Paper Reading #18: An Adaptive Calendar Assistant Using Pattern Mining for User Preference Modelling

Comments:
Comment 1 
Comment 2 

Reference Information:
Title: An Adaptive Calendar Assistant Using Pattern Mining for User Preference Modelling
Authors: Alfred Krzywicki, Wayne Wobcke, Anna Wong
Venue: IUI 

Summary:
In this article the authors describe SmartCal, a calendar which can make suggestions when you are planning events. The system utilizes pattern mining to search through past made appointments and attributes of those appointments (such as time, date, event name) in order to suggest possible future appointment entries. The system is designed so that it is not intrusive and the user is not required to select any recommendations.

Discussion:
The main point of this system that I thoroughly enjoyed was the fact that it is not intrusive. By having suggestions in a completely separate area the user does not have to be affected at all unless they want to. In my opinion, this means that the system can do nothing but good things for the user. If for instance the attributes became pre-filled based on assumed future appointments, the user would become annoyed with the system every time they had to clear each field to put in the correct appointment attribute value.