in the history of mankind Don’t use nail scissors to cut the lawn This is a job for the cyber lawnmower

15. If we are not to drown in a tidal wave of information AND WE ARE ALREADY DROWNING (It’s called surfing sickness) I suggest we need help? But what kind of help?

16. Option I If the web is for people then get people to do it? Possible solution but very impractical When you’ve indexed today’s 7.5 million pages Got back and do yesterday’s again – many of those 7.5 million have changed in the meantime So the idea is ?

17. Where do we go from here? Option number 2 We could describe the resources we are putting on the web so that computers can find them We could even agree on a common vocabulary for doing this Feasible and partially implemented

18. We get out what we put in! Info on the web without structure, without description = A public library - without shelves - without catalogue - and (more importantly) without a librarian Nothing but a big heap of books Enter!

19. But we will be able to do more than that We can INFER: If A = B and B = C We can INFER that A=C This in the context of networked information retrieval? Happy duck (not lame)

20. Both interesting AND Very frightening in my view Why interesting???

21. It means: Searching the web for the word “train” won’t give me the time of the next TGV from Paris to Lyons It will give me train, bilden, former, formare The search will know what I am looking for (conceptually)

22. This idea can be put in one term THE SEMANTIC WEB (Happy duck = Happy web surfer)

23. Why frightening?

24. What else can we expect in the future from the web? A few thoughts on how it can improve

25. 1.It can become multi-directional 2.It can mirror sources 3.It can ensure more reliable access 4.It can remove the hyper from the text

26. Other issues it will address? Copyright! Intellectual Property Rights!

27. In short the web can and will become more human Less of a LAME DUCK Where even dogs can fly

28. (P.S. is a BAT found in rain forests in Thailand )