8.15.1 The content management component of the Information Personae will filter, store, and deal with overall management of an IP's data, be it local or remote. Content will range from static items such as documents and imagery to references to dynamic or real-time sources such as web sites and multimedia streams or broadcasts. The exact means of content storage and querying will be flexible due to the implementation of APIs such as ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) and JDBC (Java Database Connectivity). This will allow the IP to scale depending on the needs of the user or community of users. To access this content, a second service is offered which exposes a set of queryable interfaces, which handle a range of query languages including natural language, KQML (Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language) and SQL (Structured Query Language). These interfaces return query results formatted as a defined public space object (see the section "public space"). This public space object can then be appropriately visualised, depending upon the current user's mode of interaction with the IP. All access to content stored within an IP will be logged and tagged with information about the source of the query, which will presumably be another IP.

8.15.2 A higher level of interaction with an IP happens via a World Wide Web interface. For instance, the same member who constructed an IP via an email interface can access and manipulate the IP with any web browser. This allows for interaction on a more visual and aesthetic level, opening up the possibility for richer information visualisation techniques. In this case, the entire body of content the participant has constructed is displayed as HTML. Participants can change and add metadata about content, making their IP a better source for querying. By beginning to explore the dynamic web sites created by querying their own and other's IPs, participants can discover listings of other IPs that have recently accessed similar data. Connections may then be established between the two IPs in order to exchange basic public content via mobile agents. [top]