Comments on Suzanne Little's  "Cuypers Meets Users: Implementing a User Model
Architecture for Multimedia Presentation Generation" in relation to
Katharina's model.


In her paper S. Little points out to the contradiction which arises when a
generation system tries to make inferences about the user on the basis of
his/her navigational traverses while these navigational paths had already been
restricted by the frame the user profile poses. 
Profiling the user as a starting interaction point can also lead to the
following drawback :
There might be users who don't fit in any of the suggested profiles
(in Katharina's model there are four entry profiles) Then some users will
clearly feel being restricted in their choice of addressing the available
information instead of supported by a tailored presentation. As the feedback
form, designed to refine the presentation, comes last there surely will be a
first round of unsatisfaction before a probable later fine tailoring . 
In this respect a possible solution could be to start the presentation
generation process with a very loose, highly generalized profile.
What is meant by generalized profile is one that describes broad and diverse
user characteristics thus capturing wide range of potential users with wide
range of goals. Such profile will also allow the generation of a presentation
with a richer navigational path which in turn can provide the input for
further user model refinement, hence further more tailored instances of the
presented material.
An illustration of the suggested approach is a presentation generation based on
profiles that distinguish between an adult and a child user. Both types of
profiles are broad enough in terms of potential users they can capture and yet
distinctive enough to justify the necessity of initial profiling.
A presentation generated for an adult will be highly irrelevant for a child.
For those two extreme points on the user continuum determined by the
characteristic "age" Katharina's model is applicable.
Moreover the above mentioned drawback will be avoided as each user can
immediately decide which is the age range he/she fits in. 
In the process of further adaptation both the child and adult profile can
undergo the stages of subsequent refinement based on user interaction and
feedback collection suggested by Katharina's model