SBIR Phase I: Virtual Collaborative Spaces for knowledge discovery and sharing on the Internet

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将对“虚拟协作空间”的可行性进行原型和评估。网络的迅速普及创造了一个机会，可以利用它作为一个全球性的、动态的知识储存库的潜力，而不仅仅是发布信息的巨大档案。这种来自网络用户探索性活动的知识是高度不稳定的、零散的、时断时续的，但如果能够在正确的时间捕获并传递给正确的人，它仍然是实用的和立即适用的。它是由数百万每天上网的人出于各种原因不断创造(和丢失)的：研究一个主题，寻找建议，购买商品，等等。通过利用这一活动的一部分，并将其与由此发现的实用知识联系起来：做什么，如何做，在哪里找到它，等等，就可以创建一个巨大的、可共享的和自我维持的资源，如果管理得当，将为所有网络用户提供更高水平的支持和准确性：搜索者和提供者都是如此。如果成功，这一努力将通过对用户的探索活动而不是用户本身进行建模，使包括搜索在内的现有互联网应用程序更好地响应用户的需求。更广泛的影响是互联网转变为一个动态的知识库，大大改善了访问，使用户能够从中获得更多价值；潜在的市场影响是巨大的。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will prototype and assess feasibility of "Virtual Collaborative Spaces." The rapidly expanding ubiquity of the web creates an opportunity to exploit its potential as a global, dynamic repository of knowledge, more than just a vast archive of posted information. This knowledge, which arises from the web users' exploratory activities, is highly volatile, fragmented, and episodic, but nonetheless practical and instantly applicable if it can be captured and delivered to the right person at the right time. It is continuously created (and lost) by millions of people who surf the Internet daily for various reasons: to research a topic, to find advice, to make a purchase, and so on. By harnessing even a portion of this activity and by linking it to the practical knowledge thus discovered: what to do, how to do it, where to find it, etc., a vast, sharable, and self-sustaining resource can be created, that, if properly managed, would deliver enhanced levels of support and accuracy to all web users: the seekers and the offerors alike. If successful, the effort will make the existing internet applications, including search, more responsive to the users' needs by modeling users' exploratory activities rather than the users themselves. The broader impact is the transformation of the Internet into a dynamic knowledge repository with greatly improved access, so that the users can draw more value from it; the potential for market impact is significant.