Intelligence in the net

Abstract

As a resource the Web is amazing and bewildering, and, at times, infuriating. All of us have, at one time or another, followed a seemingly endless loop, hopefully clicking one more time in a quest for some specific information. Many of us were also not the first person ever to be frustrated searching for that particular information. But the Web does not (yet) learn from other people's mistakes. In that sense, we who use it are not even as clever as ants in the kitchen, who always leave chemical trails for their nestmates when they find something good to eat. Pursuing the ant metaphor, we imagine a user community operating in asynchronous collaboration mode, where information trails from user quests for information on the Internet are left behind for any community member to follow. The goal is to post and share communal knowledge: as community members engage in individual information quests, they make a small extra Capturing HUMAN W hat if your navigation of the Web were assisted not only by various search engines and software systems, but also by many other people who had searched for similar information in the recent past? This article discusses a software system called " AntWorld " 1 that integrates humans as part of the enabling technology to help other humans navigate the Web. A new software system allows Web searchers to connect with others who have been there, done that. Enabling Technologies 1 aplab.rutgers.edu/ant/