"While browsing the Web is a widespread everyday activity there is a shortage of detailed understanding of how users organise their Web usage. In this paper we present results from a qualitative in-depth interview study of how users browse the Web and combine browsing with their other activities. The data are used to explore three particular problems which users have with browsing the Web. Firstly, users have problems managing their favourites, and in particular accessing their favourites through a hierarchical menu. Second, users have problems with combining information across different Web sites - what we call the "meta-task" problem. Third, users have concerns with security and privacy, although these concerns seem to change as users become more experienced with shopping on the Web. We discuss three concepts which address these problems: "home page favourites", "Web clipping" and the "Web card". These concepts are attempts at incremental improvements to the Web without affecting the Web's essential simplicity."

Exploring Users' Experiences of the Web

I bought this book a month or so ago. It's a good history of the government's role in the development of personal computing and internetworking.

"COMPUTER SCIENCE:
Visionary Architect of the Net
A review by John Naughton

The Dream Machine J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal
M. Mitchell Waldrop
Viking, New York, 2001. $29.95, C$43.99. 512 pp. ISBN 0-670-89976-3.

Waldrop tells the story of the MIT psychologist who inspired and laid the groundwork for the discipline of computer science and the networking and computer technology we now take for granted."

(Subscription to Science required to read full text)

Review of _The Dream Machine_ in Oct 25 Science

Autonomic Computing: The IBM [Research] Perspective on the State of Information Technology

"The information technology boom can only explode for so long before it collapses on itself in a jumble of wires, buttons and knobs. IBM knows that increasing processor might, storage capacity and network connectivity must report to some kind of systemic authority if we expect to take advantage of its potential. The human body's self-regulating nervous system presents an excellent model for creating the next generation of computing, autonomic computing. "

There are many others also working on autonomic computing, but IBM has neatly summarized the field in a handy list of eight important goals.

IBM's Manifesto on Autonomic Computing

"Multiscale computing (MSC) involves the computation, manipulation, and analysis of information at different resolution levels. Widespread use of MSC algorithms and the discovery of important relationships between different approaches to implementation were catalyzed, in part, by the recent interest in wavelets. We present two examples that demonstrate how MSC can help scientists understand complex data. The first is from acoustical signal processing and the second is from computer graphics."

This is a preprint edition of an article set to appear in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Seciences (www.pnas.org). Full text is available in HTML and PDF. Authors include researchers from IBM Tokyo Research, NTT, and Bell Labs.

Multiscale Computing

Held in Atlanta, GA just three weeks ago.

Includes papers from Roy Want, Terry Winograd, and from Ma Tech: Gregory Abowd, Cory Kidd, Anind Dey, and Jason Brotherton. Of interest:

Privacy by Design - Principles of Privacy-Aware Ubiquitous Systems
Serendipity within a Ubiquitous Computing Environment: A Case for Opportunistic Browsing
Ubiquitous Computing and The Disappearing Computer - Research Agendas, Issues, and Strategies
Unearthing Virtual History: Using Diverse Interfaces to Reveal Hidden Virtual Worlds
InfoScope: Link from Real World to Digital Information Space

LNCS 2201: Ubicomp 2001: Ubiquitous Computing