The Universal Information Resource: all the world's knowledge on-line

ABSTRACT:
The day is rapidly approaching when the bulk of information received and processed by humans will be disseminated and stored digitally and delivered to them via high-bandwidth communication links. Raj Reddy's original conception of a Universal Library warehousing all authored works has expanded to a Universal Information Resource storing all the world's information in a form navigable by humans as well as computer programs. The resource can be mined by automated agents to watch (or generate) news programs, perform research tasks, make predictions, issue warnings, and keep users (and other automated systems) apprised of changes in relevant data. This talk focuses on the tehcnical challenges in building such a resource and its potential uses and benefits.

SPEAKER BIO:
Michael Ian Shamos is Director of the Universal Library and Principal Systems Scientist in the Language Technologies Institute at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and holds an adjunct appointment in the Computer Science Department. He has been affiliated with CMU since 1975, teaching in the Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Departments. While in adjunct status from 1981 until 1998, he founded two Pittsburgh computer software companies, Unilogic, Ltd. and Lexeme Corporation, and is a partner in the Webb Law Firm, Pittsburgh's largest intellectual property practice. He originated the field of computational geometry during the 1970s and is the co-author with Franco Preparata of Computational Geometry: An Introduction (Springer-Verlag, 1985). His research interests are in analysis of algorithms, computational mathematics and digital libraries. .

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