A perspective on information, knowledge and context

August 30th, 2010 Web Summarizer and mind mapping on the iPad
 
One of the advantages of cloud services is the ability to access your information over the web from any device, any operating system and any browser.  This provides great flexibility and eliminates many barriers on using and sharing information.
 
Context Discovery specializes in bringing summarization solutions to empower users by converting web pages and documents into instant summaries.  You can think about summarization as document search engine instantly pointing you to the most relevant information.
 
Recently we deployed the Web Summarizer for our beta users. The Web Summarizer offers summarization of web pages and creation of knowledge repositories. Another feature is to provide mind mappers the ability to convert web pages and documents into mind maps.  
 
When recently Brian Friedlander started to use iPad, he tested it with the Web Summarizer. First he accessed the Web Summarizer application and created summaries on the iPad. And secondly he created mind maps from the summaries. Since Mindjet MindManager does not offer yet an iPad version the mind map was automatically created using iThoughstHD.
 
For details you can check Brian’s excellent blog:  Context Summarizer on the iPad
 

If you would like to learn more about the summarization technologies please download Context Organizer for free today.

Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.

See Context Organizer with MindManager and with Google search.
 
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Posted by Henry at 8.30 | No Comments »
 
August 21st, 2010 Context Organizer for MindManager 9
 
Context Discovery is pleased to announce the availability of Context Organizer for Mindjet MindManager 9.
 
For those who are new to Context Organizer for Mindjet MindManager please take a look at this short video  demo to see how quickly and intelligently Context Organizer converts web pages and documents into MindManager mind maps:
 
 
With Context Organizer you will effectively mine for relevant information and convert it into rich contextual maps without any effort. With addition of Context Organizer the MindManager becomes a powerful knowledge mapping application.
 
From a blank page with only "central topic" in the center, with a click of a button information is turned into rich, accurate MindManager mind map.
 
The synergy between the power of Context Organizer and MindManager dramatically improves knowledge discovery and knowledge mapping. In no time you will be able to convert web pages and documents into rich in context mind maps.
 
With the ability to convert Google, Bing, Yahoo seaches into mind maps directly in MindManager you will find Context Organizer a very handy and effective knowledge mapping add-in. And with rapid rendition of the mind maps you will be able to review much more sources much faster.
  
Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
 
See also Context Organizer for Google search results.
 
Download Context Organizer for free today

 

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Posted by Henry at 8.21 | No Comments »
 
April 27th, 2010 Key phrases are all about being informative!
 
A key phrase is defined as a meaningful and significant expression consisting of one or more words in a document. For example a keyword "information" is very general while phrases "information overload" and further "information overload syndrome" provide much better understanding.
 
Appropriately, key phrases serve as a highly condensed summary for a document, and they are used as contextual labels to supplement the title or they can be highlighted within the body of the document to facilitate users’ fast browsing and reading.
 
Key phrases are usually manually assigned by authors, especially for journals,  conference articles or back-of-the book indexes.  However, the vast majority of documents such as news, magazine articles, web pages do not provide key phrases because the manual effort of assigning key phrases is too expensive. Therefore it is useful to automatically extract key phrases from web pages to accompany the main content of the document.
  
Key phrases are all about being informative!
 
Informativeness tells us how well a phrase captures or illustrates the key ideas.  Practice shows that users prefer using key phrases in their searches because they are getting more accurate results.
 
Because informativeness depends on the background information - the context - the more context we have  the better is our understanding.
 
Context plays crucial role in rapid information analysis and synthesis. Software tools, such as Context Organizer,  that specialize in spotlighting the key phrases provide a convenient shorthand for researchers and writers.
 
Context Organizer immediately focuses on the essential information and helps with rapid reviews of large number of documents in short time. Quick reviews of the key phrases with relevant context provide practical clues as to the usefulness of the information.

 

 

 * This mind map was produced using Context Organizer for MindManager

Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
 
See Context Organizer with MindManager and with Google search.
 
