Context-based information access

The continued growth of traditional forms of information, the recent rapid growth of sensor information, and the growing use of information in mobile and other novel applications leads researchers in a variety of Computer Science research areas to identify context-based information access as a research priority in the next decade. “Context” covers a broad range of topics ranging from how and where data was collected to why the information is wanted and how and where it will be used. Although researchers in information retrieval, databases, and sensors view the problem from very different perspectives, they agree that contextual information is a key to improved use and reuse of information in the coming decade. Research topics include context abstractions; detecting, sensing, and discovering context; using context; manipulating context information; and interpreting context. This research area is likely to require diverse teams doing integrative research, with consequently larger funding needs. Important obstacles to research in this area are the current lack of tools for collecting contextual information, and the current lack of generally available datasets and testbeds for conducting and comparing research