Semantic Document Architecture for Desktop Data Integration and Management

The paper presents a novel desktop document architecture, namely SDArch, which attempts to integrate data from heterogeneous desktop applications into a unified desktop information space. To achieve this, SDArch introduces a new document representation model, which establishes explicit semantic links between fine-grained units of document data based on the conceptualization of their semantics. The SDArch semantic search and navigation services, which run on this unified desktop information space, aim to improve the search and navigation within desktop data, thus improving the effectiveness and efficiency of desktop users in carrying out their daily tasks. We report on a usability evaluation of the SDArch prototype and an experimental evaluation of the proposed semantic search. The evaluation results are promising. We present an analysis of these results.