Project Updates

Update - 2/12/08: Individuals who are members of the Facebook community can now follow the development of the Noesis project by joining our group at: 

http://evansville.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9723080939.

Update - 9/23/07: Current development of Noesis is happening in conjunction with the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO) at Indiana University. Our first priority is to get Noesis into a database to facilitate easy management of the dataset. Secondly, we will build a Noesis interface for the InPhO-SEP taxonomy to allow topical browsing of our search space. This work will be done throughout the 2007-2008 academic year and may continue into next Fall.

Beta Release Notice

This release of Noesis is experimental. The search mechanisms provided here by Google are still being developed and tested. Users will notice, for instance, important omissions in search return sets. We expect these errors to be corrected as Google finalizes its code.

Update - 1/16/07: This week the editor of Noesis wrote to Google about omissions in search return sets. Perceptive users will note, for instance, that a search for the term "biology" produces six pages of search returns, while a search for "biology moral" produces thirty-seven pages of returns. A representative from Google replied acknowledging an awareness of the problem, noting that improving the quality of search return sets is "top priority." In the meantime, the Google representative noted that search sets can often be lengthened by compounding a search with an innocuous term. A search for "biology philosophy," for instance, produces sixty-two pages of returns. We do recognize the severity of this problem. It is not a small one. Yet, we remain hopeful that Google will solve it in time.

A second known limitation is that the space allotted by Google for a custom search engine is much smaller than needed to compile a complete index of professional philosophy online. Still, it is large enough to allow us to build a prototype for studying the viability of this model (see About) in anticipation of a larger initiative. 

Update - 1/4/07: Google has acknowledged that the size limit on their Custom Search Engines will eventually increase, offering helpful advice on how to overcome the limitation in the meantime. It will be some time before Noesis runs into a problem with the limit as it currently exists; and if Google generously raises the limit, we may never run into this problem.

Please report errors to noesis.philosophy@gmail.com.