Chair: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (NL), Vice-Chair: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (GR)
Objective
The objective of this WG to identify and critically review the aspects of next generation search related to Semantic and Faceted search. Also to study visualization techniques that can be applied as multiplying "gain" factor to both types of search.
Basic concepts
There is no doubt, next generation search will go along next generation (semantic) Web. Semantic search is the process used to improve online searching by using data from semantic networks about queries and/or web text in order to generate more relevant results and it will play important role in next generation sophisticated search systems. For example in a state of the art/technology landscape search, the user provides the search engine with a phrase which is intended to denote a research area about which the user is trying to gather information. There is no particular document which the user knows about that s/he is trying to get to. Rather, the user is trying to locate a number of documents which together will give him/her the information s/he is trying to find. This is a typical example of where Semantic Search can be become of huge importance in next generation search. The Semantic Web (Web 3.0) is a huge effort which will take many years to complete. In this WG the technical issues will be critically reviewed and analysed.
Faceted search is a technique for accessing a collection of information represented using a faceted classification, allowing users to explore by filtering available information. A faceted classification system allows the assignment of multiple classifications to an object, enabling the classifications to be ordered in multiple ways, rather than in a single, pre-determined, taxonomic order. The Faceted Search provides a search interface for users to browse content in such a way that they can rapidly get acquainted with the scope and nature of the content, and never feel lost in the data. More than a search interface, this is an information navigation and discovery tool. The interface exposes metadata in such a way that users can build their queries as they go, refining or expanding the current query, with results automatically reflecting the current query. A faceted interface can also combines free-text search, fully leveraging a typical content based search engine. Many cases might trigger an experienced searcher to use Faceted Search such as:
- Need to filter content using multiple taxonomy terms at the same time.
- Need to combine text searches, taxonomy term filtering, and other search criteria.
- Users don't know precisely what they can find, or what to search for.
- Users are trying to discover relationships or trends between contents.
- A data set has too much content for it to be displayed through fixed navigational structures.
Another major objective of this WG is to look at visualization tools to aid in the process of Semantic or Faceted Search. Information visualization methods for representing hierarchically structured, graph-like, temporal and spatial data are gaining importance within the patent domain. Modern applications of visualizations will be explored such as handling multidimensional data by using multiple coordinated views in conjunction with brushing and linking or by using them within focus & context techniques.
Expected Outcomes
At the end of the Action a model of how Semantic and Faceted Search can be applied in next generation search may be derived.
