Subject: 2nd flexible hypertext workshop

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the 2nd international flexible hypertext workshop : standards and evaluation held in conjunction with the 7th international world wide web conference ( www7 ) brisbane , australia - - - 14 april 1998 http : / / www . mri . mq . edu . au / conf / flexht98 / workshop theme : with the explosion of information on the world wide web comes the need to provide more flexible mechanisms for delivering information to the user . that is , we require mechanisms which can modify documents on-the - fly in order to take the user 's needs into account . static hypertext documents suffer from an inability to be all things to all people ; document and multimedia authors must write multiple documents for different users rather than a single document which can dynamically modify its content in order to address a particular user 's knowledge or the context of delivery . this workshop is intended as an inter-disciplinary exploration into flexible hypertext systems . flexible hypertext systems are systems which can present different users with different views of the same hypertext network , or which can dynamically create the hypertext network and the content of the documents at the nodes of that network at run-time . this workshop aims to draw together a number of research groups taking different approaches to flexible hypertext systems , in order to promote the cross-fertilisation of ideas and highlight the prospects for future collaboration . the target research areas include ( but are not limited to ) : - information retrieval and filtering : the use of information retrieval or other techniques to determine the relevance of the nodes within a static hypertext network for the individual user . that is , the content of the documents remain static , but links to other documents are flexible . - adaptive hypertext : the adaptation of an existing hypertext network of documents to a model of the user . that is , providing flexible document content and flexible views of a static hypertext network . - dynamic hypertext : employing text generation or other techniques to dynamically create both the hypertext network and the documents within the network as the user requests them . the hypertext network does not exist in any form ; it is built dynamically . some related events which have been held in the past include : - flexible hypertext workshop , held at the the eighth acm international hypertext conference ( hypertext ' 97 ) . ( http : / / www . mri . mq . edu . au / ~ mariam / flexht / ) - intelligent educational systems on the world - wide web , held in conjunction with the 8th world conference on artificial intelligence in education ( ai-ed97 ) . ( http : / / www . contrib . andrew . cmu . edu / ~ plb / aied97 _ workshop / ) - workshop on adaptive systems and user modeling on the world wide web , held in conjunction with the sixth international conference on user modeling ( um ' 97 ) . ( http : / / zaphod . cs . uni-sb . de / ~ um97 / ws5 . html ) - workshop on user modelling for information filtering on the world wide web , held in conjunction with the fifth international conference on user modeling ( um ' 96 ) . ( http : / / www . cs . su . oz . au / ~ bob / um96 - workshop . html ) - workshop on adaptive hypertext and hypermedia held in conjunction with the fourth international conference on user modeling ( um ' 94 ) . ( http : / / www . education . uts . edu . au / projects / ah / ah-94 . html ) more information about adaptive hypertext systems can be found at http : / / www . education . uts . edu . au / projects / ah / workshop focus : there has been a significant amount of research in this area over the past five years ( see workshop theme for more information ) , but two recurring issues have become increasingly important , and these will be the focus of this workshop : - standards : with the increasing popularity of the world wide web and the growing market for flexible document delivery systems , we need to develop standards for these systems in order to encourage and facilitate their use more widely on the world wide web . in order to develop such standards it is first important to more clearly define the requirements for such systems : what does it mean for a system to be a flexible , adaptive or dynamic hypertext system ? following on from these requirements , which techniques are important in flexible hypertext systems ? finally , can we design a standard architecture for flexible hypertext systems which can be re-used widely ? - evaluation : one of the key issues which arose from the first flexible hypertext workshop and which has been aired again recently on the adaptive hypertext mailing list is the importance of the evaluation of flexible hypertext systems . in particular , since the main goal of these systems is to maximise the suitability of a document to the user 's knowledge and needs , evaluation is an essential aspect in the development of these systems . however , very little research has been done which confirms the advantages of such systems or which demonstrates how this might be done . workshop format : the workshop will run for one full day on 14 april . the number of attendees will be limited to 20 in order to encourage participation in workshop discussions . participation will be on the basis of submitted position papers or by invitation . the workshop will include a limited number of paper presentations and general group discussions . group discussions will focus on the issues raised in the position papers , as well as on some focus questions . a workshop dinner will also be organised to encourage informal discussion . the programme will include : welcome and introduction workshop sessions consisting of : 1 to 2 position paper presentations ( 15-30 minutes ) , and group discussion on the issues raised ( 30-60 minutes ) closing : planning for post-workshop activities conclusions and wrap - up workshop dinner the proceedings will be compiled into a technical report after the workshop . position papers : we invite position papers describing demonstrated techniques for improving the flexibility of hypertext documents . we are particularly interested in papers which present innovative solutions to providing flexible hypertext documents , and those which address the need for building standard architectures and evaluation techniques for such systems . we are also interested in receiving papers assessing the benefits and downfalls of providing flexible documents , and papers of a more speculative nature which focus on the future of flexible hypertext systems . those aspects of the paper which are important for discussion in the workshop should be clearly outlined in the paper . papers should be 3 - 5 pages long , and should be put up on the web . if you do n't have access to a web server , then some space will be allocated for you . electronic submission of the url address of the position paper will be preferred , although papers submitted as ascii ( html ) or postscript will be accepted . to submit a position paper , send the url address and an ascii version of the paper itself to : mariam @ mpce . mq . edu . au if this is not possible , please send hard copies to : maria milosavljevic csiro mathematical and information sciences locked bag 17 north ryde nsw 2113 australia important dates : 27 february 1998 : submission of position papers 13 march 1998 : notification of acceptance or rejection 27 march 1998 : camera - ready copies due before the workshop , all attendees will be able to access the position papers from the web . we strongly encourage attendees to read these before the workshop . programme committee : maria milosavljevic ( chair ) , macquarie university , australia . peter brusilovsky , carnegie mellon university , usa . robert dale , macquarie university , australia . paul de bra , eindhoven university of technology , the netherlands . kristina hook , swedish institute of computer science , sweden . judy kay , university of sydney , australia . jon oberlander , university of edinburgh , scotland . cecile paris , csiro mathematical and information sciences , australia . julita vassileva , university of saskatchewan , canada for more information : - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - maria milosavljevic mri language technology group macquarie university sydney nsw 2113 australia email : mariam @ mpce . mq . edu . au tel : ( + 61 2 ) 9850 6345 fax : ( + 61 2 ) 9850 9529
