Swisscast - An Information Casting System for Switzerland

So far, the usual means of getting hold of information on the Internet has to browse the Web. However, the explosive growth of the WWW is making this form of search increasingly inefficient. There is too much information available and it does not always meet the inquirer's needs. This is where information casting comes in. A third party - a broker - intervenes between the seeker and the supplier and prepares the information for the "consumer" according to an actual consumer-defined profile. Unlike the procedure in the traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers), the information supplied is tailored to the inquirer's particular specifications.

The goal of the Swisscast project is to construct a prototype that puts this principle into practice, in the process studying some important questions of communication and information retrieval on the Internet. The project features the following main elements:

• Information provider and user selection and their motivation to collaborate
• System architecture: specification and selection of the technologies used, constructing the system
• Visual user interface

• Preparation: market analysis and investigation of the available tools
• Production: information analysis and structuring, tool selection and system assembly
• Verification: testing the marketworthiness of the service and adapting it to user requirements