CAREER: A Relational Database Interface to the World-Wide Web

如果适当利用万维网的独特性，它有可能成为世界上最大的知识库。虽然表面上类似于早期的超文本和其他信息检索领域，但Web具有重要的定量和定性差异，需要新的工具和技术。数量上的差异是显而易见的：Web的巨大规模排除了在传统数据库中存储完整和最新副本的可能性。Web和早期信息检索领域之间的质的差异更加微妙，但同样重要，包括Web上各种类型的半结构化信息。将Web与关系数据库统一起来，使其可以通过结构化查询语言（SQL）和其他数据库工具进行访问，将最流行的数据管理工具之一应用于这一具有挑战性和重要性的领域。在研究者的论文中出现了即时数据库和Squeal查询引擎的原型实现，证明了Web可以像在本地关系数据库中一样被查询。这是通过仅在需要时自动从Web检索信息来实现的，允许构造几个简单但强大的基于结构的信息检索应用程序。该建议是建立一个强大而有效的Web关系数据库接口，该接口将成为信息检索社区的有价值的工具，支持对Web上多种类型的结构和其他信息的统一访问，包括文档间结构、文档内结构、表单、cookie以及出现的新功能。高效的性能需要开发查询优化技术、预取和刷新策略以及在多个用户之间共享数据的技术。随着系统的发展，将开发和评估新的信息检索应用程序，以更好地了解使用不同类型的可用信息对各种信息检索问题的好处和局限性。在整个过程中，系统本身将被评估，以更好地了解提供一个关系数据库接口到Web的权力和限制。主要的教育目标是增加妇女的计算机科学机会，在这一领域的调查人员有丰富的经验，并作为一个很好的定位在一个女子学院的教员，有一个强大的本科课程和两个研究生课程：一个是为有大学学位的人提供的证书课程，他们希望改变领域，另一个是将计算与另一个领域的经验相结合的跨学科硕士课程。研究者的计划（已经在进行中）包括：监督本科生研究，目标是为研究生教育做好准备和激励学生。完全修改架构和操作系统序列，包括创建硬件实验室。利用学校。湾区的位置，以建立与行业的联系，导致扬声器，实习，永久就业，并可能捐赠。为米尔斯的学生开办一个辅导项目，为他们进入研究生院和就业做准备。 从附近的社区学院招收转校生，这样做的额外好处是可以接触到经济上处于贫困地位的妇女。改进跨学科硕士课程，使学生的其他兴趣领域与计算机科学更充分地结合起来。

The World-Wide Web has the potential of being the world's largest knowledge base if its unique characteristics are properly utilized. While superficially similar to early hypertext and other information retrieval domains, the Web has important quantitative and qualitative differences that necessitate new tools and techniques. The quantitative differences are obvious: The tremendous size of the Web precludes storing a complete and up-to-date copy in a conventional database. The qualitative differences between the Web and earlier information retrieval domains are more subtle but no less important, including the various types of semi-structured information on the Web. Unifying the Web with relational databases, so it can be accessed through Structured Query Language (SQL) and other database tools, would apply one of the most popular data management tools to this challenging and important domain. A prototype implementation of just-in-time databases and the Squeal query environrnent appeared in the investigator's dissertation, proving that the Web could be queried as though it were in a local relational database. This was achieved by automatically retrieving information from the Web only when needed, allowing the construction of several simple but powerful structure-based information retrieval applications.This proposal is to build a powerful and efficient relational database interface to the Web that will be a valuable tool for the information retrieval community, supporting uniform access to many types of structural and other information on the Web, including inter-document structure, intra-document structure, forms, cookies, and new features as they arise. Efficient performance will require developing query optimization techniques, pre-fetch and refresh strategies, and techniques for sharing data among multiple users. As the system progresses, novel information retrieval applications will be developed and evaluated, to gain a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of using different types of available information toward various information retrieval problems. Throughout the process, the system itself will be evaluated, to better understand the powers and limits of providing a relational database interface to the Web.The primary educational goal is to increase computer science opportunities for women, an area in which the investigator has extensive experience and is well-positioned as a faculty member at a women's college with a strong undergraduate program and two graduate programs: a certificate program for people with college degrees who wish to change fields and an interdisciplinary master's program for combining computing with another area of experience. The investigator's plans (already in progress) include: Supervising undergraduate research, with the goal of preparing and motivating students for graduate education. Completely revising the architecture and operating systems sequence, including the creation of a hardware laboratory. Taking advantage of the school. Bay Area location to forge ties with industry leading to speakers, internships, permanent employment, and possible donations. Running a mentoring program for Mills students to prepare them for graduate school and employment. Recruiting transfer students from nearby community colleges, which has the added benefit of reaching economically underprivileged women. Improving the interdisciplinary master's program to more fully integrate students' other areas of interest with computer science.