Haystack : A Platform for Personalized Information Management
Problems and Motivation: The personal computer, though acclaimed for its ever increasing capabilities to process data, has yet to become a place convenient enough for the user to store and manage all of his or her various types of information. Currently, the user is restricted to storing only a limited set of information, including e-mail, text documents, pictures, audio files, contacts, and meetings. Without becoming a database administrator, the user struggles to find a place to record useful daily information (e.g. medications taken, shopping lists) and accumulated long-termed data (e.g. blood type, history of illnesses, a list of favorite restaurants, an inventory of insured and uninsured properties). Text editors and spreadsheets allow for content composition, but they lack capabilities for inputting semantics that would facilitate automatic information processing. Using existing software applications, the user cannot query for the favorite restaurant closest to a friend’s house, ask for a list of uninsured items of more than $100 in value, or find out how often he or she buys milk.