In 1997 we will further elaborate and define metadata elements drawn from the ontology, with at least one more iteration of metadata describing work and creation of metadata attributes and domains describing services. The SMS is a testbed for exploring more advanced functions without the constraints of deployment to real users. With the potential of dozens of active instances, we plan to scale up the SMS to include thousands of agents. Goal 4.a.9 - Improve Search and Retrieval through User Preferences Through the use of decision theory, we will be enable search to become more personal and focused. We will design a web based system to order Weather sites as a proof of concept, and will improve the UIA and Task Planner agents to make decisions which reflect user preferences.
Scaffolding is intended to increase the precision of retrieved items.
We plan to implement scaffolding for one search engine that accesses multiple collections using preprocessing and for one search engine that accesses multiple collections using postprocessing. A relevance feedback capability will ask searchers what items are most meaningful to them and enlist characteristics of those items to find more like them. It could also become a component of search scaffolding. We will also be pushing our understanding and modeling activities, and methodology advancements. In the first half of the year, we will rollout the UMDL with its registry seeded with materials appropriate to high school in the areas of geology and astronomy.