Examines problems in Web-site design from the perspective of network analysis. In view of the similarity between the hypertext structure of Web pages and a generic network, network analysis presents concepts and theories that provide insight for Web-site design. Describes the problem of home-page location and control of number of Web pages and…

Discusses how to improve research and design more effective information retrieval systems. Topics include human-system interaction; knowledge integration; pluralistic research approaches; enhanced access to research data; more multidisciplinary integrative devices and conceptual mappings; establishing a greater mass of published research findings…

A study was conducted that used transaction logs to identify the characteristics of the most complex or problematic user queries. Enhancements are recommended in the design of online catalogs that use search trees to control system responses and to determine appropriate subject-searching terminology and technique. Contains 21 references and 12…

Reviews research describing computer functions of construction-oriented computer environments and evaluates their contributions to students' learning of geometry. Topics discussed include constructing geometric concepts; the use of LOGO in elementary school mathematics; software that focuses on geometric construction; and implications for the…

Discusses systems dynamics (SD) and considers the types of learning environments that can be designed on the basis of SD models. Highlights include social systems theory; classical systems theory and autopoietic systems theory; models of social systems; computer-based learning environments; simulation modes; and participative design of interactive…

Examines the use of query reformulation and particularly the use of relevance feedback by users of the Excite Web search engine. Discusses results that show limited use of query reformulation and relevance feedback; identifies the most common pattern of searching; and discusses implications for Web search system design. (Contains 16 references.)…

Introduces, through a conversation with computer-system designers from the Netherlands, the Language/Action Perspective on modeling business workflow and communication processes. Describes their attempts to develop system models that go beyond data flow to incorporate the communicative actions or transactions that result in the creation of a…

Uses Frank Lloyd Wright's (1867-1959) organic architecture as a metaphor to define the relationship between a part and a whole, whether the focus is on a building and its surroundings or information delivered via hypertext. Reviews effective strategies for designing text information via hypertext and incorporates three levels of information…

Examines the sociotechnological impact of introducing advanced information technology into the Spurlock Museum, a museum of world history and culture at the University of Illinois. Addresses implementation of such methodologies as computer-supported cooperative work and computer-mediated communication in the museum environment. Emphasizes the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop research methods to compare the effectiveness of two video browsing interface designs, or surrogates--one static (storyboard) and one dynamic (slide show)--on two distinct information seeking tasks (gist determination and object recognition). (AEF)

Describes an approach for linking geographically distributed collections of metadata so that they are searchable as a single collection. Describes the infrastructure, discusses advantages of using linked collections of authoritative metadata as an alternative to using a keyword-indexing search engine for resource discovery, and examines other…

Presents a text summarization system and examines its validity by comparing automatically generated summaries with human-generated ones. Examines the accuracy of the system by evaluating the representativeness of cue verbs and basic sentence patterns, as well as the essential information in a summary. Also analyzes syntactic and semantic errors of…

The Nonprofit Program Classification System being developed by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) provides a way to enrich the information available on nonprofits and utilize the newly available NCCS/PRI National Nonprofit Organization database from the IRS Forms 990 filed annually by charities. It provides a method to organize…

ArtShow is a digital image database that employs sophisticated features for interactive presentations of data. To demonstrate the program, an example database was prepared, based on the collection at the National Bank of Greece with names, comments and keywords in the Greek language. Discussion includes: the database platform and internal…

Due to the now widespread use of the Internet, most companies now require computer aided design (CAD) tools that support distributed collaborative design on the Internet. Such CAD tools should enable designers to share product models, as well as related data, from geographically distant locations. However, integrated collaborative design…