KNOWLEDGE EXTRACTION FROM ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUMS

• US 20080046394A1
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhou, Ming, Huang, Jizhou
• Granted Patent: US 7,814,048 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

Concepts presented herein relate to extracting knowledge for a chatbot knowledge base from online discussion forms. Within a thread of on online discussion form, replies are selected based on structural features and content features therein. The replies can be ranked and used in a chatbot knowledge base.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing a discussion forum of threads, each thread having a thread title and a plurality of replies associated with each thread title;

selecting replies from the thread by analyzing structural features and content features of each reply; and

ranking the selected replies using a ranking model based on ranking features of the replies.

2. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

filtering the selected replies based on words in the selected replies.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking features are based on a number of quotations a reply receives within its associated thread.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking features are based on an author of the reply.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the ranking features at least one of a number of threads started by the author in a discussion forum, a number of replies an author posts, an average length of replies posted by the author and a number of times an author is quoted in the thread.

6. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

forming a chatbot knowledge base based on the selected replies.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the structural features are indicative of a relationship between each reply and at least one of a root message in the thread and another reply in the thread.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the content features are indicative of terms in a reply.

9. A method, comprising:

accessing a thread of a discussion forum having a root message and a plurality of replies to the root message;

identifying structural features for each reply of the plurality of replies, the structural features being indicative of a relationship between each reply and at least one of the root message and another reply of the plurality of replies;

identifying content features for each reply of the plurality of replies, the content features being indicative of terms in each reply; and

selecting replies from the plurality of replies based on the structural features and the content features for each reply.

10. The method of claim 9 and further comprising:

filtering selective replies based on words in the selected replies.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the structural features relate to whether the reply includes text from the root message.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the structural features relate to whether the reply includes text from another reply in the thread.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the content features relate to a number of words in the reply.

14. The method of claim 9 and further comprising:

ranking the selected replies as a function of ranking features.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the ranking features are based on a number of quotations a reply receives in a thread and an author of the reply.

16. A system for processing threads in an online discussion forum, each thread having a title and a plurality of replies comprising:

an identification module adapted to access the threads and identify selected replies within the threads as a function of structural features and content features contained therein; and

a ranking module adapted to rank the selected replies based on ranking features contained therein.

17. The system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a filter adapted to filter selected replies based on words in the selected replies.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the structural features are indicative of a relationship between each reply and at least one of a root message of the thread and another reply in the thread.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the content features are indicative of terms in a reply.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the ranking features are indicative of at least one of a number of quotations a reply receives within the thread and an author of the reply.