[...] raised in one of my old posts. It’s called “role-based search environment” and Lou Paglia blogs about his upcoming discussion topic at the Search Engine Meeting 2007 Conference titled, [...]

Lou, for a good example of role-based search, you should check out a healthcare search engine called Healia. They’ve really taken this idea pretty far. The best way to see this is by typing in something like “diabetes” in the search field. When the results come up, check out the left nav-bar. Click on a few of the checkboxes and watch the change in the search results. Very innovative stuff I believe.

Lou, for a good example of role-based search, you should check out a healthcare search engine called Healia. They’ve really taken this idea pretty far. The best way to see this is by typing in something like “diabetes” in the search field. When the results come up, check out the left nav-bar. Click on a few of the checkboxes and watch the change in the search results. Very innovative stuff I believe.

Thanks for the comments. It is definitely an emerging space, particularly as it focuses on search and/or leveraging search technologies to enable the front end role-based solution. Contextual relevancy in both application experience and result set will be critical improvements as more focused search applications begin to emerge.
Thanks also for pointing out Healia. There are really two formats as I see it currently. Healia takes the form of the first which is where the system can be personalized by either implicitly learning about the user from their usage or explicitly being told by the user about themselves and what’s important. The second, which will be more of the view I will take next week, is where the role type is fundamentally understood and the role-based application is already set-up with the mode and ontologies that matter to that type of individual (i.e. sales person, pharmacist, recruiter, etc).
Both are viable angles to take and each get the user to a place of “system understanding” where the system can provide much more customized experience and result sets by that understanding.
Thanks for the track back as well.

Thanks for the comments. It is definitely an emerging space, particularly as it focuses on search and/or leveraging search technologies to enable the front end role-based solution. Contextual relevancy in both application experience and result set will be critical improvements as more focused search applications begin to emerge.

Thanks also for pointing out Healia. There are really two formats as I see it currently. Healia takes the form of the first which is where the system can be personalized by either implicitly learning about the user from their usage or explicitly being told by the user about themselves and what’s important. The second, which will be more of the view I will take next week, is where the role type is fundamentally understood and the role-based application is already set-up with the mode and ontologies that matter to that type of individual (i.e. sales person, pharmacist, recruiter, etc).

Both are viable angles to take and each get the user to a place of “system understanding” where the system can provide much more customized experience and result sets by that understanding.

Thanks for the track back as well.

Lou, I like what you said about Healia. Another way to frame the distinction you are trying to draw is that Healia treats the user as, in database language, an object with attributes (but not, as far as I can tell, with relations to other objects). A lot of artificial intelligence went into this kind of object-oriented approach to “taking the history of the patient;” but its value in diagnosis was never more than limited (and you could never get those guys to talk about “heath maintenance”). From a grammatical point of view, by introducing the concept of “role,” you elevate the user from object to SUBJECT, which is extremely important from a point of view of technology effectiveness but also carries the risk of falling down a rabbit-hole where you have to sort out all sorts of subtleties around concepts like “self” and “identity.” My personal feeling is that we cannot avoid that rabbit-hole; but we should be able to equip ourselves with “tools” like ropes, pitons, and high-intensity lamps to avoid getting hurt and/or lost!

Lou, I like what you said about Healia. Another way to frame the distinction you are trying to draw is that Healia treats the user as, in database language, an object with attributes (but not, as far as I can tell, with relations to other objects). A lot of artificial intelligence went into this kind of object-oriented approach to “taking the history of the patient;” but its value in diagnosis was never more than limited (and you could never get those guys to talk about “heath maintenance”). From a grammatical point of view, by introducing the concept of “role,” you elevate the user from object to SUBJECT, which is extremely important from a point of view of technology effectiveness but also carries the risk of falling down a rabbit-hole where you have to sort out all sorts of subtleties around concepts like “self” and “identity.” My personal feeling is that we cannot avoid that rabbit-hole; but we should be able to equip ourselves with “tools” like ropes, pitons, and high-intensity lamps to avoid getting hurt and/or lost!

Stephen: Precisely. Actually looking at the UI, it is exactly that. Click a check box, add an attribute and continue to do so until the you get to the point where the object has enough attributes to where the database “knows you”.
You are also correct, that there is the down side of the “rabbit hole”. There has to be “tools” for the user and that is where the art will come into the model. It must be done in a way where you just don’t hand the user a tool belt, people do not have the time nor the patience to figure out which of the tools to select or how to most effectively use them. Perhaps, this is why the “single search box” has taken such a hold of the search universe. The user simply wants to accomplish a particular objective, finding information or even finding one single fact.

Stephen: Precisely. Actually looking at the UI, it is exactly that. Click a check box, add an attribute and continue to do so until the you get to the point where the object has enough attributes to where the database “knows you”.

You are also correct, that there is the down side of the “rabbit hole”. There has to be “tools” for the user and that is where the art will come into the model. It must be done in a way where you just don’t hand the user a tool belt, people do not have the time nor the patience to figure out which of the tools to select or how to most effectively use them. Perhaps, this is why the “single search box” has taken such a hold of the search universe. The user simply wants to accomplish a particular objective, finding information or even finding one single fact.

Lou, I find the tool belt metaphor a good point of departure for the search-as-service perspective that grew out of the <a href=”http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/04/10/getting-confused-about-search/” rel=”nofollow”>
confused of calcutta discussion</a>. For the most part the tool belt belongs in the hands of a capable <em>service provider</em>. Every now and then a client may learn enough from a service engagement to use a tool properly; and this can be good if it means not having to ask for help every time a particular problem arises. However, knowledge of the tool belt is acquired through some kind of apprenticeship relationship, whether the apprentice is a service-provider-in-training or a knowledgeable client.

Lou, I find the tool belt metaphor a good point of departure for the search-as-service perspective that grew out of the <a href=”http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/04/10/getting-confused-about-search/” rel=”nofollow”>
confused of calcutta discussion</a>. For the most part the tool belt belongs in the hands of a capable <em>service provider</em>. Every now and then a client may learn enough from a service engagement to use a tool properly; and this can be good if it means not having to ask for help every time a particular problem arises. However, knowledge of the tool belt is acquired through some kind of apprenticeship relationship, whether the apprentice is a service-provider-in-training or a knowledgeable client.