Information Filtering / Personalization

Luz M. Quiroga Stimulate 2005

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IF-Personalization / Luz. M. Quiroga

Information Filtering (IF) / Personalization

What do we understand for IF? How different is IF from IR

Why do we might need it?

What personalization means to you? Do you make use of it? For what purpose?
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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IF / personalization issues / related concept

Blocking, delivering Profiles, Information needs, user modeling Organizing, Searching, finding, discovering Web design, Usability, personas Database, web, e-mail, distribution lists, blogs, community of practice Recommenders, alert, agents Privacy, ethics, trust

From class feedback

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Information Filtering: variants

SDI (selective dissemination of information) Current awareness Alert Routing Customization Recommenders Personalization

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Main concepts in IF

Information Filtering .vs. Information Retrieval (definition) Profiles User models Agents

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IF v.s. IR. Definitions of IF

a field of study designed for creating a systematic approach to extracting information that a particular person finds important from a larger stream of information (Canavese 1994, p.2). tools which try to filter out irrelevant material (Khan & Card 1997, p.305) a process of selecting things from a larger set of possibilities, then presenting them in a prioritized order (Malone et al. 1987).
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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Defining Information Filtering

Belkin & Croft, 1992. IF and IR: two sides of the same coin Typical characteristics of the IF process Document set: Dynamic Information need: Stable, long term, specified in a profile Profile: Highly personalized Selection process: Delegated Filtering: the process of determining which profiles have a high probability of being satisfied by particular object from the incoming stream
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Retrieval System Model (Douglas Oard)

User
Query Formulation Detection Index Selection

Examination
Indexing
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Docs
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

Delivery

IF System Model
Information need (long term) Detection Index User profile Profile acquisition

Selection (delegated: agent) Examination

Indexing Docs (dynamic)
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

Delivery

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Why do we need IF?

Internet growth is exponential: MIDS (Matrix Information and Directory Services) home page: http://www.mids.org/ One of the impacts of Internet is that any person with access to the Internet can become an author and a publisher. As a consequence, the quality of the information to be found in the Internet is extremely diverse and the quantity of information available is enormous (Lynch 1997)

Information overload
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Information overload

With the explosion of information, the major concerns are not availability but obtaining the right information. Information that is highly important for one individual has no meaning for many others at least 99% of available data is of no interest to at least 99% of the users (Bowman et al. 1994, p. 106).

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The need for IF: History

1945: Vannevar Bush / Memex ... There is a new profession of trial blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.. 1958, Luhn: Selective Dissemination of Information 1965: Ted Nelson / Xanadu / Hypertext

... Professionals who would compete to create better trails, which would attract more users and royalties .....
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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The need for IF: History

1969: Hollis & Hollis: Personalizing Information processes

the amount of information was doubling every seven to ten years

1982, Denning (ACM president / Filtering e-mail) 1987: Malone: Social filtering (collaboration - annotation in documents - groupware)

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IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

The need for IF: History

Information Filtering / Users profiles / agents

Need a system that selectively weed out the irrelevant information based on users preferences (user profile) The system will act on behalf of the user and will deliver selected, prioritized information (active, agent)
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Profiles

User characteristics; user preferences Profiles are the basis for the performance of IF systems:

the construction of accurate profiles is a key task -- the systems success will depend to a large extent on the ability of the learned profile to represent the users actual interest (Balabanovic & Shonan 1997, p.68) building a good profile is still the central obstacle to achieving reasonable performances in IF systems

Need: evaluation of IF (profiles)

Fidel (corporations employees) Quiroga (consumer health information systems)

IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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User modeling

In order to build a good system in which a person and a machine cooperate to perform a task it is important to take into account some significant characteristics of people (Elaine Rich, 1983) User models are personal characteristics of the user that the system maintains (Chris Borgman)

A profile can be thought as a user model.

