Authors
Alexandru Toader
Abstract
Spreadsheets are used by millions of individuals worldwide for business and personal purposes. They work with simple concepts as ranges and formulas that allow users to start working immediately, with no prior knowledge, but, at the same time, they offer advanced data analysis and mathematical functions.
Most spreadsheet users are not professional programmers and the number of errors in their documents exceeds by far the allowed error-rate in other domains. As spreadsheets hold an increasingly important role in the decision making process, errors can influence the outcome of complex real-world processes. Out of all the type of errors, interpretation errors stand out as an important but under-researched source of fallacy.
This thesis will tackle the issue of interpretation errors in spreadsheet documents in the context of assessment by developing an Assessment Service that will play the role of a decision support system while enhancing the semantic transparency of the application. The service will be offered in the context of the Semantic Alliance Framework and will be based on the concept of theory graphs.
Sample
The Semantic Alliance Framework is an architecture and software framework for semantic allies.
It is based on two concepts, Semantic Illustration and Invasive Design, with three big components:
- Sally: The main component of the mashup enabler, integrates the functionality of the application A and the semantic services S into a joint user interface and interaction model.
- The application A is extended by a slim API "Alex" that reports and executes relevant user interactions within A like cell clicks in spreadsheets to and from Sally.
- Theo: A screen-area manager that enables invasive design. S supplied content is embedded as a "pop-up" into the GUI of A.
Publication
2014, Bachelor thesis, Jacobs University, May
Full article
Assessment service for spreadsheet documents
