Steinkrug, Cambridge (UK) -based software house has recently released GenePage, as a free, client based software solution which uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) technology to structure information in Web based co-working and knowledge management applications. GA's are used here to maximize the "survival" of useful information: links with other GenePage page files on the Web can be built in a minute, as a basis of an intelligent, evolving and browsable network of data and resources - your own "Digital Nervous Systems".

GenePage automatically gathers user information by examining data from browser or e-mail client cache. As a client based application GenePage should be easier to use and less costly to implement than a server based knowledge management solution. It consists of two main components: an editor to collect data and build up a profile of the user that can be published in the form of a HTML page, and a browser which can be used to access the GenePage files of other Web users.

Unfortunately, although this concept seems to be promising and effective in a distributed organizations, there are some implementation problems. I had serious problems with installing the software on Windows NT, and finally decided to try it on Windows 95 as recommended in the help files. Program has successfully derived the keywords from my cache, but still refuses to start the browser due to the "OLE Error". I am looking forward to resolve this with Steinkrug Technical Support. However, in spite all problems in the early release, this could be the next big step after various server-based collaborative filtering tools. I'll keep you posted...

MIT LCS

Another short story loosely related to Bill Gates: he has just donated $20 million for a new computer science building located at MIT campus. MIT's Laboratory of Computer Science, the real home of cool and computable stuff, has subsequently released plans to introduce Oxygen, an ambitious $40 million research project that is being financed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The objective of this project is as broad and brave as it can be: to reinvent all concepts of information technology, from low-level hardware systems to the new-generation of software and computer networks. Sounds crazy? Think again, because Microsoft itself is moving toward the future foreseen at MIT labs.

So, what's wrong with the current PC technology? Dr. Michael Dertouzos, head of this lab says that today's personal computer is just too complicated. It has too many features, requires users to learn too much, and often behaves unpredictably. That's why Oxygen will be based on several components that the lab is already developing. The first is Handy 21, a portable device with a small screen, a video camera and GPS receiver relying on advanced voice-recognition technologies. The powerful versions of the Handy 21 system will be called Enviro 21, and will be embedded in walls, doors and electric/electronic devices. These and other technological wonders (like the N21 network architecture for connecting such devices) will be based on a new processor chip design known as Raw that will subject the "low-level" circuitry of the processor to customization by software designers.

Just to give you a taste of things to come, you can take a look at some working systems that can be accessed right now. One of them is Jupiter, a conversational system that provides up-to-date weather information over the phone for more than 500 cities worldwide. It is based on the client-server architecture of Galaxy, the core of all the MIT Spoken Language Systems Group's conversational systems. You can access the information by calling on a telephone by dialing 1-888-573-8255 or 1-617-258-0300 for international calls. The others include Pegasus, a conversational interface that enables users to obtain flight information over a telephone line (1-877-648-8255 and 617-258-6040), a city guide (VOYAGER), a restaurant guide (DINEX), online automobile classified ads (WHEELS), and selected Web-based information (WebGALAXY). For more information on the technology behind these systems, visit some of the links listed below.    Site(s) of interest:

• Steinkrug
  UK based software house who design and build advanced Web and Internet based communication solutions. For more information on GenePage, contact Peter Kruger.
• MIT LCS
  The MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) has fundamentally changed the way we do computing. Much of the hardware and software driving the Information Revolution has been, and continues to be, created at LCS.
• Spoken Language Systems
  The home page for the SLS group at MIT.
• RAW
  Project RAW: implementing a simple, highly parallel VLSI architecture, and exposing the low-level details of the hardware architecture to the compiler so that the compiler or the software can determine, and implement, the best allocation of resources for each application.
• MIT Media Lab
  MIT's Media Laboratory, founded in 1985, carries on advanced research into a broad range of information technologies including digital television, holographic imaging, computer music, computer vision, electronic publishing, artificial intelligence, human/machine interface design, and education-related technologies.
• Jupiter
  Conversational system that provides up-to-date weather information over the phone. Includes SUMMIT that converts the spoken sentence into text, TINA for parsing the text into semantic frames, GENESIS that uses the semantic frame's basic terms to build a Structured Query Language (SQL) query for the database, etc.
• Pegasus
  Pegasus is a conversational interface that enables users to obtain flight information over a telephone line.
• Oxygen
  MIT press release on this exciting project.
• What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives
  An inspiring book from Michael Dertouzos, an Internet pioneer and Head of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.