Flashgroups: Automatically Forming Collaborative Groups of Analysts around Prioritized Information Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2011.2 Topic No.: N112-152 Topic Title: Flashgroups: Automatically Forming Collaborative Groups of Analysts around Prioritized Information Proposal No.: N112-152-1248 Firm: CSIDEALAB, LLC 4618 HENRY STREET FLOOR 1 PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania 15213 Contact: Carlos Guestrin Phone: (412) 586-4023 Abstract: Analysts are faced with information overload in two major arenas: a) an overwhelming amount of information, where only a small subset may be relevant to their task, and b) a huge number of other analysts, a few of whom may be investigating related subjects and able to provide key insights. Here, we propose Flashgroups, a novel tool that helps an analyst discover key groups of information and other analysts who can help achieve her task. As the analyst interacts with the proposed tool, a real-time machine learning algorithm learns a detailed user model that captures the analyst's current intention. Using this model, our proposed system can recommend highly relevant groups of information for the analyst's underlying task. When multiple analysts are using our tool, the machine learning algorithm can transfer discovered knowledge between analysts, and connect the ones who have aligned goals in their current tasks to form collaborative teams, or flashgroups, around specific topics. In Phase I, we will evaluate flashgroups around a database with tens of thousands of documents, and tens of users, thus demonstrating the viability of our proposed strategy for tackling the formation of context-specific collaborative groups of analysts. Benefits: The proposed research will enable users to tackle information and social overload by providing personalized recommendations for the content they want when they want it and aid in discovering small groups of other users who share their current intention. This project has a dual commercialization path: a) from a web perspective, we will build a highly monetizable website, where users connect with new people in engaging conversations around content they want; b) from a DoD perspective, Flashgroup will lead to a tool with unique capabilities for analysts to explore the information they want and connect with others who are tackling similar or complementary intelligence tasks. Return