Finding Information Through Integrated Ad-Hoc Socializing in the Virtual and Physical World

Abstract: Despite the services of sophisticated search engines like Google, there are a number of interesting information sources which are useful but largely inaccessible to current Web users. These information sources are often ad-hoc, location-specific and only useful for users over short periods of time, or relate to tacit knowledge of users or implicit knowledge in crowds. The solution presented in this paper addresses these problems by introducing an integrated concept of "location" and "presence" across the physical and virtual worlds enabling ad-hoc socializing of users interested in, or looking for similar information. While the definition of presence in the physical world is straightforward - through a spatial location and vicinity at a certain point in time - their definitions in the virtual world are neither obvious nor trivial. Based on a detailed analysis we provide an integrated spatial model spanning both worlds which enables us to define presence of users in a unified way. This integrated model allows us to enable ad-hoc socializing of users browsing the Web with users in the physical world specific to their joint information needs and allows us to unlock the untapped information sources mentioned above. We describe a proof-of-concept implementation of our model and provide an empirical analysis based on real-world experiments.