Comments on: SIGIR ’09 Industry Track Program http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:39:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Daniel Tunkelang http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/comment-page-1/#comment-3213 Daniel Tunkelang Wed, 20 May 2009 21:04:00 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2114#comment-3213 The SIGIR conference broadly covers information retrieval, and does include interaction and exploratory search. But, if you look at programs from recent years, you'll see that these areas don't get that much attention. As I understand it, it is hard (though not impossible) to present research results in these areas that are quantitative and reproducible enough to satisfy the reviewers. And there may simply be a cultural gap between user-focused information scientists and system-focused information retrieval researchers. Yes, there are exceptions (e.g., Gary Marchionini), but generally exploratory search researchers (e.g., Marti Hearst) don't submit their work to SIGIR. The SIGIR conference broadly covers information retrieval, and does include interaction and exploratory search. But, if you look at programs from recent years, you’ll see that these areas don’t get that much attention. As I understand it, it is hard (though not impossible) to present research results in these areas that are quantitative and reproducible enough to satisfy the reviewers. And there may simply be a cultural gap between user-focused information scientists and system-focused information retrieval researchers. Yes, there are exceptions (e.g., Gary Marchionini), but generally exploratory search researchers (e.g., Marti Hearst) don’t submit their work to SIGIR.

]]> By: Avi Rappoport / SearchTools.com http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/comment-page-1/#comment-3212 Avi Rappoport / SearchTools.com Wed, 20 May 2009 20:50:28 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2114#comment-3212 What's the difference between SIGIR search and exploratory search? I went the last time it was at Berkeley, and it wasn't all about known-item retrieval by any means. Please explain! What’s the difference between SIGIR search and exploratory search? I went the last time it was at Berkeley, and it wasn’t all about known-item retrieval by any means. Please explain!

]]> By: jeremy http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/comment-page-1/#comment-3211 jeremy Wed, 20 May 2009 18:07:35 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2114#comment-3211 Well, I didn't mean it has to exactly be Exploratory Search. It could have been any number of other search types. Product search would be interesting. Media search is an area I'm partial to, and something that Google has had to do a lot more of, recently, with their copyright detection in YouTube. Hearing about that would be quite interesting. I'm just sayin' I've been hearing about adversarial IR from Google for waay to many years now, and am ready for a change. But look, take that as only an extremely minor criticism. I'm very much looking forward to the day as a whole. Well, I didn’t mean it has to exactly be Exploratory Search. It could have been any number of other search types. Product search would be interesting. Media search is an area I’m partial to, and something that Google has had to do a lot more of, recently, with their copyright detection in YouTube. Hearing about that would be quite interesting.

I’m just sayin’ I’ve been hearing about adversarial IR from Google for waay to many years now, and am ready for a change.

But look, take that as only an extremely minor criticism. I’m very much looking forward to the day as a whole.

]]> By: Daniel Tunkelang http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/comment-page-1/#comment-3209 Daniel Tunkelang Wed, 20 May 2009 17:56:13 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2114#comment-3209 Don't blame Google for the topic selection; it was my choice. I wanted to simultaneously optimize for quality of line-up, topic coverage, and diversity of companies. That led to Matt Cutts - Google - Spam/Adversarial IR as being one of the triples. And, bear in mind, it is SIGIR, where exploratory search is still a niche. I had to respect that and not abuse my authority as track organizer to turn it into an HCIR Industry Day. Believe me, I'd have loved to have gotten Dan Russell on the schedule too. Don’t blame Google for the topic selection; it was my choice. I wanted to simultaneously optimize for quality of line-up, topic coverage, and diversity of companies. That led to Matt Cutts – Google – Spam/Adversarial IR as being one of the triples. And, bear in mind, it is SIGIR, where exploratory search is still a niche. I had to respect that and not abuse my authority as track organizer to turn it into an HCIR Industry Day. Believe me, I’d have loved to have gotten Dan Russell on the schedule too.

]]> By: jeremy http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/05/19/sigir-09-industry-track-program/comment-page-1/#comment-3208 jeremy Wed, 20 May 2009 17:47:22 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2114#comment-3208 Hmm.. I've been hearing about spam and adversarial IR from Google for at least the last 7 years. Isn't there some other/better topic? I understand spam continues to be a challenge. But I'd be more interesting in hearing about growth-challenges, than limitation-challenges. Then again, I guess my attitude is that if they supported more Exploratory Search, spam would really not be much of a challenge. I see it as extremely difficult for a spammer to know how to rank highly as a user starts interactively moving through the collection. It's only when your main goal is non-interactive, non-transparent precision-oriented fact lookup and navigation, that spam is even an issue. Time for a little jujitsu on the spam problem, by growing beyond it. Hmm.. I’ve been hearing about spam and adversarial IR from Google for at least the last 7 years. Isn’t there some other/better topic? I understand spam continues to be a challenge. But I’d be more interesting in hearing about growth-challenges, than limitation-challenges.

Then again, I guess my attitude is that if they supported more Exploratory Search, spam would really not be much of a challenge. I see it as extremely difficult for a spammer to know how to rank highly as a user starts interactively moving through the collection.

It’s only when your main goal is non-interactive, non-transparent precision-oriented fact lookup and navigation, that spam is even an issue. Time for a little jujitsu on the spam problem, by growing beyond it.

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