Delivering actionable information

Data or information is only useful when it answers one's information needs, and when it is delivered in a way that facilitates understanding and use. We have all experienced trying to find information about a specific topic, issuing a number of queries on the web using a search engine in an attempt to obtain appropriate links, and, finally, trying to pull together the information we wanted from all the results. In this paper, we present the Virtual Document Planner, a platform designed to support tailored information delivery. The VDP addresses the problem of delivering information that may come from a variety of sources, and that needs to be delivered in a form that facilitates comprehension and use. To illustrate that approach, we describe an application where the VDP is applied to the generation of information about a specific topic in the context of a company web site. We also report on a preliminary study investigating the effect of such information delivery.