Think Locally, Search Globally; Context Based Information Retrieval

This paper proposes the use of local context as a way to semantic information retrieval. In our model, rather than trying to formalize the contents of the documents among which the search is done (e.g. by formally annotating them), we try to automatically build a representation of the context in which the search is done. We consider that search is always done as part of an activity, and that the search context is determined by the activity that is carried out at a particular moment. Many activities that a person is engaged in are carried out with the help of a computer, and leave a digital trace in the files that are created in connection to it. We take these files, and the structural relations between the directories in which they are stored, as a starting point for the representation of context.