semantics, ontology, search, web 2.0, web 3.0

I have just published a paper about my doctorate research coauthored by my advisors – Frederico Fonseca and Roberto Pacheco. The paper presents the framework Hermeneus that was built to provide an interactive environment where users can develop their ideas while browsing the information and the concepts that represent the information. Hermeneus was based on concepts discussed in the areas of information retrieval, information seeking, ontology, and hermeneutic circle. Hermeneus: A framework for Information Seeking and Retrieval was published at DataGramaZero journal and below you can read the paper’s abstract – there is also a prototype with more information.

Even with the advancement of information retrieval research, extracting valuable information from information retrieval systems is still very time consuming. Common problems affecting users are uncertainty, deficient query definition, and poor systems interactivity. Based on such questions, we propose a framework to information seeking and retrieval called Hermeneus. We resorted to the hermeneutic circle to provide the principles of such a framework. In our implementation of the hermeneutic circle in an information retrieval system, users develop their ideas while browsing the information and the concepts that represent the information. We chose ontologies to implement the hermeneutic circle. Hermeneus works as an intermediary that facilitates the user to move from the initial state of information need to the goal state of resolution. Our framework intends to be the bridge between the user’s question and the answer to be found while she/he navigates in the ontology concepts and the instances of these concepts in a back and forth way.