Re: Introduction

[Andrew Pam <xanni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 05:35:57PM -0800, tom poe wrote:
> Hello:  I am interested in the work surrounding hypertext.  I would very much 
> like to get a status report on where this topic sits at this time.
> 
> I came across this, earlier, from the government RFP solicitation site:
> http://www.eps.gov/spg/NASA/ARC/OPDC20220/NASA-SNOTE-020108-001/Synopsis.html
> 
> "A special briefing to introduce you to NASA's newest patent-pending data 
> mining technology is being held at NASA Ames Research Center. The briefing is 
> an opportunity for your firm to license PERILOG, and leverage its powerful 
> capabilities for your software solutions products. Product Profile: PERILOG 
> unearths data that is contextually relevant to the subject being 
> investigated. The software measures the degree of contextual association for 
> large numbers of terms pairs in text (or any other sequence) to produce 
> models that capture the structure of the text. PERILOG statistically compares 
> these models to measure their degree of similarity to a query model, develops 
> a ranking, and presents the search results to the user. Furthermore, the user 
> has access to powerful query tools that, for example, generate search options 
> automatically. The licensing event will be held at the NASA Ames Research 
> Center, Moffett Field, California, on Tuesday, January 29, 2002, from 10 a.m. 
> to noon and will include a light lunch. Please register on-line at 
> http://ettc.usc.edu/ames/perilog/homepage.html For additional information, 
> please contact Patrick Hung at 650-604-5063.Email your questions to Patrick 
> Hung at phung@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> 
> Is there any relationship between "Data Mining", the business method, and 
> "Hypertext", the concept?

Only in that they are both methods of information retrieval.  Data mining
involves searching for connections after the fact, whereas hypertext
involves recording, preserving, manipulating and accessing connections
explicitly rather than trying to discern them from a body of data without
explicit connections.

> The reason I ask, is that I was thinking, today [really hurts when
> I do that], and Xanadu seems like the perfect workaround for XLink,
> a process that has never been realized to this date.

Ted was consulted by the XLink working group during the development
of that standard, so it is no accident that XLink does provide some
support for some of the Xanadu concepts.  Not being directly involved
in those working groups myself I can't speak to the reasons for the slow
deployment of XLink in actual released software.

> Further, my disappointment with the unbelievably crude efforts at
> representing global standards to the Public, has me looking for some
> approach to web communications that will not be hobbled by corporate
> standards such as the W3C.org folks are promoting.

While I do have some doubts as to the ultimate relevance of the W3C
standards and there have been some concerns over patents on processes
used in W3C standards, I believe that the members of the W3C and its
working groups are by and large sincerely well-intentioned and doing
plenty of good work.  However there is no requirement to propose a W3C
standard before launching a new idea on the Internet - that's one of
the great things about the net.  While Project Xanadu is happy to work
with standards groups wherever relevant and feasible, we are also doing
plenty of development outside standards groups.

Hope that helps,
		Andrew
-- 
mailto:xanni@xxxxxxxxxx                         Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/                       Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/                   Technology Manager, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/                      Manager, Serious Cybernetics
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P.O. Box 477, Blackburn VIC 3130 Australia	Phone +61 401 258 915