New Search Tech: DARPA Open Sources Some New Tools From “Memex Project”
From UpStart:
The federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency today made publicly available an open-source tool that could lead to an entire new ecosystem of search-engines. Seventeen organizations received early access to the project, called Memex.
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The technology is designed to extend current search capabilities to the deep web, the dark web, multimedia, and other content. The 17 organizations have so far produced 40 different tools.
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Though the tools are all open-source, that doesn’t mean they’re free. Licensing varies from project to project, and only three of the 40 so far — those developed by Georgetown — are part of the public domain. Each project was “partially funded” by DARPA.
The article continues with a look at some of the most technologies that received “early access” to the software and are now listed in the DARPA Open Catalogue.
See Also: From the DARPA Memex Info Page (via DARPA’s Open Catalog)
Today’s web searches use a centralized, one-size-fits-all approach that searches the Internet with the same set of tools for all queries. While that model has been wildly successful commercially, it does not work well for many government use cases. To help overcome these challenges, DARPA launched the Memex program in September 2014.
Memex seeks to develop software that advances online search capabilities far beyond the current state of the art.
The goal is to invent better methods for interacting with and sharing information, so users can quickly and thoroughly organize and search subsets of information relevant to their individual interests. Creation of a new domain-specific indexing and search paradigm will provide mechanisms for improved content discovery, information extraction, information retrieval, user collaboration, and extension of current search capabilities to the deep web, the dark web, and nontraditional (e.g. multimedia) content.
Direct to Complete List of 40 Tools Built Using Memex along With Links to Research Papers
See Also: Watch Out Google, DARPA Just Open Sourced All This Swish ‘Dark Web’ Search Tech
See Also: Department of Defense Launches Targeted/Domain-Specific Search Research Program Named “Memex” (February 10, 2014)
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Journal Articles, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.