Towards Understanding Digital Information Discovery and Curation

Elena Voyloshnikova and Margaret-Anne Storey

Information Seeking

(Wilson, 1997)

• User in context → Information need
• Information need → Information seeking behaviour
• Information seeking behaviour → Demands on information systems

For example....

• Boiling eggs → Time for eggs to boil → Search for "time for eggs to boil"
• Making breakfast → Breakfast recipe → Browse for breakfast recipes
• Making omelette (recipe found last week) → Omelette (recipe found last week) → Tracing back to where the recipe was found

Information Seeking

(Wilson, 1997)

• User in context → Information need
• Information need → Information seeking behaviour
• Information seeking behaviour → Demands on information systems

How do information systems handle users' information needs?

How would I design a system like that?

Google Images

Pinterest

Flickr

500px

What is the difference between different information discovery applications?

Information Curation

Research Questions

How do existing Web applications support information discovery?

How do existing information discovery applications support information curation?

Methodology

Relating factors

Tools

Selected using Alexa (www.alexa.com)

Framework

Curation

• Management
• Preservation
• Augmentation
• Sharing

Framework

Curation

• Management
• Preservation
• Augmentation
• Sharing

Serendipitous Discovery

• Arbitrary navigation

  Does the application provide a means for arbitrary navigation among resources?

• Search-based navigation

  Does the search engine help retrieve diverse resources related to the topic of interest?

• Category-guided navigation

  Do categories suggest and help with navigating to resources related to the topic of interest?

• Integration

  If resources originate from a different site, do they link to their original sources?

• Visual link preview

  If resources are delivered as links, do they have visual previews?

• Spatial arrangement

  Is there a semantic to the spatial arrangement of resources?

Framework

Curation

• Management
• Preservation
• Augmentation
• Sharing

Channel-based discovery

• Site subscription

  Does the application allow subscriptions to news and updates?

• User subscription

  Does the application allow subscriptions to other users' activities?

• Notifications

  Does the application have one or more notification mechanisms?

• Subscription news feed

  Can subscription updates be visible within the application?

• General content news feed

  Can content updates be visible within the application?

Framework

Curation

• Management
• Preservation
• Augmentation
• Sharing

Augmentation

Evaluation

Can the resource evaluations be recorded privately or publicly?

Annotation

Can resources be annotated privately or publicly?

Framework Application

Evaluation of Google Maps

• Fact finding
• Integrated with Google+
• Rediscovery (history, bookmarking, search)
• Preservation
• Sharing (embeds and links)

Potential Gaps

• Arbitrary navigation
• Category-based navigation
• Channel-based discovery
• Management
• Augmentation
• Sharing

Contributions and Implications

The framework...

• can be used to reveal missing features
• can help improve existing tools
• helps evaluating tools
• shows distinctions between tools
• can guide case selection for studies
• requires designer's judgement

The developers...

• cannot always close gaps because of certain constraints
• face certain trade-offs when developing applications

Limitations

• Unintended or unforeseen usage
• Lack of documentation, literature, and formal descriptions
• Web tools rapidly evolve
• Mechanisms may vary for different platforms

Future Work

• Identify gaps → design an application
• Study factors that influence the need for one information discovery type over another.
• Address limitations.

Framework

Curation

• Management
• Preservation
• Augmentation
• Sharing

elenavoy@uvic.ca