Wearable queries: adapting common retrieval needs to data and users

Abstract

The wealth of information generated by users interacting with the network and its applications is often under-utilized due to complications in accessing heterogeneous and dynamic data and in retrieving relevant information from sources having possibly unknown formats and structures. Processing complex requests on such information sources is, thus, costly, though not guaranteeing user satisfaction. Furthermore, dynamic contexts prevent substantial user involvement in the interpretation of requests. The paper envisions an innovative solution to process the above mentioned requests, limiting user involvement by exploiting information on: (a) user context (geo-location, interests, needs); (b) data and processing quality; (c) similar requests repeated over time. By interpreting a request in a novel way by means of a Wearable Query (WQ), i.e., a query that captures the user and request specificities, we envision an approach to address repeated information needs in distributed, heterogeneous, dynamic environments, with emphasis on the geo-spatial dimension and on data quality.