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Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried. Adaptive ltering Methods were similar to those we used in TREC 7. Six runs were submitted. VLC track Two unexpanded ad hoc runs were submitted. 2 Okapi at TRECs 1 7 The Okapi search systems used for TREC are descendants of the Okapi systems developed at the Polytechnic of Central London 1 between 1982 and 1988 under a number of grants from the British Library Research & Development Department and elsewhere. These early Okapi systems were experimental highly-interactive reference retrieval systems of a probabilistic type, some of which featured automatic query expansion 1, 2, 3 .

The question I want to address in this talk has to do with the relation between traditional ideas... more The question I want to address in this talk has to do with the relation between traditional ideas of retrieval system evaluation and the present concern with highly interactive systems, maybe involving other media as well as or instead of text. For reasons that I hope to make clear, my major concern is with interaction rather than with the media themselves. Particularly, I want to consider the questions: Why has the notion of relevance been such a powerful device in the traditional model of evaluation? And: Why is it not so useful in the evaluation of interactive systems?

This paper describes an investigation in progress into the searching behaviour of end-users and h... more This paper describes an investigation in progress into the searching behaviour of end-users and how it is affected by interface design. The project focused on qualitative data gathering and heavily relies on thinkaloud protocols. 65 end-users were observed searching a bibliographic database (Medline) in their natural setting. The two most commonly used commercial versions of Medline were selected as experimental variable (OVID for Windows and WinSPIRS)-both use an underlying Boolean system and a Windowsbased interface, but present fundamental differences in terms of the use and the presentation of searching tools and results presentation. Marchionini's model of information seeking (1995) was used as a framework. The results showed that there are some discrepancies between this model and the behaviour observed. The results of the comparison of searching behaviour with the two systems have shown some fundamental differences, but also have provided some areas of similarities in behaviour which seem to indicate that there could be some genuine end-user characteristics which are independent of system and interface design.

Libr Quart, 1994

... Fingers trained to guide tools to reshape the world in our image, bridging the gap between th... more ... Fingers trained to guide tools to reshape the world in our image, bridging the gap between those two infinities: human idea and tactile nature. ... This present work is then a test of the idea of nature as technology reveals it to us. ...

Proceedings of the 2006 International Workshop on Research Issues in Digital Libraries, Dec 12, 2006

Trec, 2001

The TREC-8 ltering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user pro les which s... more The TREC-8 ltering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user pro les which successfully separate relevant and non-relevant documents. It consists of three major subtasks: adaptive ltering, batch ltering, and routing. In adaptive ltering, the system begins with only a topic statement and must learn a better pro le from on-line feedback. Batch ltering and routing are more traditional machine learning tasks where the system begins with a large sample of evaluated training documents. This report describes the track, presents the evaluation results in graphical format, and provides a general commentary on lessons learned from this year's track.

Trec, 2002

The TREC-11 filtering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user profiles whi... more The TREC-11 filtering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user profiles which successfully separate relevant and non-relevant documents in an incoming stream. It consists of three major subtasks: adaptive filtering, batch filtering, and routing. In adaptive filtering, the system begins with only a topic statement and a small number of positive examples, and must learn a better profile from on-line feedback. Batch filtering and routing are more traditional machine learning tasks where the system begins with a large sample of evaluated training documents. This report describes the track, presents some evaluation results, and provides a general commentary on lessons learned from this year's track.

Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Acm Sigir Conference, May 31, 1981

Trec, 1999

Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried.

J Amer Soc Inform Sci, 1975

Inex, 2006

A scalable XML component ranking algorithm 111 Y. Mass Indian Statistical Institute at INEX 2006 ... more A scalable XML component ranking algorithm 111 Y. Mass Indian Statistical Institute at INEX 2006 Adhoc track: A Preliminary VSM Approach 118 S. Pal, M. Mitra and P. Majumder

Information Retrieval, Apr 1, 2002

An experimental adaptive filtering system, built on the Okapi search engine, is described. In add... more An experimental adaptive filtering system, built on the Okapi search engine, is described. In addition to the regular text retrieval functions, the system requires a complex set of procedures for setting score thresholds and adapting them following feedback. These procedures need to be closely related to the evaluation measures to be used. A mixture of quantitative methods relating a threshold to the number of documents expected to be retrieved in a time period, and qualitative methods relating to the probability of relevance, is defined. Experiments under the TREC-9 Adaptive Filtering Track rules are reported. The system is seen to perform reasonably well in comparison with other systems at TREC. Some of the variables that may affect performance are investigated.

Trec, 1999

Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried.

Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried. Adaptive ltering Methods were similar to those we used in TREC 7. Six runs were submitted. VLC track Two unexpanded ad hoc runs were submitted. 2 Okapi at TRECs 1 7 The Okapi search systems used for TREC are descendants of the Okapi systems developed at the Polytechnic of Central London 1 between 1982 and 1988 under a number of grants from the British Library Research & Development Department and elsewhere. These early Okapi systems were experimental highly-interactive reference retrieval systems of a probabilistic type, some of which featured automatic query expansion 1, 2, 3 .

The question I want to address in this talk has to do with the relation between traditional ideas... more The question I want to address in this talk has to do with the relation between traditional ideas of retrieval system evaluation and the present concern with highly interactive systems, maybe involving other media as well as or instead of text. For reasons that I hope to make clear, my major concern is with interaction rather than with the media themselves. Particularly, I want to consider the questions: Why has the notion of relevance been such a powerful device in the traditional model of evaluation? And: Why is it not so useful in the evaluation of interactive systems?

