Since the Web is getting bigger and bigger with a rapidly increasing number of heterogeneous Web pages, Web users often suffer from two problems: P1) irrelevant information and P2) information overload Irrelevant information indicates the weak relevance between the retrieved information and a user's information need. Information overload indicates that the retrieved information may contain 1) redundant information (e.g., common information between two retrieved Web pages) or 2) too much amount of information which cannot be easily understood by a user. We consider four major causes of those two problems P1) and P2) as follows; ??? Firstly, ambiguous query-terms. ??? Secondly, ambiguous terms in a Web page. ??? Thirdly, a query and a Web page cannot be semantically matched, because of the first and second causes. ??? Fourthly, the whole content of a Web page is a coarse context-boundary to measure the similarity between the Web page and a query. To answer those two problems P1) and P2), we consider that the meanings of words in a Web page and a query are primitive hints for understanding the related semantics of the Web page. Thus, in this dissertation, we developed three cooperative technologies: Word Sense Based Web Information Retrieval (WSBWIR), Subjective Segment Importance Model (SSIM) and Topic Focused Web Page Summarization (TFWPS). ??? WSBWIR allows for a user to 1) describe their information needs at senselevel and 2) provides one way for users to conceptually explore information existing within Web pages. ??? SSIM discovers a semantic structure of a Web page. A semantic structure respects not only Web page authors logical presentation structures but also a user specific topic interests on the Web pages at query time. ??? TFWPS dynamically generates extractive summaries respecting a user's topic interests. WSBWIR, SSIM and TFWPS technologies are implemented and experimented through several case-studies, classification and clustering tasks. Our experiments demonstrated that 1) the comparable effectiveness of exploration of Web pages using word senses, and 2) the segments partitioned by SSIM and summaries generated by TFWPS can provide more topically coherent features for classification and clustering purposes.

Browsing marked-up documents by traversing hyperlinks has become probably the most important means by which documents are accessed, both via the World Wide Web (WWW) and organisational Intranets. However, there is a pressing demand for document management and retrieval systems to deal appropriately with the massive number of documents available. There are two classes of solution: general search engines, whether for the WWW or an Intranet, which make little use of specific domain knowledge or hand-crafted specialised systems which are costly to build and maintain. The aim of this thesis was to develop a document management and retrieval system suitable for small communities as well as individuals in specialised domains on the Web. The aim was to allow users to easily create and maintain their own organisation of documents while ensuring continual improvement in the retrieval performance of the system as it evolves. The system developed is based on the free annotation of documents by users and is browsed using the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). A number of annotation support tools were developed to aid the annotation process so that a suitable system evolved. Experiments were conducted in using the system to assist in finding staff and student home pages at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales. Results indicated that the annotation tools provided a good level of assistance so that documents were easily organised and a lattice-based browsing structure that evolves in an ad hoc fashion provided good efficiency in retrieval performance. An interesting result suggested that although an established external taxonomy can be useful in proposing annotation terms, users appear to be very selective in their use of terms proposed. Results also supported the hypothesis that the concept lattice of FCA helped take users beyond a narrow search to find other useful documents. In general, lattice-based browsing was considered as a more helpful method than Boolean queries or hierarchical browsing for searching a specialised domain. We conclude that the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis, supported by annotation techniques is a useful way of supporting the flexible open management of documents required by individuals, small communities and in specialised domains. It seems likely that this approach can be readily integrated with other developments such as further improvements in search engines and the use of semantically marked-up documents, and provide a unique advantage in supporting autonomous management of documents by individuals and groups - in a way that is closely aligned with the autonomy of the WWW.

Browsing marked-up documents by traversing hyperlinks has become probably the most important means by which documents are accessed, both via the World Wide Web (WWW) and organisational Intranets. However, there is a pressing demand for document management and retrieval systems to deal appropriately with the massive number of documents available. There are two classes of solution: general search engines, whether for the WWW or an Intranet, which make little use of specific domain knowledge or hand-crafted specialised systems which are costly to build and maintain. The aim of this thesis was to develop a document management and retrieval system suitable for small communities as well as individuals in specialised domains on the Web. The aim was to allow users to easily create and maintain their own organisation of documents while ensuring continual improvement in the retrieval performance of the system as it evolves. The system developed is based on the free annotation of documents by users and is browsed using the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). A number of annotation support tools were developed to aid the annotation process so that a suitable system evolved. Experiments were conducted in using the system to assist in finding staff and student home pages at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales. Results indicated that the annotation tools provided a good level of assistance so that documents were easily organised and a lattice-based browsing structure that evolves in an ad hoc fashion provided good efficiency in retrieval performance. An interesting result suggested that although an established external taxonomy can be useful in proposing annotation terms, users appear to be very selective in their use of terms proposed. Results also supported the hypothesis that the concept lattice of FCA helped take users beyond a narrow search to find other useful documents. In general, lattice-based browsing was considered as a more helpful method than Boolean queries or hierarchical browsing for searching a specialised domain. We conclude that the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis, supported by annotation techniques is a useful way of supporting the flexible open management of documents required by individuals, small communities and in specialised domains. It seems likely that this approach can be readily integrated with other developments such as further improvements in search engines and the use of semantically marked-up documents, and provide a unique advantage in supporting autonomous management of documents by individuals and groups - in a way that is closely aligned with the autonomy of the WWW.

Browsing marked-up documents by traversing hyperlinks has become probably the most important means by which documents are accessed, both via the World Wide Web (WWW) and organisational Intranets. However, there is a pressing demand for document management and retrieval systems to deal appropriately with the massive number of documents available. There are two classes of solution: general search engines, whether for the WWW or an Intranet, which make little use of specific domain knowledge or hand-crafted specialised systems which are costly to build and maintain. The aim of this thesis was to develop a document management and retrieval system suitable for small communities as well as individuals in specialised domains on the Web. The aim was to allow users to easily create and maintain their own organisation of documents while ensuring continual improvement in the retrieval performance of the system as it evolves. The system developed is based on the free annotation of documents by users and is browsed using the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). A number of annotation support tools were developed to aid the annotation process so that a suitable system evolved. Experiments were conducted in using the system to assist in finding staff and student home pages at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales. Results indicated that the annotation tools provided a good level of assistance so that documents were easily organised and a lattice-based browsing structure that evolves in an ad hoc fashion provided good efficiency in retrieval performance. An interesting result suggested that although an established external taxonomy can be useful in proposing annotation terms, users appear to be very selective in their use of terms proposed. Results also supported the hypothesis that the concept lattice of FCA helped take users beyond a narrow search to find other useful documents. In general, lattice-based browsing was considered as a more helpful method than Boolean queries or hierarchical browsing for searching a specialised domain. We conclude that the concept lattice of Formal Concept Analysis, supported by annotation techniques is a useful way of supporting the flexible open management of documents required by individuals, small communities and in specialised domains. It seems likely that this approach can be readily integrated with other developments such as further improvements in search engines and the use of semantically marked-up documents, and provide a unique advantage in supporting autonomous management of documents by individuals and groups - in a way that is closely aligned with the autonomy of the WWW.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Computer Science and Engineering. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-126). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19678

Zugl.: Magdeburg, Univ., Habil-Schr., 2004

Zugl.: Leipzig, Hochsch. für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur, Diplomarbeit, 2004 u.d.T.: Ziegler, Nadja: Strategische Konzepte zur Intensivierung der Nutzung wissenschaftlicher Informationen

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Darmstadt.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2003. / Also available online.