Knowledge gateways: the building blocks

Technological advances over the past two decades have made data retrieval faster and easier, giving rise to a substantial industry providing access to business, professional, and scientific information. Some progress has been made towards increasing the relevancy of the data obtained by the information user. Despite these activities, information sources remain scattered, hard to find, and difficult to access. Using technology, visionary individuals will build knowledge gateways capable of leading knowledge-seekers to the needed information, wherever it may be stored. Some basic building blocks, or components, of a knowledge gateway have already been developed. These include multiple system interfaces, access to private and public databases, invisible logon protocols, assistance with database selection, postprocessing, assistance with query formulation, and limited natural language input. Some of the technologies useful in building knowledge gateways are artificial intelligence and expert systems, networking, online retrieval systems, optical storage, and natural language processing; they can be linked together to provide a powerful connection between the user and the stores of electronic information throughout the world. Four fledgling gateways are the EasyNet system, the Department of Defense Gateway Information System (DGIS), a library access station under development by the Library Network operated by AT&T Bell Laboratories, and the National Materials Property Data Network.