This paper describes an investigation in progress into the searching behaviour of end-users and h... more This paper describes an investigation in progress into the searching behaviour of end-users and how it is affected by interface design. The project focused on qualitative data gathering and heavily relies on thinkaloud protocols. 65 end-users were observed searching a bibliographic database (Medline) in their natural setting. The two most commonly used commercial versions of Medline were selected as experimental variable (OVID for Windows and WinSPIRS)-both use an underlying Boolean system and a Windowsbased interface, but present fundamental differences in terms of the use and the presentation of searching tools and results presentation. Marchionini's model of information seeking (1995) was used as a framework. The results showed that there are some discrepancies between this model and the behaviour observed. The results of the comparison of searching behaviour with the two systems have shown some fundamental differences, but also have provided some areas of similarities in behaviour which seem to indicate that there could be some genuine end-user characteristics which are independent of system and interface design.

Libr Quart, 1994

... Fingers trained to guide tools to reshape the world in our image, bridging the gap between th... more ... Fingers trained to guide tools to reshape the world in our image, bridging the gap between those two infinities: human idea and tactile nature. ... This present work is then a test of the idea of nature as technology reveals it to us. ...

Proceedings of the 2006 International Workshop on Research Issues in Digital Libraries, Dec 12, 2006

Trec, 2001

The TREC-8 ltering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user pro les which s... more The TREC-8 ltering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user pro les which successfully separate relevant and non-relevant documents. It consists of three major subtasks: adaptive ltering, batch ltering, and routing. In adaptive ltering, the system begins with only a topic statement and must learn a better pro le from on-line feedback. Batch ltering and routing are more traditional machine learning tasks where the system begins with a large sample of evaluated training documents. This report describes the track, presents the evaluation results in graphical format, and provides a general commentary on lessons learned from this year's track.

Trec, 2002

The TREC-11 filtering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user profiles whi... more The TREC-11 filtering track measures the ability of systems to build persistent user profiles which successfully separate relevant and non-relevant documents in an incoming stream. It consists of three major subtasks: adaptive filtering, batch filtering, and routing. In adaptive filtering, the system begins with only a topic statement and a small number of positive examples, and must learn a better profile from on-line feedback. Batch filtering and routing are more traditional machine learning tasks where the system begins with a large sample of evaluated training documents. This report describes the track, presents some evaluation results, and provides a general commentary on lessons learned from this year's track.

Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Acm Sigir Conference, May 31, 1981

Trec, 1999

Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried.

J Amer Soc Inform Sci, 1975

Inex, 2006

A scalable XML component ranking algorithm 111 Y. Mass Indian Statistical Institute at INEX 2006 ... more A scalable XML component ranking algorithm 111 Y. Mass Indian Statistical Institute at INEX 2006 Adhoc track: A Preliminary VSM Approach 118 S. Pal, M. Mitra and P. Majumder

Information Retrieval, Apr 1, 2002

An experimental adaptive filtering system, built on the Okapi search engine, is described. In add... more An experimental adaptive filtering system, built on the Okapi search engine, is described. In addition to the regular text retrieval functions, the system requires a complex set of procedures for setting score thresholds and adapting them following feedback. These procedures need to be closely related to the evaluation measures to be used. A mixture of quantitative methods relating a threshold to the number of documents expected to be retrieved in a time period, and qualitative methods relating to the probability of relevance, is defined. Experiments under the TREC-9 Adaptive Filtering Track rules are reported. The system is seen to perform reasonably well in comparison with other systems at TREC. Some of the variables that may affect performance are investigated.

Trec, 1999

Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narr... more Automatic ad hoc and web track Three ad hoc runs were submitted: long title, description and narrative, medium title and description and short title only. Blind" expansion was used for all runs. The queries from the medium ad hoc run were reused for the small web track submission. Most of the negative expressions were removed from the narrative eld of the topic statements, and a new expansion term selection procedure was tried.

The idea that the digital age has revolutionized our day-to-day experience of the world is nothin... more The idea that the digital age has revolutionized our day-to-day experience of the world is nothing new, and has been amply recognized by cultural historians. In contrast, Stephen Robertson’s BC: Before Computers is a work which questions the idea that the mid-twentieth century saw a single moment of rupture. It is about all the things that we had to learn, invent, and understand – all the ways we had to evolve our thinking – before we could enter the information technology revolution of the second half of the twentieth century. Its focus ranges from the beginnings of data processing, right back to such originary forms of human technology as the development of writing systems, gathering a whole history of revolutionary moments in the development of information technologies into a single, although not linear narrative.

Treading the line between philosophy and technical history, Robertson draws on his extensive technical knowledge to produce a text which is both thought-provoking and accessible to a wide range of readers. The book is wide in scope, exploring the development of technologies in such diverse areas as cryptography, visual art and music, and the postal system. Through all this, it does not simply aim to tell the story of computer developments but to show that those developments rely on a long history of humans creating technologies for increasingly sophisticated methods of manipulating information.

Through a clear structure and engaging style, it brings together a wealth of informative and conceptual explorations into the history of human technologies, and avoids assumptions about any prior knowledge on the part of the reader. As such, it has the potential to be of interest to the expert and the general reader alike.