Download Context Organizer for free today
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Posted by Henry at 4.27 | No Comments »
 
April 26th, 2010 There is a need to automatically create key phrases
 
Key phrases are meant to serve multiple goals:
 
   1.  They enable the reader to quickly determine whether the given article is of interest
 
   2.  When key phrases are gathered in the cumulative index - the goal is indexing. They enable the reader to quickly find relevant content when the reader has a specific need.
 
   3.  A search that matches a given query term in the keyword field will yield a higher quality list of hits than a search for the same term in the full text of the documents.
 
Given the fact that we are inundated with information there is a need for tools that can automatically create key phrases. And paradoxically, although key phrases are very useful, only a small minority of the online documents provide key phrases.
 
The principle for choosing key phrases is that the key phrase list is relatively short  and it must contain only the most important, topical phrases for a given document.
 
Context Organizer  treats a document as a set of phrases which must be ranked in terms of relevancy. It  views key phrase determination as a classification problem.  The task is to classify content in the document into one of two categories: either it is a key phrase or it is not a key phrase. The software evaluates key phrases by the degree to which its classifications correspond to human-generated classifications.
 
A huge advantage of the product is that the use of Context Organizer does not require costly training. It works instantly. The applied genetic algorithm and statistical methods are applicable across any types of documents.
 
Key phrases serve diverse goals the main one being the ability to capture the most important topics of the documents.
 
And since a key phrase list can be read and judged in seconds the usefulness of this approach leads to practical applications. Once the key phrases are identified the contextual summaries are easily recognized and collected. The key phrases and summaries are a suitable candidates for mind mapping, generating briefings, reports, documents summaries,  indexes, back-of-the-book lists for browsing, profiling user interests, personalization of subscriptions and many more applications.
 
There are many ways to further customize summarization by creating keywords to watch and keywords to block lists. The biggest advantage of summarization is that it acts as content filtering applications. And in this sense it works in a similar way that we read text which is mostly by scanning and skimming.  

 

 

 

 

 * This mind map was produced using Context Organizer for MindManager

Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
 
See Context Organizer with MindManager and with Google search.
 
Download Context Organizer for free today
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Posted by Henry at 4.26 | No Comments »
 
April 20th, 2010 We Cannot Have Too Much Information
 
We are used to looking at information in a linear way. Typically when we read web pages and documents we are like hunters trying to spot the most valuable information that is hidden in the text.
 
Our mind directs us to filter information until we find the relevant pearls of wisdom we are searching for. The sifting through vast reams of content is not efficient and mostly tedious.
 
So the question is: what if we had an ability to quickly access the content according to our wishes? This could mean that  we could directly ask a retrieval system what we need and the system would give us relevant choices.
 
For example, if we were interested in a specific topic, the search would provide a rich selection of relevant summaries - not links only - directly pertaining to our interests.
 
So instead of getting a long list of links to documents containing our search term we would get a handy list of the most important excerpts! And all this without the need to analyze each link.
 
This way of using content makes a huge difference. Instead of being crushed by too much information to analyze, we have direct access only to information that is of immediate interest to us. No more we need to spend time on fruitless sifting and sorting. Instead we get the relevant information directly.
 
How this is possible? By organizing and indexing information according to the summaries. Very much similar to the way we used to access information using the back-of-the-book index. Only now we can build a web-based back-of-the-book index that serves as an intelligent shortcut to getting desired information quickly and accurately.

 

 * This mind map was produced using Comapping online collaborative mapping software with Context Organizer automatic summarization.

 
For more information contact us at sales@contextdiscovery.com
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Posted by Henry at 4.20 | 1 Comment »
 
April 13th, 2010 Context Organizer Web server enables large volume text summarization and extraction
 
  
Context Organizer Web server enables large volume text summarization and extraction of the essential keywords from a wide variety of sources such as search engines, SharePoint, RSSs, news feeds, etc. Each summary can be conveniently delivered as an XML file.
 
