Peter Gardenfors has proposed the framework of conceptual spaces to represent meaning. Between the symbolic representation (like first order logic) and subconceptual representation (like neural networks), the conceptual representation uses a geometric paradigm for modelling semantics. This talk describes the outcomes of bringing together Gärdenfors' theory with existing and modified cognitive algorithms, and applying them to mailing list, email and blog data. The meanings in the semantic spaces were exploited in the areas of charting the topical ebbs and flows in an online community, visualising a computational sense-of-self of people with chronic illness, managing expertise within enterprises, the discovery of social networks using tacit knowledge, and finally the uncovering and use of deeper notions of user context.
Robert was born in Brisbane, Australia, and was educated in Darwin, Bougainville Is. Papua New Guinea, Brisbane and Canberra. He received a BSc(Hons) from the Australian National University and has researched in the diverse areas such as speaker independent automatic voice recognition and Australian drought policy. He was the first technical director of the first independent ISP in Australia, and lectured at Queensland University of Technology for over four years during which time he established the first web server in the state of Queensland, and received a MInfTech and education GradCert. He researched at the Distributed Systems Technology Centre, a Brisbane-based IT joint venture between the Federal government, large and medium corporations, and academia as well as W3C office, for 8 years before recently joining the CSIRO ICT centre.
His recent IT research activities have included Guidebeam, a search tool utilising a browse paradigm, and of late he has focussed on melding interdisciplinary areas of cognitive science, philosophy, information science and sociology into investigating how to use computers to increase our awareness. His next venture is extending the work on modeling a computational sense-of-self into a broader theory and practice of a "science of identity".
The College of Information Studies (CLIS) at the University of Maryland enrolls approximately 450 students in three degree programs: an interdisciplinary Ph.D.; the growing Master of Information Management (MIM); and the well-established Master's of Library Science (MLS). It is home to nationally ranked programs in Archives and Records Management and School Library Media and is known internationally for its vibrant program of interdisciplinary research in information access, retrieval, and use; digital libraries; information policy; and children's information seeking and use in electronic environments. The College's Information Studies Colloquium (http://www.clis.umd.edu/research/seminar/) features research presentations from scholars in the field of Information Studies.
This talk is part of the CLIP Colloquium Series, organized by Jimmy Lin (jimmylin -at- umd .dot. edu). For the complete schedule, please visit http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/research/CLIP/colloq/.