IRIS: Integrate. Relate. Infer. Share.
Adam Cheyer, Jack Park, Richard Giuli
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025
<FirstName>.<LastName>@sri.com
Abstract. In this paper we introduce a new semantic desktop system called IRIS, an application framework
for enabling users to create a “personal map” across their office-related information objects. Built as part of
the CALO Cognitive Assistant project, IRIS represents a step in our quest to construct the kinds of tools that
will significantly augment the user’s ability to perform knowledge work. This paper explains our design de-
cisions, progress, and shortcomings. The IRIS project has grown from the past work of others and offers op-
portunities to augment and otherwise collaborate with other current and future semantic desktop projects.
This paper marks our entry into the ongoing conversation about semantic desktops, intelligent knowledge
management, and systems for augmenting the performance of human teams.
1 Introduction
In his 1962 paper, “Augmenting Human Intellect” [8], Douglas Engelbart wrote:

By "augmenting human intellect" we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex
problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to prob-
lems. Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid com-
prehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a
situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of
finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by "complex situations" we include the
professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, at-
torneys, designers--whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years. We do not
speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an inte-
grated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human "feel for a situation" usefully
co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and
high-powered electronic aids.

In 2005, Engelbart’s statement remains both prescient and compelling. That 1962 paper correctly predicts a
networked “global village,” as Marshall McCluhan [13] would later call it. We now live and work in that global
village, and the term infoglut has become the meme that reminds us of the information overload we experience
in our daily lives, and about which Vannevar Bush so eloquently wrote in his 1945 paper, “As We May Think”
[2]. Indeed, it was that paper which inspired Ted Nelson, Douglas Engelbart, and many others to try to find
solutions to the infoglut problem and augment human capabilities for solving complex, urgent problems.

Charles Bourne and Douglas Engelbart open their 1958 paper, “Facets of the Technical Information Prob-
lem,” [1] with:

RECENT world events have catapulted the problem of the presently unmanageable mass of technical
information from one that should be solved to one that must be solved. The question is receiving seri-
ous and thoughtful consideration in many places in government, industry, and in the scientific and
technical community.

This is a long version of a talk presented at the First Semantic Desktop Workshop
© 2005 SRI International. All rights reserved.

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