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IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

Profiles, IF and User modeling

All information filtering models and systems are based on modeling the user and presenting his information needs in the form of a profile [1] A conceptual framework for the design of IF systems come from two established lines of research: IR & User Modeling [2]
[1] Shapira, Peretz & Hanani. Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Ben Gurion University; Dept. of IS, Bar-Ilan University
[2] Oard & Marchionini. University of Maryland

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Agents

Software programs that implement user delegation [1] A personal assistant who is collaborating with the user in the same work environment; information filtering is one of the many applications an agent can assist [2] Mental agents / Society of agents. Each mental agent can only do small process; joining these agents in societies leads to true intelligence [3]
[1] Jansen James. Phd Candidate Texas University, Computer Sc. US Academy Military. Research: combination of agents & search engines [2] Maes, Patty. MIT Media Lab. Research AI [3] Minsky, Marvin. The Society of minds, 1986

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Types of user models (Rich)

Depending on:

The user being modeled

Individual Canonical (stereotype; group)

Acquisition model

Explicit (stated) Implicit (inferred)

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Individual / Canonical user models (Elaine Rich)

Individual: Each user with one interface; appropriate to his/her need; emphasis in individual differences Canonical [stereotype, group]]: The user is part of a group; interface for the group; emphasis in what the group has in common

Shared knowledge; community of practices Collaborative filtering Influencing the design of web sites for e-commerce
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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Individual / Canonical user models (Elaine Rich)

GRUNDY: an example of a canonical type of user model
A case study in the use of sterotypes Grundy recommends novels that people might like to read Stereotypes contain facets that relate to peoples taste in books Grundy learns from user feedback: have they read it / liked it (reinforcement); if not, why? Experiments showed that Grundy does significantly better with the user model than without it It is a good start toward the construction of individual models

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Explicit / Implicit user models (Rich)

Explicit: [stated]. The model is built by the system based on explicit information provided by the user Implicit: [inferred]. The model is built by the system by mean of a learning process based on: User feedback (inferred from responses) User behavior (inferred from action) -> AGENTS

Issues to consider:

How to capture user preKnowledge ?

User effort
User control (acceptability, understanding)

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ASIS: Closing keynote presentations. Plenary debate; the future of IR, IF

ASIS2001

James Hendler: chief scientist of the Information System Office at the Defense Advanced Research Agency. He has Joint appointments in the Computer Science, the Electrical Engineering Department and the Advanced computer studies at University of Maryland, College Park Ben Schneiderman: Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. Founder of the Human-Computer Interaction laboratory; fellow of ACM; he received the ACM CHI lifetime Award in 2001 Tim Berners-Lee : inventor of the WWW; currently director of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

ASIST 2004

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ASIS: Closing keynote presentations. Plenary debate; the future of IR, IF

James Hendler (asist 2001)

Solution: AUTONOMOUS AGENTS: when we need information, one way to find it is to talk to an expert; both engage in a conversation; the expert learns about our needs, constrains and preference; the expert presents options; we decide.
Solution: Good Interfaces; with autonomous agents we loose control; we can not trust agents; who has the power: the agent or the user? The semantic web; ontological representation of knowledge (metadata) Critics: any system that requires metadata is meant to fail
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

Ben Schneiderman (asist 2001)

Tim Bernster (asist 2004)

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Some other user modeling techniques

Social and collective profiles Collaborative filtering Social data mining Filtering and communities of practices

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Social Profiles

Ardissono & Goy (1999)

SETA: A recommender system for electronic shops Based on Stereotypes Profiles include beneficiaries models: user models for each third person for whom the shipper is selecting goods

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Social profiles

Petrelli et al (1999)

Personalized guides to museums Based on stereotypes Study suggest including family profiles besides the individualized museum guide

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Collaborative profiles

A process where the system gives suggestions based on information gleaned from members of a community or peer group. Example: Amazon People who (bought, read) X also (bought, read) Y

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Social data mining

Blogs Community of practices / knowledge sharing

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Web usability / Personas / User models for web design

Sources:

Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites By Alison J. Head http://www.infotoday.com/online/jul03/head.shtml Alan Cooper, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, Indianapolis: Sams, 1999

