The Concept Browser Ambjörn Naeve a new form of knowledge management tool

Centre for user-oriented IT-Design (CID) CID is a competence centre at KTH that provides an interdisciplinary environment for applied research on design of human-computer interaction. CID is engaged in 4 different areas of research: Connected Communities (Digital Worlds). Interactive Learning Environments. New forms of Interaction. User orientation.

Dictionary of terms Thing = phenomenon or entity. Mental concept = inner representation. Concept = representation of some thing. Medial concept = communicable representation. Context = graph with concepts as nodes and concept-relations as arcs Context map = graphic representation of a context. Content component = information linked to a concept or concept-relation. Resource = concept or concept-relation or context or content.

Problems with paper-based information systems They freeze their concepts into a single context, which makes it hard to navigate the information landscape (context) and present its content in a personalized way. does not allow reuse of content in different contexts.

Problems with hyper-linked information systems A concept generally appears in many different (and changing) contexts This makes it hard to maintain a clear separation of context and content. Example: the well-known ”web-surfing sickness”: Within what context am I viewing this content, and how did I get here?

ContextContent Conceptual Browsing: Viewing the content Projective GeometryAlgebraic DifferentialSurf View Info What How Where When Who

Surf View Info What How Where When Who Mathematics Viewing content: Where is mathematics done? Content Clarification Depth Context Science MagicReligionPhilosophyMathematics invoke illustrate apply inspire Contextualize

How is mathematics applied to science? Content Surf View Info What How Where When Who Magic Philosophy Religion Science Mathematics invoke illustrate apply inspire Clarification Depth Contextualize Context Ais true Science  assumption  conditional statement logical conclusion    Bis true IfA were true then B would be true Mathematics  Falsification of assumptions by falsification of their logical conclusions experiment    fact Science Magic Religion Philosophy Mathematics invoke illustrate apply inspire

Design principles for Concept Browsers separate context (= relationships) from content. describe each context in terms of a context map, preferably expressed in UML. assign an appropriate set of resources as the content of a concept or a conceptual relation. allow neighborhood-based contextual navigation on each concept and concept-relation by enabling the direct switch from its presently displayed context into anyone of its contextual neighborhoods.

Design principles for Concept Browsers (cont.) allow metadata-based filtering of the content components through context-dependent aspect-filters. label each resource by making use of a standardized data description (metadata) scheme. allow the transformation of a content component which is also a context map into a context by contextualizing it. allow concepts as well as contexts to be interactively constructed from content according to different content-gathering principles

Conzilla - a first prototype of concept browser

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this Generalization of that Context for that Specialization of that Part of that Instance of that Type for The hierarchical directions from this to that Unified Language Modeling

Car Vehicle is a :Car kind of is a kind of a Unified Language Modeling :Wheel Wheel abstraction of part of has is a a is a part of a has a a kind of

Dictionary of terms (cont.) Contextual neighborhood (of a concept or a concept-relation) = context containing the concept or concept-relation. Contextual topology (on a set of concepts S) = the collection of all contextual neighborhoods for all concepts from S. Isolated concept = concept which has no contextual neighborhood involving other concepts. Discrete (totally disconnected) contextual topology = contextual topology where each contextual neighborhood consists of an isolated concept.

Existing contextual topologies Traditional dictionary totally disconnected fixed contextual topology. Traditional textbook taxonomically connected fixed contextual topology. Traditional web browser reachability-connected dynamic contextual topology. inextricable mixture of context and content.

References Naeve, A., The Garden of Knowledge as a Knowledge Manifold - a conceptual framework for computer supported subjective education, CID-17, KTH, Naeve, A., Conceptual Navigation and Multiple Scale Narration in a Knowledge Manifold, CID-52, KTH, Nilsson, M. & Palmér M., Conzilla - Towards a Concept Browser, (CID-53), KTH, Nilsson, M., The Conzilla design - the definitive reference, CID/NADAKTH, Naeve, A., The Concept Browser, a New Form of Knowledge Management Tool, Proc. of the 2:nd european conference on Web Based Learning Environments (WBLE-2001), Lund, Sweden, Oct , 2001.

Naeve, A., The Knowledge Manifold – an educational architecture that supports inquiry based customizable forms of e-learning, WBLE [ Reports are available in pdf at ] Naeve, A. & Nilsson, M. & Palmér, M., The Conceptual Web - Our Research Vision, Proceedings of the First Semantic Web Working Symposium, Stanford, July 30 - Aug 2, Naeve, A. & Nilsson, M. & Palmér, M., E-learning in the Semantic Age, WBLE References (cont.)