Managing change on the web

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, digital libraries are being defined that collect pointers to World-Wide Web based resources rather than hold the resources themselves. Maintaining these collections is challenging due to distributed document ownership and high fluidity. Typically a collections maintainer has to assess the relevance of changes with little system aid. In this paper, we describe the Waldens Paths Path Manager, which assists a maintainer in discovering when relevant changes occur to linked resources. The approach and system design was informed by a study of how humans perceive changes of Web pages. The study indicated that structural changes are key in determining the overall change and that presentation changes are considered irrelevant.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.5 On-line Information Services
          Subjects: Web-based services
      H.3.7 Digital Libraries
          Subjects: User issues
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Web-based interaction

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Performance, Reliability, Theory, Verification

Keywords:
Walden's path, path maintenance