平成１４年度未踏ソフトウェア創造事業


採択テーマ概要

１．担当ＰＭ 　Alan kay （President, Viewpoints Research Institute）
２．採択者氏名 　Sakai Masahiro　（酒井　雅裕）
３．テーマ名 　The Circulation of Good - Implementation of a cooperative information-gathering agent for Squeak.
４．採択金額 　8,000,000円
５．テーマ概要

<Abstract >

In the nine years since the appearance of Mosaic, the Internet has become a very big source of information for us. Information on the Internet became necessary for people’s lifestyles and work. However, it is very difficult to find an effective search method to obtain the information that an individual needs. We need a pilot for information. The current weak point of search engines is that they cannot look for information adequately because of the explosive increase of the Internet population and amount of information and the relative deterioration of Internet user literacy. The purpose of this project is to make an agent that solves this point on Squeak. This agent includes three main functions. First, it collects information. Second, it shows information to the user, who selects from it, and then properly stores it. Third, and this is a characteristic of this time, it lets fellow agents that have received information disclosure range and permission from the user exchange information and further refine it. With these three functioning continually, the circulation of knowledge occurs, and the Internet can become a true knowledge processor. I decided to make an intellectual processor primarily for children. The study subject "information" begins in Japanese high schools from 2003, and an opportunity to learn Internet literacy will begin, but underage children are always exposed to a large quantity of bad information on the Internet. Children must differentiate between good and bad information by themselves from the age they become accustomed to computers. Children utilize an information agent class for their own project on Squeak by implementing the information agent as a class of Squeak, and Children can make use of it for learning and choosing well. Implementation in various platforms is finished, and computer resources including the Internet can be very easily utilized, and, in an ideal environment -Squeak of the computing that the first child can become for offering it, necessity of such an intellectual processor is felt deeply.
６．採択理由

This project is interesting because of the way it will attempt to intersect some difficult technical search problems with the subtle end-user world of children. It will provide another important point of view for helping end-users make use of the riches to be found on the Internet. Since there are many projects that have the similar technical goals of making models to make end-user search easier and more likely to find useful knowledge, this project depends very much on how well the user interface can be successfully used by the children to find what they are interested in.