Web-based Support Systems

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Web-based Support Systems

• JingTao Yao
•  Department of Computer Science,
• University of Regina
• CANADA S4S 0A2
• jtyao_at_cs.uregina.ca
• http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/jtyao

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Web-based Support Systems (WSS)

• An emerging multidisciplinary research area that
  studies the support of human activities with the
  Web as the common platform, medium and interface.
  
• One of the goals of building WSS is to extend the
  human physical limitation of information
  processing in the information age.

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WSS WI

• Moving support systems online is an increasing
  trend in Web Intelligence research.
• WSS are a multidisciplinary research the
  supported field, computer science, information
  technology, and Web technology.

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Advances in Science and Technology

• More data/information
• More tools
• More difficult problems
• More complex tasks
• More demands for quality and productivity
• .

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Advances in Computer and Web Technology

• More opportunities
• Availability, accessibility, flexibility
• More challenges
• Find the right information/tools,
• Learn/use the existing tools
• Faster changes
• Keep up with the pace of the changes.

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Why WSS?

• To take the opportunities of the Web.
• To meet the challenges of the Web.
• To extend the human physical limitations of
  information processing.
• To overcome many limitations that computerized
  support systems suffered from.
• To keep up with the advance of technology
  advances.

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Computerized Support systems

• It is impossible to develop a fully automated
  computer system.
• More practical substitute systems
• Decision support systems (DSS)
• Computer aided software engineering (CASE)
• Computer aided design (CAD)
• Computer aided education (CAE)

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Strengths of the Web

• Distributed infrastructure for information
  processing and communication.
• Delivers timely information and tools.
• Standardized user interface framework (HTML, CSS,
  XML).
• No geographical restrictions.
• Secure transmission of sensitive data.
• Potential to reach a much larger user base.

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Why the Web?

• The Web is used as
• The basic infrastructure
• The common user interface
• The universal platform
• The medium
• for delivering and providing support of various
  human activities.

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Transition to the Web

• A represents a particular domain.
• A computerized support system
• A support systems.
• A medical domain
• Medical Support Systems.
• Web technology A computerized support system
• Web-based A support systems.
• A scientific research
• Web-based Research Support Systems.

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Two Dimensional View of WSS

• WSS may be viewed as extensions of existing
  studies in two dimensions
• Application dimension
• From decision support to other types of
  support systems (e.g., data mining support,
  retrieval support, reading support, etc.).
• Technology dimension
• From old technology based to new technology
  based systems.

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Two Dimensional View of WSS
Technology
Domain Computer Web
Decision Making DSS WDSS
Information Retrieval IRSS WIRSS
Science Research RSS WRSS
Learning LSS WLSS
Knowledge management KMSS WKMSS
Data mining DMSS WDMSS
Medical MSS WMSS

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Goals of WSS Research

• Combining the isolated research efforts on
  various support systems.
• Integrating the diverse general or specific
  computerized systems.
• Extract the commonality to form a new and
  separate sub-field of study.
• Applying existing approaches and developing new
  theories and approaches for WSS.

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WSS Workshops

• 2003, JingTao Yao and Pawan Lingras co-organized
  the 1st International Workshop on Web-based
  Support System
• http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/wss/wss03/
• 2004, JingTao Yao, Vijay Raghavan, and Guoyin
  Wang co-organized the 2nd International Workshop
  on Web-based Support System
• http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/wss/wss04/
• 2006, JingTao Yao, Kanliang co-organized the 3rd
  International Workshop on Web-based Support
  System
• http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/wss/wss06/

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WSS Proceedings
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A General Architecture of WSS
Larger user base
Web technology
Standardized UI
Information technology
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WSS Research

• Generalize WSS concepts, characteristics of
  various support system.
• Study of domain independent theories, models, and
  techniques of WSS as a separate field on its own.
• Study of concrete models of WSS specific domains,
  such as decision support, research support,
  retrieval support.
• Design and implementation of variable WSS.

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WSS Directions

• Support systems (semi-automatic, interactive) may
  be more valuable than fully automatic systems,
  particularly in domains with unstructured
  problems.
• Users/experts play an active role in using
  support systems.
• Support systems are a new type of tools that help
  human to perform various task.
• Support systems will extend the capacity of
  human, instead of replace them.

