INFO 310 - Models of Information Behavior
April 15, 2004
Notes By: Egaas, Fortier, Prins

Kevin, Brian, and Sandra Present their information observations
** Kevin (The Oracle) **
Cheesecake Factory (Bellevue) - Participant Observer
    > Noticed a lot of people sitting down
    > Not one particular person
    > They would browse thru the menu page by page (back and forth, etc..)
    > Most people seemed to be searching for something but didn't know what
    > Information giving done by the waiters
    > There was not much encountering
    > How did you decide what to order?
        - I knew what he wanted. Chinese Chicken Salad.
    > How did the person you were with decide what they wanted to eat?
        - The share meals so they get different meals that each would like.

** Brian **
Orphus Cafe - Just Observer
    > Internet Cafe
    > Industrial feel to it
    > Observed two types of information interaction
        - Not in there for the atmosphere (just search and go)
        - People were there on a social basis
    > Observed an interaction about a post online but the never do find it and then they just get distracted on something else.
    > Where people would get something to drink and then they would browse "The Stranger"
    > There was direction in the path that they wanted to take but the attention span was much shorter

** Sandra **
Waiting for the Bus
    > Saw a  girl that came by the schedule and was browsing and seeking information about the times and then she was differentiating the information and then extracted the information that she needed.

<< BACK TO LECTURE >>

Models of Information Behavior

Classic Information Retrieval Model: Paradigm Shift??

                                    Transparent // There is a direct match beetween these

Document --->  Document Representation -| |- Query <--- Information Need
    ^                                    ^                      ^
    |                                    |                      |
    |                                    |                      |
    ---------------------------------- MATCH --------------------
    
    - ASCII ART by Egaas and Prins

Document Matched Need
striaghtforward and neat

> Doesn't take into account many things
    - what's behind need
    - how document will be used
    - static representation of the document and its role

Nick Belkin (1984)
    > User's information need: Anomalous State of Knowledge
    > Difficult for user to specify information needs
    > Interview to elicit problem statement to determine the user's ASK
    > After ASK determined, formulate query in system's language

    NOTE: Belkin is at Rutger's presently

Oh boy, next slide will be fun
grab the PP notes and copy paste... um, it's an image
    oh yay :D


Generator's Image                                                        User's Image
of the World                                                             of the World
    |                                                                       |   ^
    |                       TEXT                    REQUEST                 |   |
    |                         ^ | linguistic,       |   ^                   |   
    |                         | | pragmatic         |---|                   |   |
    |                         | | transformations   |   |                   |   
    v                         |                         |                   v   |
Conceptual State -------> Information <----->  Anomalous state - - - -> Conceptual State
of Knowledge         |                          of knowledge   <-------- of knowledge
                     |                                              |
                belief, intent,                                     |
                knowledge of user                               realization of need
                transformations


Berrypicking (Bates, 1989)
    > Berrypicking focuses on the sequence of searcher behaviors
    > Query is evolving
    > Searchers may user different search strategies in a single query
    > Implications for design of information systems
    > Diagram: Look at slides

Ellis (1989)
    > Information-seeking patterns of social scientists
    > Six characteristics:
        - Starting
        - Chaining
        - Browsing
        - Differentiating
        - Monitoring
        - Extracting
    
** Irvin **
TE Lab
    > Sandra was looking for an employer
    > Looking @ monster.com

** Stephanie **
Going to bus stop
    > Saw a poster for a band that she liked but thought wasn't around anymore
    > Information giving with the information that was on the posters attached to the telephone poles.
    > Do different poles have different genres?
    
** Sean **
Heard an informal meeting
    > Informal meeting, but formal workings were underlying
    
Assignment
    ** Exercise 2 - The last paragraph - Due Tuesday 4/20
        - Write it up and bring it to class    
    Example of you giving information