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

该小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将对“虚拟协作空间”进行原型设计并评估其可行性。“网络迅速扩大的普遍性创造了一个机会，可以利用其作为全球动态知识库的潜力，而不仅仅是一个巨大的已发布信息档案。这些知识来自于网络用户的探索性活动，具有高度的不稳定性、分散性和偶发性，但如果能够在正确的时间捕获并交付给正确的人，这些知识仍然是实用和立即适用的。它是由数以百万计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，进行购买，等等。通过利用这一活动的一部分，并通过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，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，将向所有网络用户（搜索者和提供者）提供更高级别的支持和准确性。如果成功的话，这一努力将使现有的互联网应用程序，包括搜索，通过建模用户的探索活动，而不是用户本身，更好地响应用户的需求。更广泛的影响是将互联网转变为一个动态知识库，极大地改善了访问能力，以便用户可以从中获得更多价值;市场影响的潜力很大。

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.