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Research on WSS

• Operations logic
• Understand the needs of WSS
• Domain specific
• Domain independent
• Support facilities
• What can CS/IT/Web offer
• Domain specific
• Domain independent

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Basic issues of WSS

• Supporting domain independent activities
• Reading
• Writing
• Presentation
• Communication
• Support domain dependent activities
• Decision analysis
• Strategic decision making
• Risk analysis

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Need Intelligent SupportA Negative Example

• James Kims Tragedy (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
  James_Kim)
• San Francisco Chronicle MAPS Internet travel
  directions need to be checked carefully
  (http//sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f/c/a/2006
  /12/07/MAPS.TMP)
• The Age, Australia Faulty online mapping linked
  to wrong turn disaster (http//www.theage.com.au/a
  rticles/2006/12/08/1165081119464.html)
• How reliable are these FREE online maps?
• Google Maps, Google Maps
• Yahoo Maps, Yahoo Maps
• MapQuest, MapQuest

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Web-based Research Support Systems

• A specific type of WSS
• The general ideas of WSS apply to WRSS
• It is an example to demonstrate the usefulness of
  the study of WSS.
• Three Types of WRSS
• Support individual researchers
• Support research management
• Support research collaborations

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Scientific Research in the Web Age

• As new technologies evolve and existing
  technologies expand, a scientist needs to adjust
  accordingly and make full use of them when
  carrying out research.
• Scientists face many challenges in using
  Web-based information resources, such as
  information overload, misinformation, fees,
  poorly designed navigation, retrieval, and
  browsing tools.

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Interdisciplinary Nature Research Support Systems

• Research methodologies
• Purpose of research (science), research methods,
  research activities, etc.
• Computer science
• Computer systems that support various research
  activities.
• Web
• As an infrastructure and a medium of support
  delivery, as an common user interface.
• WRSS integrates and extends existing computer
  technologies and systems to serve scientists.

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WRSS

• How to support scientists to meet such challenges
  is an important issue.
• Many computer systems have been implemented to
  support various research activities.
• Meta search engines
• MS Word (spelling, grammar checking)
• Citation indexes Web of Science, Google Scholar,
  DBLP, CiteSeer, Scopus

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A Model of the Research Process

• Ideagenerating phase.
• Problemdefinition phase.
• Proceduredesign/planning phase.
• Observation/experimentation phase.
• Dataanalysis phase.
• Resultsinterpretation/explanation phase.
• Communication phase

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Role of WRSS

• Active role of WRSS scientists play an active
  role in using a passive system vs. WRSS also
  plays a active role to assist scientists.
• Search results alert
• MS Word auto-correction feature
• Rationality and feasibility research process is
  relatively discipline independent, which makes
  WRSS feasible.
• Separation of general research process and
  discipline specific knowledge.

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Characteristics of WRSS

• Conceptual organization of WRSS Sequentially
  according to the sequence of research phases,
  hierarchically based on the complexity of
  research activities.
• Personalized support.
• Adaptation over time.
• Web platform.

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Functionalities of WRSS

• Profile management to collect, organize, and
  store all relevant information of scientists.
• Resource management
• Many types of resources exist for supporting
  research, such as human resources, tool
  resources, and information/knowledge resources.
• The objective is to identify the suitable
  resource to support scientists' research needs.
• Data/knowledge management to record, store and
  retrieve the useful data, information and
  knowledge during the entire research process.

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Specific Supporting Functionalities

• Exploring support
• Retrieval support
• Reading support
• Analyzing support
• Writing support

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Web of Science

• Reference Search

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Cited Reference Searching - Benefits

• Allows you to move forward and backward in time,
  discovering relationships between published works
  as determined by the articles authors
• Find new, unknown information based on older,
  known information
• Track use of your research or a competitors
  research
• Backward through Cited References
• Uses cited references as subject terms
• Explore hidden connections between research
  papers.

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Cited Reference Searching
Traditional search
Cited reference search
2004 paper
2003 paper
1987 paper
1993 paper
2001
2001
1996 paper
1996 paper
1982 paper
1982 paper
1957 paper
1957 paper
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Cited Reference Search
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Cited Reference Look-up table
Cited references that are in BLUE are links to
source records. Citations to items not indexed in
Web of Science (Books, Art, etc) and Cited
Reference Variants are in black text.
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Times Cited
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Cited Reference Search / Results
As these records cite Anands work, they are
closely related to the original subject, even
though they may not use the same terminology.
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Web of Science

• Citation Analysis

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About Citation Reports

• Use to quickly see citations over a period of
  time to a set of publications
• Provide aggregate citation statistics for a set
  of search results
• Graphs that show publication activity and
  citation activity by year
• Average citations per item and average times
  cited per year
• H-index
• Remove self-citations

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Citation Reports

• Create reports for sets of 10,000 or fewer
• Available for
• Quick Search
• General Search
• Search within a Set
• Author Finder
• Refine/Analyze
• Not available for
• Cited Reference Search
• Citing Articles Summary
• Related Records Search Results

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Author search
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Author search results
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Citation Report
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H-index
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H-index

• Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an
  individual's scientific research output.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  of the United States of America, 102(46),
  16569-16572.
• Meaningful when compared to others within the
  same discipline area.
• Researchers in one field may have very different
  h-indices than researchers in another (e.g. Life
  Sciences vs Physics).

