Understanding Adaptive Hypermedia: An Architecture for Personalisation and Adaptivity

The predominant approach taken by the adaptive hypermedia (AH) community to implementing AH systems may be characterised as application-orientated and technologydriven. This has, in part, resulted in relatively low levels of interchangeability and interoperability between AH systems. To address this situation recent AH research has begun to focus on understanding the mechanisms and structures underpinning AH systems. In particular, several formal models have been proposed which address these issues, the prominent examples being Adaptive Hypermedia Application Model, the Fundamental Open Hypermedia Model and the Goldsmiths Adaptive Hypermedia Model. In this paper we propose a component-based architecture for AH within which these approaches to modelling are compared and understood. Using this architecture we show that although each model uses different representations there are important underlying commonalities. It is envisaged that through an understanding of these commonalities, it may be possible for the AH community to devise a standardised "plug 'n' play" architecture for the development of future AH systems