Edinburgh Napier University

  The issue of how users can navigate their way through large information spaces is crucial to the ever expanding and interlinking of computer systems. Computer users live in a world of information spaces. One of the most critical activities which users need to undertake is to retrieve information from such spaces and thus the problem of how to help the user to navigate, explore and identify the objects of interest is critical to the success of the system. We shall investigate a new approach to navigation, based on a personalised and social navigational paradigm. Most information retrieval in the �real� world is accomplished through communication between people. We trust certain individuals to possess the information we are looking for. In addition, we expect them to be able to express the information so that it becomes personalised to our needs, understanding and abilities. Often the information seeking is done through talking to several persons, comparing the advice given, reformulating the original need for information, and only sometimes turning to other information sources such as books or on-line databases.