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Citation Counts
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Output Citation Report data
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ISI Web of Knowledge Citation Alert
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Contributing Computer Science Fields

• Database
• Information retrieval
• Data mining system, statistics software
• Visualization
• Graphics user interfaces
• Text editors and processors
• Intelligent agents
• Many more

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Other Examples

• More practical projects
• Three undergoing projects
• Web-based learning support treasure hunting
  games
• Web-based research support Weblog
• Web-based medical support using decision
  theoretical rough set model for risk analysis

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Using Weblog

• Research journal, diary, forum
• Keep track idea evolution
• Keep track contribution
• Easier information retrieval, hyperlinks
• System management
• Sort/store by idea, time, author
• Access level user, group, others.
• Citation management
• Search

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Architecture of WLSS
Contents Management System
Internet
USER
Learning Order Indexing Database
Conventional Indexing Database
Domain Knowledge Base
I N T E R F A C E
Information Retrieval Support System
Teaching Support System
Web-based Learning Game System
User Knowledge Base
Course Knowledge Base
Academic Dictionary Database
Membership Management System
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Example A Treasure Map
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A Partial Architecture
Users
Web/Internet
Interface/Presentation
DBMS
Knowledge Management
Rough Sets
Information Retrieval
Control Facilities
Knowledge Base
Patient Database
Risk Database
Rule Database
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Rough Set Component
Knowledge Management
Database Management
Knowledge Base
Rule
Domain Specific
if a1 2 then d
r1
Information Tables
if a1 1 then d
r2
if a1 0 then d -
r3
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Conclusion

• Support systems will play more and more important
  roles in the near future. They provide a
  potential solution for information/tool overload
  and the complexity of modern problems.
• It is necessary and beneficial to study Web-based
  support systems as a separate sub-field of
  research.
• The successful story of decision support systems
  can be repeated in other domains.

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Conclusion

• WSS is a newly identified research area
• The research on WSS is a natural evolution of the
  existing research.
• DSS gt WDSS gt WSS
• DSS gt Computerized SS gt WSS
• We identify domain, scope, research of WSS
• WRSS is a concrete example of WSS.
• Expect that WSS will attract more research.

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WSS publications

• J. T. Yao, An Introduction to Web-based Support
  Systems, Journal of Intelligent Systems, 17(1-3),
  267-281, 2007.
• H.K. Bhargava, D.J. Power, D. Sun, Progress in
  Web-based decision support technologies, Decision
  Support Systems, 43(4), 1083-1095, 2007.
• M. Chen, Y. Liou, C. W. Wang, Y. W. Fan, Y.-P.
  J. Chie, TeamSpirit Design, implementation, and
  evaluation of a Web-based group decision support
  system, Decision Support Systems, 43(4),
  1186-1202, 2007.
• J.T. Yao, J.P. Herbert, Web-based Support Systems
  based on Rough Set Analysis, Proceedings of
  International Conference on Rough Sets and
  Emerging Intelligent System Paradigms
  (RSEISP'07), June 28-30, 2007, Warsaw, Poland,
  LNAI 4585, pp 360-370.
• J. T. Yao, D. W. Kim, J. P. Herbert, Supporting
  Online Learning with Games, Proceedings of SPIE
  Vol. 6570, Data Mining, Intrusion Detection,
  Information Assurance, and Data Networks Security
  2007, April 9-13, 2006, Orlando, Florida, USA,
  edited by Belur V. Dasarathy, (SPIE, Bellingham,
  WA, 2007), 65700G-(1-11).
• J.T. Yao, Supporting Research with Weblogs A
  Study on Web-Based Research Support Systems, The
  3rd International Workshop on Web-Based Support
  Systems, Dec 18, 2006, Hong Kong, WI-IAT 2006
  Work shops Proceedings, pp161-164.
• J. T. Yao, W. N. Liu, L. Fan, Y. Y. Yao and X. D.
  Yang, Supporting Sustainable Communities with
  Web-based Information Systems, Journal of
  Environmental Informatics, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2006,
  pp84-94.

