Weak Information Structures for Community Information Sharing

We discuss the requirements for community information sharing. We then propose the weak information structures to integrate heterogeneous information such as static information (e.g. local sites information) and dynamic information created in word-of-mouth communication. The weak information structures connect various information media without de ning the semantics rigorously. By leaving the interpretation of the semantics to tacit human background knowledge, it becomes compact and robust. We have developed an information sharing system for community called InfoCommon which provides people with intelligent assistance for exchanging and sharing knowledge and ideas. We have evaluated InfoCommon at the ICMAS'96 Mobile Assistant Project.