User-Centered Agents for
Structured Information Location on the Web
Xindong Wu (University of Vermont,
USA)
Abstract
This talk presents the design of a digital library system that integrates
conventional digital library services with contemporary WWW advantages, such as
comprehensive coverage and agents for information search and selection. We use a
user-centered approach and apply data mining techniques in the design of agents
for information search and selection. There are various agents in this digital
library system to perform different functions. Among them, SiteHelper is a
unique agent in our system compared to existing digital library systems. It acts
as a housekeeper for the system and as a helper for the users to find relevant
information. In order to assist the users in finding relevant information at the
centralized location (with Web links to the global Web), SiteHelper
interactively and incrementally learns about each user's areas of interest and
aids them accordingly, by deploying data mining techniques with incremental
learning facilities as its learning and inference engines.