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WSS publications

• J. T. Yao, W.N. Liu, Web-based Dynamic Delphi a
  New Survey Instrument, Proceedings of SPIE No
  6241, Data Mining, Intrusion Detection,
  Information Assur ance, And Data Networks
  Security 2006, April 17-18, 2006, Orlando,
  Florida, USA, edited by Belur V. Dasarathy,
  (SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 2006), pp.169-179.
• J.T. Yao, On Web-based Support Systems,
  Proceedings of the 2nd Indian International
  Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Pune,
  India, December 20-22, 2005, pp2589-2600.
• J.T. Yao, Design of Web-based Support Systems,
  8th International Conference on Computer Science
  and Informatics (CSI), Salt Lake City, USA July
  21-26, 2005, pp349-352.  
• Y.Y. Yao, J.T. Yao, C.J. Butz, P. Lingras and D.
  Jutla, Web-based Support Systems a Report of
  the WIC Canada Research Centre, Proceedings of
  the IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web
  Intelligence, Beijing, China, Sept 20-24, 2004,
  pp787-788.
• J. T. Yao, V.V. Raghavan, G.Y. Wang, Proceedings
  of the Second Workshop Web-based Support Systems
  (WSS'04), Beijing, China, Sept 20, 2004.
• W.N. Liu, J.T. Yao, L. Fan, Y.Y. Yao, X.D. Yang,
  Web-based Support Systems for Sustainable
  Communities, Proceedings of the Second Workshop
  Web-based Support Systems (WSS'04), Beijing,
  China, Sept 20, 2004, pp102-110.

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WSS publications

• Z. Tang, B.A. Engel, J. Choi, K. Sullivan, M.
  Sharif, K.J. Lim, A Web-based DSS for erosion
  control structure planning, Applied Engineering
  In Agriculture, 20 (5), 707-714, 2004.
• P. Bharatia, A. Chaudhury, An empirical
  investigation of decision-making satisfaction in
  web-based decision support systems, Decision
  Support Systems, 37(2), 187-197, 2004.
• Y.L. Zhao, J.T. Yao, Y.Y. Yao, Data Mining
  Support Systems, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 5433,
  Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Theory,
  Tools, and Technology VI, 12-13 April 2004,
  Orlando, USA, edited by Belur V. Dasarathy,
  (SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 2004), pp218-227.
• J. T. Yao, Y.Y. Yao, Web-based Information
  Retrieval Support Systems building research
  tools for scientists in the new information age
  , Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC International
  Conference on Web Intelligence (WI'03), Halifax,
  Canada, Oct 13-17, 2003, pp570-573.
• H. Tang, Y. Wu, J.T. Yao, G.Y. Wang, Y. Y. Yao,
  CUPTRSS A Web-based Research Support System,
  Proceedings of the Workshop on Applications,
  Products and Services of Web-based Support
  Systems (WSS03), Halifax, Canada, Oct 13, 2003,
  pp21-28.  
• J. T. Yao, Y.Y. Yao, Web-based Support Systems,
  Proceedings of the Workshop on Applications,
  Products and Services of Web-based Support
  Systems (WSS'03), Halifax, Canada, Oct 13, 2003,
  pp1-5.

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WSS publications

• J. T. Yao, P. Lingras, Proceedings of the
  Workshop on Applications, Products and Services
  of Web-based Support Systems (WSS'03), Halifax,
  Canada, Oct 13, 2003.
• Y.Y. Yao, A Framework for Web-based Research
  Support Systems, Proceedings of the 27th Annual
  International Computer Software and Applications
  Conference (COMPSAC 2003), Dallas, USA, November
  3-6, 2003, IEEE Computer Society Press, 601-606.
• Y.Y. Yao, Granular computing for the design of
  information retrieval support systems,
  Information Retrieval and Clustering, Wu, W.,
  Xiong, H. and Shekhar, S. (Eds.), Kluwer Academic
  Publishers, 2003, 299-329.
• D. J Power, S. Kaparthi, Building Web-based
  decision support systems, Studies in Informatics
  and Control, 11, 291-302, 2002.
• Y.Y. Yao, Information retrieval support systems,
  FUZZ-IEEE'02 in The 2002 IEEE World Congress on
  Computational Intelligence, Honolulu, Hawaii,
  USA, May 12-17, 2002, pp. 773-778.
• K.R. Molenaar, A.D. Songer, Web-Based Decision
  Support Systems Case Study in Project Delivery,
  Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 15(4),
  259-267, 2001.

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Web-based Support Systems

• JingTao Yao
•  Department of Computer Science,
• University of Regina
• CANADA S4S 0A2
• jtyao_at_cs.uregina.ca
• http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/jtyao

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Where is Regina?
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MapQuest Dec 2006
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MapQuest Aug 2007
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