Method and apparatus to visually present discussions for data mining purposes

Abstract

A method of organizing information is disclosed. The method comprises providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussion, a discussion including at least one actor and at least one documented communication.

1 . A method of visualizing information comprising: 
 providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the documented communication may be one or more of the following: a document, an email, an instant message (IM), a facsimile, a voicemail, a phone call, a wire transfer, a fund transfer, or an electronically traceable package.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 receiving a query; and    generating the visualization in response to the query.    
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the query includes one or more of: actors, time frame, topic, related events, communications type, specific document, or workflow process.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the visualization comprises a tabular list of documents that satisfy the query.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the visualization comprises a discussion oriented display.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the discussion oriented display comprises one of the following: a participant graph, an overview graph, a transcript view, a question and answer list, a matrix view, a cluster view, and a tabular list view.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the visualization comprises an actor-oriented display.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the actor-oriented display comprises one of the following: an activity graph, a participant graph, an actor profile, a matrix view, a tabular list view, and a cluster view.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the visualization comprises a statistical display of data.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the statistical display comprises one of the following: a Venn diagram, and a profile view.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the visualization comprises a topic-based display.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the actor is an aggregate actor, comprising one of the following: a circle of trust, a group, a section, or another grouping of two or more actors.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the discussion includes an exchange between at least two actors, the exchange including one or more documented communications.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein a plurality of communications are indicated between the at least two actors, and a visual representation of a depth of the communications is shown.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the visual representation is a line between two actors showing the communication depth.  
   
   
       17 . (canceled)  
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 displaying a time-based participant graph showing communications between various actors over time.    
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein each communication is coded to indicate a communication type.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein each communication may be selected to display additional information about the communication.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the additional information comprises one or more of the following: communication type, date and time of communication, communication content.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein each actor is represented visually by a unique icon.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the icon is one of the following: a photograph of the actor, a consistent graphical representation of the actor.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 displaying actor information, in response to a user selecting the unique icon.    
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the time of day is visually indicated in the time-based participant graph.  
   
   
       26 . (canceled)  
   
   
       27 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the time of day indication further visually indicates holidays and after-hours communications.  
   
   
       28 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising: 
 displaying tags indicating events of interest, to show communications in relationship to such events.    
   
   
       29 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 enabling a user to add additional communications to the visualization.    
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization comprises a document trail graph, providing information and depicting various changes occurring in the life cycle of a document.  
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the information comprises one or more of the following: creation date, creating actor, modification date(s), modification actor(s), revision date(s), revision actor(s), deletion date, deletion actor, check-in date(s), check-out date(s), distribution (s), recipients of distribution (s), and document content.  
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization comprises a money trail graph, illustrating times and actors involved in various money transfers.  
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization comprises an activity graph that visualizes a level of activity over time related to large volumes of discussions, or individual messages.  
   
   
       34 . (canceled)  
   
   
       35 . The method of  claim 33 , further comprising: 
 displaying two actor icons, representing actors that communicated with each other, and a communication line between the two actor icons showing a communication depth.    
   
   
       36 - 39 . (canceled)  
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization is a discussion cluster, illustrating a number of discussions that meet a query criteria of the user.  
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising: visually identifying a particular discussion focus.  
   
   
       42 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization comprises a transcript view, displaying communications coded by actor.  
   
   
       43 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a transcript view is a linear presentation of the causally related communication events that make up a discussion.  
   
   
       44 - 46 . (canceled)  
   
   
       47 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visualization is a matrix query result view, indicating participation of certain actors in certain discussions.  
   
   
       48 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: providing a query tool to construct queries for related documents.  
   
   
       49 . The method of  claim 48 , further comprising: 
 displaying actor icons for selection with the query tool, to enable a user to identify an actor.    
   
   
       50 . The method of  claim 49 , further comprising: 
 permitting specification of actor involvement for each selected actor, the actor involvement being one of the following: created, changed, received, read, or saw a document.    
   
   
       51 . The method of  claim 49 , further comprising: permitting an actor to be excluded from the query.  
   
   
       52 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein constructing a query comprises one or more of the following: specifying an actor, specifying an action by the actor, specifying content, specifying timeframe, specifying communication method, specifying actor location, specifying causality for the communication, specifying action frequency, specifying action type, specifying target of the communication, document types for retrieval, and keywords.  
   
   
       53 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a query tool to construct queries for related documents.    
   
   
       54 . (canceled)  
   
   
       55 . The method of  claim 48 , further comprising: 
 saving queries and query results; and    making the saved queries and the saved query results available to the user.    
   
   
       56 . An apparatus to present data comprising: 
 a query tool to receive a request; and    a display tool to present a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications.    
   
   
       57 . The apparatus of  claim 56 , wherein constructing a query comprises one or more of the following: specifying an actor, specifying an action by the actor, specifying content, specifying timeframe, specifying communication method, specifying actor location, specifying causality for the communication, specifying action frequency, specifying action type, specifying target of the communication, document types for retrieval, and keywords.  
   
   
       58 . The apparatus of  claim 56 , comprising: 
 a query by example tool including multiple pull-down menus to select various parameters of a query.    
   
   
       59 . The apparatus of  claim 58 , further comprising: 
 a parameter weighting tool to assign priority to related parameters.    
   
   
       60 . The apparatus of  claim 56 , further comprising: 
 a memory to save queries and query results, the saved queries and the saved query results available to the user.    
   
   
       61 . The apparatus of  claim 56 , further comprising: 
 a plurality of actor icons for selection with the query tool, to enable a user to identify an actor.    
   
   
       62 . The apparatus of  claim 61 , further comprising: 
 a selector to specify actor involvement for each selected actor, the actor involvement being one of the following: created, changed, received, read, or saw a document.    
   
   
       63 . The apparatus of  claim 62 , wherein the selector permits an actor to be excluded from the query.  
   
   
       64 . The apparatus of  claim 56 , wherein the visualization comprises a participant graph including actor icons and connectors indicating communications between the actors.  
   
   
       65 . The apparatus of  claim 64 , wherein the actor icons are a unique icon for each actor, the unique icon comprising: a photograph of the actor or a consistent graphical representation of the actor.  
   
   
       66 . The apparatus of  claim 64 , further comprising: 
 icons attached to each connector, the icons designed to provide additional information about the communication represented by the connector.