Using Future Context in Personal Information Retrieval

With nearly universal access to vast information sources, it is difficult to discern what is important from what is not. Users, especially mobile users, are faced with a tradeoff: either check many information sources frequently or miss important information that may impact them. Improvements in information retrieval are required to consolidate diverse information and reduce the overall effort required to monitor multiple sources. Effective personal information retrieval requires context awareness, and in this work we propose the use of knowledge of future context as the basis for identifying and prioritizing information. By taking into account the user’s planned activities, it is possible to be continually informed of information that may have an impact on the user, with minimal disruption to the user. This paper provides an overview of the issues surrounding the use of future context in information retrieval and presents a context-aware retrieval system built to explore these issues: the Integrated Management of a Personal Augmented Calendar Tool (IMPACT). IMPACT employs future context to prioritize, organize and deliver information, leveraging the user’s calendar to determine future context. The goal of the IMPACT system is to provide the user with all information that will impact activities in a timely manner, while minimizing the effect of interruptions on the user