Summarization is an efficient form of text filtering. The result of summarization is a collection of the most vital content. In short, a long text is compressed to much shorter retaining all the essential information and leaving out secondary details. 
 
Context Organizer Web server makes otherwise difficult to find information easily accessible and relieves the users from tedious searches. The server works ideally for automatically building knowledge index comprised of subjects, contextual summaries, relevancy ranking and references.
 
With Context Organizer web server users spend more time on analysis, recommendations and scrutiny of information versus burning up valuable time on inefficient searches.
 
From the business point of view the objectives are:
 
  •   Save valuable time by finding relevant information fast
  •   Reduce costs through auto-discovery
  •   Increase revenues by finding new opportunities and leads and by being more informed in customer relations
  •   Through continuous monitoring identify the trends and adjust business strategy accordingly
  •   Support teams by enabling learning from each other, gaining inspiration for new ideas and shorten time to market
 
Deploying the Context Organizer web server automates such tasks as:
 
  •   Aggregating summaries and keywords from multiple sources.
  •   Classifying content using mind maps.
  •   Analyzing trends and patterns.
  •   Searching full text documents by topics and contextual summaries.
  •   Delivering content in a relevant format to authorized users
  •   Providing customization through profiling users’ interests
 
 The contextual summaries are easily integrated with the existing corporate systems such as data bases, content management, knowledge management, ERP, CRM, dissemination and subscription services.
 
 
 
 
* This mind map was produced using Comapping online collaborative mapping software with Context Organizer automatic summarization.
 
For more information contact us at sales@contextdiscovery.com    

 

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Posted by Henry at 4.13 | No Comments »
 
April 12th, 2010 Context Organizer Web server - a high performance text mining hub

 

As much as over 80% of the daily decisions are based on mainly unstructured information coming from search engines, websites, emails, corporate documents, press and media information, competitor information.
 
The amount of corporate information doubles every three months, which
increases the need for implementing efficient and powerful text mining tools.
 
Context Organizer Web server offers a high performance text mining hub to support knowledge management and competitive intelligence. The product is easily customized for workgroups and individuals.
 
Context Organizer Web server can be easily integrated into a company’s intranet, where it works as the central hub for managing both internal and external information streams.
 
Context Organizer Web server can also be a hosted solution accessed via a web interface and thus does not require any software installation on the customer’s own server.
 
Information can be provided from many different types of internal and external sources: websites, newsfeeds, email, file servers, and databases. Users can publish and store information either through email or a web-based interface to automatically feed it into their own systems.
 
Context Organizer Web server is a flexible and modular tool that can suit the needs of both small and large organizations. Compared to many other software packages, it has a high price/performance ratio.
 
How does it work?
 
Context Organizer Web server is a software product that can:
•     rapidly summarize large amounts of information
•     structure the information according to a customized XML format
•     present the summarized information in a user-friendly way to many different users based on their profiles
•     store the keywords and contextual summaries in your corporate knowledge index to provide rapid access to any corporate information
•     deliver the summaries as mind maps such as Mindjet MindManager or Comapping
 
 
Context Organizer Web is highly scalable and users can choose to start with building only the knowledge index for specific projects or for monitoring specific information sources before deploying it globally.
 
The system can also be integrated with different business systems, such as Contents Management, Knowledge Management, ERP, CRM, and other similar types of systems.
 
Context Organizer Web is particularly well suited to summarize the results from search engines, RSSs, wide variety of subscription sources, blogs, and news feeds.  

 

 * This mind map was produced using Comapping online collaborative mapping software with Context Organizer automatic summarization.

Try Context Organizer summarization power and get the essential facts at a glance. Instantly.

 Download and try out Context Organizer for free today.

 Sign up for Comapping for free today

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Posted by Henry at 4.12 | No Comments »
 
April 8th, 2010 The ability to transform data into insights

 

The recent article by McKinsey addresses the challenges the Chief Information Officers face in managing corporate information and knowledge.

