icra.org

An introduction to the Quatro project

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The European QUATRO project makes it easy for users to recognise websites that carry trustmarks, seals of approval and content descriptions, collectively called ‘labels’. These labels are detected and authenticated in real time as the user searches and/or browses the Internet, enabling them to make informed choices about the content they wish to see.

Quatro offers a Firefox browser extension, called ViQ. With this installed, small icons appear that indicate the presence (or absence) and trustworthiness (if known) of labels found on websites as the user visits them. The user does not need to hunt around for a logo when seeking reassurance that the site operator can be trusted – ViQ does the work. Besides ViQ, a user can also see that a website is labelled by using the search annotation tool, LADI. LADI can be accessed through ViQ or directly on the Web using any browser. LADI forwards the user’s query to the Google or Yahoo! search engines and displays the quality labels (when found) next to the returned results. Links to the tools are provided below.

Through these tools end users can check whether a website has a quality label, and whether the information in the label is valid and reliable. This saves the user time and stimulates trust in information that can be found on the internet.

Labelling Authorities distinguish themselves from one another by a variety of means, including the criteria they use in deciding whether or not to award their trustmark. Recognising this, use of Quatro does not mandate that all LAs switch to a common set of criteria. However, there are a relatively small number of criteria that, research shows [BEUC], are highly likely to be used by any LA, no matter what their particular area of concern may be. These elements are collected in the Quatro Vocabulary. Where an LA’s criteria exactly or closely match those defined in the Quatro descriptors, the latter should be used. Where there is no match, the LA will derive its own descriptors from its own assessment criteria. A typical label will therefore include descriptors from both the Quatro vocabulary and the LA’s own vocabulary.

If a machine that can recognise the labels issued by one Labelling Authority finds a label issued by another, it may not be able to make direct use of the data specific to the label authority it has detected. However, the elements from the Quatro vocabulary will be understood by all participants. Thus, each LA benefits from the common system without any loss of its own distinguishing features and commercial interests.

Participating Labelling Authorities

At present, ViQ and LADI detect, identify and authenticate three labels: ICRA, IQUA and WMA. ICRA is the world’s leading online child protection labelling system. IQUA, the Internet Quality Agency, is a non-profit organisation that certifies the quality of websites in terms of usability, accessibility, minor protection contents, security and data protection. WMA, Web Medica Acreditada, is a Spanish Medical review and labelling scheme. These labelling authorities use common descriptive terms where possible to ensure the greatest possible interoperability between them.

You can search for anything using LADI but as a QUATRO demonstration, we suggest trying any of the following search terms:

  • Hipocampo (www.hipocampo.org is a Spanish website concerning Alzheimher’s disease. Labelled by all three QUATRO partners)
  • Solihull (the local authority’s website at www.solihull.gov.uk is ICRA labelled)
  • Qualitat Internet (IQUA comes out top of the results)
  • Tom Tom
  • ICRA!

QUATRO (Quality Assurance and Content Description) began as a European-funded project under the Safer Internet Action Plan and ran from November 2004 to October 2006. QUATRO provides the means for a quality label – any quality label – to be machine-readable for a variety of purposes and displayed wherever the user may be on a site. Machine-readable labels will allow search engines to display logos next to the search results so that end users can immediately see which websites have been reviewed by labelling authorities. By clicking on the logo the end user immediately gets information about the validity and trustworthiness of the label. This saves the end user time as he/she doesn’t need to open every website to see whether the website carries a trustmark and it stimulates trust in information on the internet.

Key deliverables from QUATRO

  1. The QUATRO vocabulary. A licence-free set of terms that can be used by labelling authorities as desired to express common themes. Individual labelling authorities are likely to wish to add their own terms but the common set is the key to interoperability.
  2. The QUATRO Proxy (Quapro) Web Services. This provides a simple application interface through which labels for a site can be identified, authenticated and interpreted.
  3. ViQ (Visualise Quality) and LADI search annotation tool (Label Display Interface).
  4. The QUATRO project was a key driver behind the establishment of the Content Label Incubator Activity [WCL-XG]] at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This may lead to further standardization in future.

QUATRO Project Partners:

  • Coolwave: UK-based E-media company, providing website and database technical support (principal develop of the LADI search annotation tool).
  • ECP.NL (Platform for eNetherlands): An independent platform consisting of both public and private organisations dedicated to the development of the Netherlands information society. Leads the policy research of QUATRO.
  • ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics): The European host of the W3C provides a direct link between QUATRO and the W3C’s Semantic Web Activity.
  • ICRA (Technical Co-ordinator): Leading international content labelling system. Backed by major internet companies around the world.
  • IQUA, the Internet Quality Agency, is a non-profit organisation that certifies the quality of websites in terms of usability, accessibility, minor protection contents, security and data protection. Partners of IQUA are public bodies: Red.es and Council Audiovisual of Catalonia, Navarra and Andorra.
  • NCSR (The Greek National Centre for Scientific Research): Knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence experts, prinicpal developers of the QUATRO infrastruicture
  • Pira International (Project Co-ordinator): UK paper, packaging, print and publishing consultancy, providing information services, conferences, training, and publications for these industries.
  • University of Milan (UNIMI – Department of Computer Science and Communication): Expertise in content-based filtering and access control for multimedia databases and the Web.
  • WMA, Web Mdica Acreditada of the Medical Association of Barcelona, is a leading accreditation programme in Spain and Latin America that enables the quality improvement of the health related content websites and the best practices in medical services on the Internet.