Form 9.B Project Summary
Chron:
971170
Proposal
Number:
06.10-3474A
Project Title:
Concept Map-Directed Hyperlinking for
Collaborative Design
Technical Abstract (Limit 200 words)
NASA, which depends on the services of many
diverse units to accomplish its missions, is
challenged by a multiplicity of information and the
geographical distribution of its personnel working
towards a common goal. This Phase I effort
proposes a novel technology developed within a
cognitive framework to fulfill the collaborative
design and information sharing needs of NASA
multi-operator teams. Our initial effort is focused
on geographically distributed operators who
generate information products and deploy these
products to a central server. Our Concept
Map-Directed Hyperlinking for Collaborative
Design has three development phases: 1)
identifying the relationships and dependencies
among pieces of information needed and generated
by operators via knowledge elicitation; 2) using the
results from the knowledge elicitation to construct a
concept map to blueprint the cognitive processes of
a multi-operator team; and 3) developing a
server-side software agent to generate hyperlinks,
directed by the concept map, between similar and
related information. Our approach is unique in that
it automatically generates meaningful hyperlinks
among information residing on the server, therefore
facilitating information sharing in a way that
corresponds naturally to the team cognitive
process.
Potential Commercial Applications (Limit 200 words)
The technology developed under the Phase I effort
has several potential commercial applications.
Market areas that can be targeted include the
Internet, corporate intranets, and other large
networks. Specific applications include: 1)
automatic hyperlinking capability for
Internet/intranet-based research groups; 2)
corporate data sharing through hyperlinking; 3)
intelligent-agent directed hyperlinking; and 4)
prevention of dangling hyperlinks.
Name and Address of Principal Investigator (Name,
Organization Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Christine Illgen
Charles River Analytics
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge , MA 02138-1125
Name and Address of Offeror (Firm Name, Mail Address,
City/State/Zip)
Greg L. Zacharias
Charles River Analytics
55 Wheeler Street
Cambridge , MA 02138-1125