An Assertion-Based Information-Probe System: Document-Skeleton and Glossary-Skeleton Approach

Abstract

This paper presents the conceptual framework for a new kind of information acquisition system and the required enabling technologies. This system is for information probing - as opposed to information retrieval - and is intended to allow the acquisition of information without requiring the assumption of a commonality of interpretation between authors and users. The concept of the skeleton was devised as an abstraction of the relations between terms and provides a model of the assertions made by authors in documents and in glossaries. This model has produced four technological results. The first is a scheme for the assertion-based acquisition of information. The assertions of authors and of users are represented as respective sets of defined_by relations; document information is then selectively acquired on the basis of measures of proximity that are used to compare the assertions. In contrast to traditional methods of retrieval, which rely on the frequency of occurrence of specific terms, our approach uses assertions as clues in the search for information. The second is the provision of an automatically generated form of metadata. This has a logical structure that reflects the assertions made by authors in documents, and allows the user-centric assignment of descriptors. The third is the dynamic acquisition of term knowledge which is tailored to individual users. Glossary skeletons are generated automatically from users glossaries and constitute bodies of declarative knowledge with regard to the definitions and usage of terms. This knowledge is used in formulating the queries used to probe for information. The fourth is a system architecture in which data structures are dynamically evolved on the basis of user-specific perspectives.