tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post1133456205347157697..comments2008-09-16T17:25:47.335-04:00Comments on Redirecting to http://thenoisychannel.com...: Nick Belkin at ECIR '08Daniel Tunkelanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10240432137428080022noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-42866835467531397892008-05-30T07:36:00.000-04:002008-05-30T07:36:00.000-04:00Thanks to Jeff for posting a link to Nick's talk, ...Thanks to <A HREF="http://www.searchenginecaffe.com/2008/05/june-2008-sigir-forum-highlights.html" REL="nofollow">Jeff</A> for posting a link to <A HREF="http://www.sigir.org/forum/2008J/2008j-sigirforum-belkin.pdf" REL="nofollow">Nick's talk</A>, recently published in the <A HREF="http://www.sigir.org/forum/index.html" REL="nofollow">SIGIR Forum</A>.Daniel Tunkelanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10240432137428080022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-17745094017313032772008-04-12T15:21:00.000-04:002008-04-12T15:21:00.000-04:00Accepting nominations for SIGIR "Unfiltered Crank"...Accepting nominations for SIGIR "Unfiltered Crank" award.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-71261560054314535942008-04-11T15:16:00.000-04:002008-04-11T15:16:00.000-04:00Jon, you're right--I am guilty of oversimplificati...Jon, you're right--I am guilty of oversimplification. I think the crux of the problem, which is hardly unique to IR, is that it's easier--at least in the academic world--to propose solutions that incremental improve relative to an well-accepted problem statement than it is to propose changing the problem statement. This conservative attitude has some merit: it certainly filters out a lot of cranks. But it also discourages radical innovation.Daniel Tunkelanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10240432137428080022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-18709298671929973332008-04-10T09:37:00.000-04:002008-04-10T09:37:00.000-04:00Daniel -- I think the divergence in the two fields...Daniel -- I think the divergence in the two fields is quite a bit more complicated than simply a focus on repeatable experiments vs. user studies. There's baggage included with IS's close ties to LS, there's lots of appeal for CS students to manipulate formulae to eek out incremental improvements, the nuts-and-bolts software engineering expertise doesn't really exist in many IS departments, and the list goes on. Even though I came through an IS department on my way to CS, I haven't completely wrapped my head around all the reasons *why* this divide exists.<BR/><BR/>It is great to see venues like SIGIR and ECIR really elevating the role and visibility of good IS research in the IR community -- the most recent best papers at both conferences are perfect examples. <BR/><BR/>(and, as a side note, IMO if the conclusions of your user study aren't repeatable, then you're missing something in your study design or analysis... but that's probably another discussion)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-63974675293657915582008-04-10T07:35:00.000-04:002008-04-10T07:35:00.000-04:00In fairness to the SIGIR community, the divergence...In fairness to the SIGIR community, the divergence in methodology between the information retrieval and information science communities has made it very hard for the two to collaborate. IR researchers want repeatable experiments, which information and library scientists emphasize user studies that are inherently not repeatable. It is, as Nick said, a grand challenge.Daniel Tunkelanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10240432137428080022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-91104553982526893972008-04-09T11:10:00.000-04:002008-04-09T11:10:00.000-04:00From the perspective of a relatively green IR rese...From the perspective of a relatively green IR researcher, the IR community started as a combination of computer science and information/library science researchers. Nick's work—past and present—and the work of information and library scientists is extremely relevant to and, in my opinion, overlooked by the computer science IR community. I'd give my left toe for SIGIR to drop five papers which claim marginal DCG improvement—or better yet every "computational advertising" paper—for an equal number information science papers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016696494330504473.post-25955354623224384742008-04-09T10:18:00.000-04:002008-04-09T10:18:00.000-04:00Daniel -- thanks for posting this. Sounds like a ...Daniel -- thanks for posting this. Sounds like a fascinating talk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com