event display algorithm suggestions

[Patrick Nichols <pnichols@graphics.csail.mit.edu>]

All --

I'm writing a data structure that tries to serve up events in a 
semi-intelligent way. The basic idea is that we have a set of events, 
which each have a location and a time. Events have a priority, and higher 
priority events are more likely to be displayed than low-priority events.

The way I'm thinking about the problem is to sort events along two axes: 
spatial locality and temporal locality. Events which are happening soon 
and which are close are more important than events which are far away in a 
long time.

I'd appreciate feedback on this approach, if anyone has any good ideas for 
thinking about how much to weight these factors. Here's what I've got, 
roughly:

  /**
   *  Method which computes the priority of an event based on its
   *  time, location, and type, and then dislays it.
   */ 
  private void computerPriority(SignEvent se) {
    // first compute how soon it is, and group into one of four buckets:
    //  1. immediate   (< 1 hour from now)
    //  2. short term  (< 12 hours from now)
    //  3. medium term (< 2 days from now)
    //  4. long term   (> 2 days from now)

    // second compute how close the event is
    //  1. this locale (20M)
    //  2. this building (100M)
    //  3. this quadrant of campus (500M)
    //  4. all others (2000M)
  }

I get reasonable results using some home-grown weighings, but was 
wondering if there was a more scientific approach i could use.

-- 
* * *

Patrick James Nichols II
Graduate Student, MIT Computer Graphics Group
http://graphics.csail.mit.edu/~pnichols