Susan Gauch
With little more than basic information about Web users’ behavior – that is, the hyperlinks they click on daily and the content at those sites – Susan Gauch can build a better search engine. In information systems research, this work is known as “implicit” user profiling, meaning there are basic assumptions about user interest and intent based on the sites they frequent and the content they view.
Gauch, a professor of computer science and computer engineering, will contribute her expertise to the work of Hypothes.is, a project started by Dan Whaley, the coder and entrepreneur who built the first Web-based travel reservation system. Hypothes.is is trying to build a system of annotation for the Web. Based on a model of community peer-review, the system will be an open-source platform that will enable annotators to comment on individual sentences.
“Since the very beginning of the Web, there has been an issue of trust,” Gauch said, “because there has always been this ubiquitous ability for anyone to create and distribute information. What Hypothes.is is trying to do is build confidence and trust about information obtained on the Web.” The Hypothes.is system will function as an overlay – similar to the “Track Changes” tool in Microsoft Word – on top of stable content, including news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and regulations, software code and more. Gauch holds the Rodger S. Kline Endowed Chair in Computer Science and Computer Engineering