Metaweb

The Metaweb is a system that will allow users of the Internet to locate and efficiently use information on health and other topics. It is currently in an early phase of design and development by Applied Minds, Inc., a research and development company co-chaired by Danny Hillis, who is credited with inventing the concept of parallel process computing.

The goal of the Metaweb is to enable people to make more productive use of the wide array of information sources available to them online. It will serve as an intelligent filter between users and the information they seek, providing meta information about articles, websites, and other blocks of information. It could, for example, show a user who authored a particular block of text and when, in addition to communicating other people's assessments of its accuracy and relevance. The Metaweb would adjust to the particular needs and characteristics of individual users, for example by identifying content appropriate to someone new to a subject or to a technical expert in that area as needed. Such a system could lead to a major advancement in the ability of patients to access and use trustworthy, authoritative health content on the Internet.