SBIR-STTR Award

Without automated linking and "smart" assistance for the publishers and users (analysts), the task of maintianing and reviewing information on the Intelink will soon become overwhelming. "Assistance" in the form of context-sensitive wizards and agents is needed to help with the construction, maintenance, and retrieval of this information. LGA and OSEC are working with publishing organizations (including the Community Management Staff (CMS), the Central Imagery Office (CIO), the Navy and the Marine Corps) to make documents and databases available on the Intelink (through HTML, CGI scripting, forms, etc.). This past work has provided a good understanding of the problems faced by publishers when they attempt to transition documents and databases from their original format to Intelink resources as well as a good understanding of the difficulties users face when presented with the overwhelming task of retrieving and organizing the information made available. This project will investigate the state-of-the-art in wizards, agents, and other expert system techniques to assist the publisher in the generation of Intelink documents and the user with their subsequent organization, retrieval and review.

Although there are benefits of using the Intelink, users experience the same problems that users of the Internet experience -- preparing and accessing the information that is relevant to their task is difficult. In Phase I, LGA determined the feasibility of automating this linking process at the time the document is displayed to the Analyst (not when the document is published) by combining existing technology with further development of LGA products. In Phase II, LGA proposes to develop a working prototype in which hypertext links, customized to an analyst's interests and preferences, are created automatically and dynamically, as the Intelink document is accessed by the analyst. The dynamic and automated creation of links would: 1) Focus analyst attention on topics most likely to be of particular interest, 2) Point to the most recent information available on the Intelink, and 3) Provide links to reference lists, organized to facilitate intelligent perusal (e.g., weighted by match to an analyst's previously stated or observed interests). In this system, the goal would be to provide each Analyst with the most recent, the most complete, and the most relevant information to address the task at hand -- in a format that is easy to use.

Keywords:
AGENTS INTELINK INTERNET ASSOCIATES EXPERT SYSTEMS AUTOMATED LINKING CONTEXT SENSITIVE CONCEPT BASED