1. Taming the Information Jungle
David Maier
Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technologies
Department of Computer Science
Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science
Portland State University
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

2. Easier Than Ever to Get Information
Lots of support for search
Search engines (Google)
Directories (Yahoo)
Digital Libraries (NSDL)
Lots of support for access over Internet
World-Wide Web
FTP
File sharing (P2P)
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

3. Taming the Information Jungle
*Picture courtesy of Prof. James Pankow, Dept. of EBS, OGI
What’s the Problem?*
Getting information is only the beginning of many tasks
Still much human processing
Judging & selecting
Classifying
Highlighting & annotating
Linking & grouping
Reorganizing & formatting
Computers don’t help as much with these activities
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

4. How Might We Help? Can we automate these activities?
Not in general — people may not know connections, importance until they see the info
Try to leverage the effort people expend in understanding and enhancing information
“Reusing Attention”
Try to add value by retaining connections to original sources
Selecting Patient Data in Clinic
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

5. One Human Activity: Building Bundles
Observations in a medical setting showed constructing “bundles” of information was common
Excerpting information from multiple sources
Grouping and otherwise organizing the information
Had value to the “builder” immediately and later; often had value for others
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

6. One Bundle: The ICU Flow Sheet
Working document, permanent record
Present and recent past states of patient
Information exists elsewhere (eventually)
Highly structured, still flexible content
Selection, organization, annotation by nurse
Used by almost everyone
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

7. Taming the Information Jungle
Messy Bundles
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

8. Taming the Information Jungle
Bundle of Bundles
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

9. Taming the Information Jungle
Our Favorite Bundle
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

10. Taming the Information Jungle
Resident’s Worksheet
Information from many sources: chart, labs, conversations
By no means all of the information on a patient
Placement of information is significant
Stop thinking like a database person for a minute: A computer tool doesn’t have to understand the significance to preserve it
Could also remember source of the information
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

11. SLIMPad: A Tool for Bundles
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

12. What Were We Doing: Superimposing Information
Overlaying new information on top of existing information
Add new data
Impose new structure
Mark is a reference to base element
Can reference whole document or a subpart
Needs to be appropriate to the type of base document: spreadsheet, web page, text file
SI existed before the digital age
Shakespeare commentary
Bible concordance
Heterogeneous sources: Word, Excel, PDF, HTML,…
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

13. Supporting “Superware”: Schematics Browser*
*Developed originally by Shawn Bowers
Supporting “Superware”: Schematics Browser*
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

14. The Forest Service Appeal Process*
*With thanks to John Davis, USDA FS
The Forest Service Appeal Process*
FS routinely makes decisions to solve or prevent problems concerning forests
FS decisions may be appealed
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

15. Preserving Cave Resources*
*Documents available under FOIA/E-FOIA
Preserving Cave Resources*
The USFS recently closed the “Road 18” caves to climbers to preserve cave resources
An environmental assessment (EA) backed up this decision
Climbers called the decision arbitrary and appealed for its remand
Appeals referred to the decision notice (DN), the EA, and other documents
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

16. Taming the Information Jungle
USFS Reviews Decision
A District Ranger prepared an appeal packet
This packet included DN, EA, specialists’ reports, and some external documents
The included RID letter (records, information, & documentation) with excerpted issues in the appeals and responses to each issue; it also referred to other documents in the packet
A Deciding Officer reviewed the record and affirmed the decision
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

17. Schematic Representation of Some Documents in Appeal Record
External
documents
Specialists’ Reports
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

18. Could a Superimposed Application Help Here?
Small pieces of very large documents are important
Very large mental “working set”: multiple appeals with multiple issues, each with several relevant items
Would be useful to know what was relevant to an issue “last time”
RIDPad: Collect and organize excerpts of documents; remember whence they came
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

19. Taming the Information Jungle
Demo
Group
Item
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

20. Taming the Information Jungle
Creating a Mark
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

21. Taming the Information Jungle
Creating a Mark
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

22. Taming the Information Jungle
Creating a Mark
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

23. Transformation via Query
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

24. What’s Under the Covers?
Have a framework for building superimposed applications
Have standard pieces
Superimposed information model
User interface to superimposed and base information
Middleware (SPARCE) for creating, storing and accessing marks
Extensions and agents for base applications (Word, Acrobat) to help create marks and inspect marked content
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

25. Taming the Information Jungle
Overview
Superimposed Layer
Middleware
Base Layer
Acrobat
RIDPad
SPARCE
XML
Marks
Word
Schematics Browser
Relations
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

26. RIDPad Superimposed Model
Name
RIDPadDoc ID
Size
Location
Group
Description
Item
Belongs to
0..1 *
Contains
Address
Mark
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

27. Taming the Information Jungle
SPARCE
The Superimposed Pluggable Architecture for Contexts and Excerpts
Provides mark and context management services
Use the same programmatic interface to work with any base type
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

28. Taming the Information Jungle
Excerpts and Contexts
Name
Value
Excerpt
Finding of No Significant Impact … not be necessary
Font name
Times New Roman
HTML
<p><b><span style='font-size:14'>Finding of No Significant Impact</span></b></p> <p><span style='font-size:12'>Based on ...</span></p>
Excerpt is the content of a marked region
Context is information related to a mark
A mediator called context agent retrieves content & context of a mark
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

29. SPARCE Reference Model
Context Manager
Superimposed Application
Base Application
Base Info
Mark Manager
Superimposed Info
Marks
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

30. What’s Neat about SPARCE
Lightweight
Helps divide up work: superimposed information, user interface, access to based types
Eminently extensible
Can plug in support for a new base type, without recompiling existing modules!
Can have multiple superimposed applications using the same base type
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

31. Taming the Information Jungle
Bi-Level Queries
Put our database hats back on
Ask queries over the superimposed information plus the content and context of marked regions
Locate marked information based on its connections
Select and format information for display
Use superimposed information as “levers” to do database style transformation and restructuring on non-DB information
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

32. Basic Bi-level Query System
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

33. What’s Neat about Bi-Level Queries
Only mediate what we use (unlike approaches that mediate entire sources)
Works with different structures of superimposed information
Useful in transforming and repurposing documents
Adding a little bit of structure lets us do a lot of querying
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

34. Taming the Information Jungle
What’s Next?
Continue to enhance SPARCE: sharing, distribution, query efficiency
Alternative frameworks: web marks
Look at more applications: digital libraries, medical prescribing
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

35. Unindicted Co-Conspirators
Concept & Architecture: Lois Delcambre, Sun Murthy
Corporate Information Systems: Lougie Anderson, Radhika Reddy
Clinical Information: Paul Gorman, Joan Ash, Mary Lavelle, Jason Lyman
Forest Management: Tim Tolle, Eric Landis, John Davis
Tobacco Documents: Jim Pankow, Patty Toccalino
SLIM & SLIMPad: Shawn Bowers, Longxing Deng, Mat Weaver
NSDL: Lillian Cassel, Ed Fox, Eric Hanson
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

36. Taming the Information Jungle
Questions?
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle

37. Taming the Information Jungle
An Anecdote
About eight years ago on an airplane …
3 December 2018
Taming the Information Jungle