The ability to transform data into insights to help manage a company is the domain of corporate business intelligence, which consists of the processes, applications, and practices that support executive decision making.

It’s a challenging mission because for all the data flowing through companies, executives often struggle to find the information they need to make sound decisions.

At the heart of these difficulties are inadequate executive information systems, supposedly designed to help top management easily access pertinent internal and external data for managing a company.

We can all relate to the magnitude of this problem. The sheer volume of information itself has become a challenge and managing this vast pool of information is another challenge. And then is the crucial issue of dynamic and contextual access to information across corporate systems.

 

 

  * This mind map was produced using Comapping online collaborative mapping software with Context Organizer automatic summarization.

Try Context Organizer summarization power and get the essential facts at a glance. Instantly.

 Download and try out Context Organizer for free today.

Sign up for Comapping for free today

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Posted by Henry at 4.8 | No Comments »
 
March 22nd, 2010 Context Organizer pinpoints salient information quickly

 

David Esko of ERP Blue Diamond owns a company specializing in providing knowledge and mind maps for SAP customers. His company developed hundreds of process and knowledge maps. Their preferred visualization tool is MindManager from Mindjet.

In the past few months David started to use Context Organizer for MindManager. Here are his comments:

Since I work in the SAP world as a project / program manager, my knowledge and process maps are exercised heavily!

I use Context Organizer extensively to generate summary information that relate to generation of sales and pre-sales content when researching industry vertical information as well as information regarding the latest best business practices and how the solution will apply to my prospect or client.

If I’m helping a sales effort, I can turn the summarized information that has been gleaned from very voluminous web sites, and spin a fact filled PowerPoint presentation so fast, most sales people wonder how I did it!

Best business practices are done in a similar way. In these instances, I need to go to multiple sources of data that are mostly web based, but also in huge Word documents and extract information regarding the way a prospect executes their business processes today (as is), but also compare it to future state business processes.

Two major time savers; first, older and voluminous ‘as is’ documentation needs to be summarized very quickly. My teams don’t generally waste a lot of our clients’ time on the way they perform their business processes today. That’s why we need to extract the salient information from their document archives quickly and extrapolate the critical from the non-critical information.

We compare the ‘as is’ results to the ‘to be’ future state and we can almost instantly identify where the bottlenecks might occur before diving into the project. The keywords for me are, proactive and pre-emptive! Context Organizer gives me these abilities!

 

 * This mind map was produced using Context Organizer for MindManager

Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
 
See Context Organizer with MindManager and with Google search.
 
Download Context Organizer for free today.

 

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Posted by Henry at 3.22 | No Comments »
 
March 10th, 2010 Because the Internet is made of content…
 
There is lots of content on the Internet. The Internet is made of publishers.
 
And everybody knows how to publish: blogs, portals, newspapers, books, magazines, on line conversations… 
 
So here is a practical question: is content strategy about publishing or about consuming information? It seems that they are like hand-and-glove pairing. But is there a fit?
 
We are all familiar with the concept of information overload. There is not enough time and bandwith to be able to absorb all the information that is chasing us.
 
My work on text mining and summarization suggests that great value can be dervided from intelligently compressing large text into a much smaller text. And if the smaller text tells us through the keywords and the key sentences what the large text contains in all its rich details, than we have the best of both worlds.
 
The summaries are those well versed guides. They expertly inform us what we should pay attention to. They provide us with context to make us conversant with the topics. And all of this is done quickly and without overloading our cognitive capacities.
 
I firmly believe that content should always come with a companion summary.  This is the reason that I advocate the use of summarization as a friendly service for both the publishers and the readers.

 

Context Organizer is available in English, French, German and Spanish.
 
See Context Organizer in action.
 
Download Context Organizer for free today.

 

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Posted by Henry at 3.10 | No Comments »
 
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