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Web usability / Personas / User models for web design

Personas are hypothetical archetypes; imaginary Personas are defined by their goals (detailed) Developed through a series of ethnographic interviews with real and potential users. Demographic (quantitative) data, such as age, education, and job title. (similar to marketing segmentation) More important: to collect qualitative data (persona) Interfaces are built to satisfy personas' needs and goals.
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Personalization and web design Web usability / Personas

Alan Cooper original idea: using a fictitious user with a set of goals to guide and focus the design of a product. His original idea was turned out into a rigorous form of user model, based on behavior patterns that emerge from ethnographic research. A set of personas represents the key behaviors, attitudes, skill levels, goals, and workflows of real people we interview and observe, which we then use along with scenarios to guide the product's functionality and design. The method has matured to the point that anyone trained in it should be able to get the same personas from the same data.
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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Personalization - environments where is being used

Databases Newsgroups, discussion lists Personal Information Management (desktop files, E-mail, bookmarks, etc.) News: electronic journals Search engines Web sites Business e-commerce e-health e-etc.
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IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

LIS 678: IF & Personalization Example of Special topics (previous semesters)

Privacy and personalization E-commerce and personalization Mining usage data for web personalization Machine learning and personalization Adaptive web sites: learning from visitor access patterns Children's information seeking for electronic resources Users' criteria for relevance in IF systems Patterns in the use of search engines Satisfaction of information users Individual differences in organizing, searching, retrieving and evaluating information Information retrieval technologies for special users
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LIS 678: IF & Personalization Example of Special topics (this semester)

Personal Ontologies Personal Information Management Social / Collaborative filtering (wikis, blogs, community of practice) Desktop searching Semantic Web: metadata, XML, RDF Probabilistic IR / IF
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LIS 678: IF & Personalization Example of projects (this semester)

Technology and literacy in developing countries (panel) Business application of IF products Personalized ranking Semantic web and personalization

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IF Independent studies

Alex Guilloux: usability study of bookmarking behaviour; how specificity level in the hierarchy of bookmarks affect relevance Susan Lin:

Bookmarking software; specification for design Bookmarking habits of reference librarians (Information Architecture class)

Steve Lum: Ontology mapping; bookmark mapping for collaborative filtering Jennifer Cambell: Personalization and communities of practice (evaluation)
IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga

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LIS 678: Projects

Evaluation, comparison of IR / IF systems (e.g. search engines; recommenders, personalization features in digital libraries and portals) Designing / running an IR/IF experiment (e.g. building a collaborative profile using a movie recommender; testing usability of a search interface; incorporating personalization in the design of a digital library) Analysis / design / prototype of a IR/IF component (e.g. a ranking algorithm; building a prototype of a searching interface; designing personalized web sites) Writing a paper: literature review, reaction paper on IR/IF/User modeling Conducting research or development on IF - User modeling (e.g. using faceted classification schemes for personalized web-IR); using bookmarks as a source of profiles; visualization for personal information management; observing users' searching behavior children, young adults, patients, students, members of a community)
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Exercises

Use Sifter filtering system

http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~junzhang/demo.html

Use the information filtering agent at: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~pazzani/Publications/ - download several papers of interest and see what recommendations you get Use the movielens system: http://movielens.umn.edu/ rate movies (you decide how many you need to rate to adjust your profile) and see what recommendations you get

For all exercises discuss:

Content of the profile Is the profile representing user interests? To what extent do these systems allow the user control over their profile?

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People / Resources

Douglas Oard IF page: http://www.ee.umd.edu/medlab/filter/ SIFTER Project http://sifter.indiana.edu/

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People interested in IF in UH

User modeling: Martha Crosby, David Chin User Information interaction: Diane Nahl Filtering in corporations: Bob SW. Profile acquisition and representation: Luz Quiroga

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Comments

Comments, Questions?

Thanks!

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IF-Personalization / Luz M. Quiroga