Modelling context in information brokering processes

The availability of increasing amounts of information on the World Wide Web generates problems of information overload, that lead to increasing efforts for information retrieval on the one hand and increasing portions of irrelevant information on the other (see e.g. [Lawrence & Giles 1999; Lueg & Riedl 2001]). Research efforts address these problems (e.g. [Ho & Tang 2001; Berghel 1997]). However, there is still a lack of common understanding of information brokering processes, tasks, and roles. Additionally, existing systems do not account for the meaning of context for information needs: while the importance of context for information needs is agreed on in the literature, a common framework for understanding, organising, and using contextual knowledge explicitly within information brokering processes is still missing. The central question underlying this work is the following: when we know about the context in which a person is currently situated and we know the context in or for which available information has been produced, how can we then use this knowledge to improve the individual’s access to information? To address this question, this work performs a comprehensive analysis of information brokering processes in various domains and develops information brokering process, role, and task models of general applicability. Furthermore, the role context plays within these processes is analysed and a framework of contextualisation goals and appropriate contextualisation techniques is developed. Finally, a general context modelling framework is developed based on the definition of context modelling requirements. This context modelling framework provides guidelines for the explicit representation, assessment, and retrieval of contextual information in order to enhance information brokering processes with contextual information. The models proposed in this work are evaluated through the development of several information brokering environments and their application in different information brokering domains.