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The Continuity Project. Spring/Summer 1998 Report. INSTITUTION Continuity Project, Ossining, NY

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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 422 025 IR 057 150 AUTHOR Wasilko, Peter J. TITLE The Continuity Project. Spring/Summer 1998 Report. INSTITUTION Continuity Project, Ossining, NY. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 18p. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Artificial Intelligence; Cataloging; Classification; *Computer Mediated Communication; Computer Software; Futures (of Society); Strategic Planning; *Technological Advancement; World Wide Web IDENTIFIERS Campuswide Information Systems ABSTRACT The Continuity Project is a research, development, and technology transfer initiative aimed at creating a Library of the Future by combining features of an online public access catalog (OPAC) and a campuswide information system (CWIS) with advanced facilities drawn from such areas as artificial intelligence (AI), knowledge representation (KR), natural language processing (NLP), computer applications and software engineering (CASE), literate programming, hypertext research, and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). By taking this approach, Continuity will be able to provide an intelligent, unified, and proactive information infrastructure for the learning organization of the future. The explosive growth rate of the body of accumulated knowledge and increasingly powerful information technology and computing tools have exceeded the capabilities of traditional approaches to cataloging and collection management. In the new millennium, the ability to find and integrate relevant existing knowledge is the new limiting factor on the rate of scientific and commercial innovation. This report contains the following sections: "The Continuity Project"; "Continuity at a Glance" graphics that embody the most salient features of the Project; "The Continuity Experience" -- an informal treatment of what it would be like to use Continuity in an academic setting; "Project Participants; and Sources of Inspiration." (DLS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** The Continuity Project Spring/Summer 1998 Report By: Peter J. Wasilko U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY o This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Peter J. Wasilko 1:1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this 2 document do not necessarily represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES official OERI position or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." oillt4PrOJOCtSpring/SUl'ani*A9S*00 Thus Continuity would serve as a virtual Wagon Wheel El ; An Extensible intelligent integrated Collaborative Catalog bringing together people, ideas, and resources to establish a & Distributed institutional Memory Archive much more intimate continuity between authors and readers, between researchers and practitioners, between librarians and patrons, between students past and present, and between the onimue university and its community. Welcome to The Continuity Project! Today, it is just too much work to find new people, ideas, projects, and resources using our current tools. The catalog The Continuity Project is a new research, development, and lacks the depth of coverage, the campus web lacks the organi- technology transfer initiative aimed at creating a Library of the zation and automated access, and our would be collaborators Future by combining features of an on-line public access catalog (be they on campus or in the community) lack the time to sift (OPAC) and a campus wide information system (CWIS) with through it all. advanced facilities drawn from such areas as artificial intelli- gence (AI), knowledge representation (KR), natural language With your help, Continuity will change all that. processing (NLP), computer applications and software engineer- ing (CASE), literate programming, hypertext research, and com- is, time io reconceptualize the role of the libriiixf puter supported cooperative work (CSCW). By taking this '.refa.:4zion..the online catalog intoan intellzgent6,4 approach, Continuity will be able to provide an intelligent, ro.active medium for the social constructio'n') of unified, proactive, information infrastructure for the learning nOwledge. organization of the future. Research Directions Such systems were first envisioned as far back as the 1930's when the first hints of information overload were beginning to The time is ripe to move forward. In March of 1997, appear on the horizon. Since then, the body of accumulatedDaniel E. Atkins of The University of Michigan's School of knowledge held in our collections has grown at a truly explosiveInformation & the Department of Electrical Engineering and rate with disciplines spawning sub-disciplines far to rapidly for Computer Science organized a National Science Foundation even the finest research libraries to keep pace. Moreover, this Planning Workshop on Distributed Knowledge Work Environ- growth of total knowledge is locked in an accelerating feedbackments : Digital Libraries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The pur- loop with the development of increasingly powerful information pose of the workshop was to evaluate the results to date as the technology and computing tools. Our traditional approaches toinitial period of funding for digital library research under the cataloging and collection management were never designed to NSF / DARPA /NASA Digital Library Initiative (DLI). cope with these dynamics. The group also made a number of observations to guide Thus as the new millennium approaches, the ability to find those contemplating future work, which it summarized as and integrate relevant existing knowledge, rather than the follows, in the Abstract of its final report: need to make discoveries de novo, is emerging as a new limiting factor on the rate of scientific and commercial innovation. Some desirable distinctions between the current DLI and Indeed, even the most basic of original pure research is often future programs include the following: Current DLI, predicated on just such an understanding of its antecedents. involves broad technical agendas, experimental, technolo- gy testbeds, modest support for content & collections, nar- Since this ability to innovate and facilitate innovation rowly circumscribed context of evaluation, and few is, and will no doubt remain, the primary source of com- user/usage studies. Suggestions for future initiatives petitive advantage at the firm, regional, and national level, should, by contrast, have refined technical agendas, real- the importance of creating such advanced active informa- world testbeds emphasizing interoperability and tion infrastructures can not be stressed too highlyIndeed, integration, increased support for content and collections, the creation of tools to augment our cognitive abilities operational systems containing collections of value to goes to the very heart of the Technopolis Strategy 11 of promoting advanced technology domain applications, broad, multidimensional contexts of for economic evaluation, and user/usage-oriented focus. Some partici- development. pants further stressed the need for more emphasis on the B See The Technopolis Phenomenon : Smart Cities, Fast Systems, Glo- applications of digital libraries. This was proposed in order bal Networks Edited by David V. Gibson, George Kozmetsky, and to build user support for digital libraries, to deliver value to Raymond W. Smilor. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1992) teachers and scholars in different contexts, to link up with El The Wagon Wheel bar in Mountain View has been creditedas the the commercial publishing world, and to focus research in key catalyst for many of Silicon Valley's semiconductor industry the most valuable directions. collaborations. See Regional Advantage : Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by Annalee Saxenian. (Harvard, 1994) 3 Imallto: Peter J. Wasilko, Esq. 4uturistacloud9.net> 3 lteadowbrook Drive; Ossining, NY 10562-2916 (914) 941-5705 http://www.cloud9.net/futurlsVcontlnutty/N.,.1 of 3 ItEpi=ojectSpring/Samiiter9.94,840054; Desiderata Oriented Programming Ell as points of departure, we call our new approach Context-Oriented Programming. 00, Continuity will be a New Millennium OPAC Designed to Function as a User-Centric Collaborative Knowledge-based Intelligence Learning System. The system needs to be able to respond to natural The catalog needs to provide its users with grounding in language queries, both to support access by user with fields that are new to them. It should offer both visualizations low-end hardware and to provide an alternative to the of the collection and of scholarly activity using the collection. It directmanipulation paradigmincontrolling should support subjective queries and be able to handle a natu- visualizations. 0 It should have plan recognition capa- ral language dialog. Over time it should develop personal pro- bilities and maintain user profiles so it can resolve files of its users and tailor its responses to better meet their ambiguities, handle ellipsis, and most importantly, base needs. It should help them to get into contact with one another its recommendations on the needs of individual users. It and to update the overall store of knowledge to manage errata should
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