This seminar is about building a smart, visual, autonomous, and interactive information manager of all of a user's information, whether that information is data or programs, and whether it originates on the web, via mail, news, ftp, an editor, or any other application. It is not a search engine, browser, desktop, or operating system, although it shares elements of all four programs. It is an attempt to take control of the desktop away from the major software manufacturers and put it in the hands of the world's independent software developers, thereby enabling a new round of massive change. The project has been ongoing for a year already and will be released at the end of term.
 
Prerequisites

Either Java ability or interface design ability is a must. Expertise in any of the following areas is desirable:

usability testing information visualization graphics web programming

web design object-oriented databases machine learning statistical analysis

Course credit will go to assignments, participation in designing the architecture, group coding of the program, and improvement of the website. See mission, teams, duties, and evaluation for further details. Also, see the course website and the project website for extensive background.

Note that there will be two b669 seminars offered this spring; if you are interested in this seminar you must register for section 8387.