AGGREGATING DOCUMENT ANNOTATIONS

• US 20120233150A1
• Filed: 03/11/2011
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Naim, Oscar Gerardo, Vanderwende, Lucretia Henrica, Wongsuphasawat, Krist
• Granted Patent: US 9,626,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Technologies pertaining to annotation aggregation are described herein. A user of a computing device assigns an annotation to a portion of a document, wherein the annotation comprises a tuple. The tuple comprises semantic relationships amongst words or phrases in the document. Relationship data is also generated, wherein the relationship data identifies the document, the author of the document, the author of the annotation, and other data. The annotations and relationship data are transmitted to a data store, where such information is aggregated with other annotations made by other annotators to various documents, thereby creating a network of knowledge

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of different computing devices, a plurality of data packets, wherein each of the data packets in the plurality of data packets comprises;

an annotation that has been assigned to a document, wherein each of the annotations comprises a consistent semantic structure, wherein the semantic structure is a tuple, wherein the tuple comprises a first word or phrase, a second word or phrase, and a third word or phrase, wherein the third word or phrase relates the first word or phrase to the second word or phrase; and

relationship data, wherein the relationship data indicates that the annotation has been assigned to the document, wherein each of the data packets comprises a different annotation;

aggregating the plurality of data packets in a data repository, wherein the data repository is accessible to a processor; and

utilizing the processor to perform at least one processing function over at least one of the data packets in the data repository.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first word or phrase in the tuple is a subject of a parent phrase, the second word or phrase in the tuple is an object of the parent phrase, and the third word or phrase in the tuple is a predicate that relates the subject with the object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship data further identifies an individual that authored the annotation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one annotation in at least one of the plurality of data packets is automatically generated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data repository is accessible to an individual by way of an Internet browser.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship data further identifies a portion of the document that has been assigned the annotation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein documents that have been assigned annotations are documents generated by way of a markup language.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein documents that have been assigned annotations are word processing documents.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing function comprises a search that is performed over the at least one of the data packets responsive to receipt of a query from a user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one processing function comprises generating a visualization for display on a computing device, wherein the visualization comprises a first graphical icon that is representative of a first document, a second graphical icon that is representative of a second document, and an edge between the first graphical icon and the second graphical icon that indicates that an author has assigned separate annotations to the first document and the second document.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one processing function comprises generating a visualization for display on a computing device, wherein the visualization comprises a first graphical icon that is representative of the annotation, a second graphical icon that is representative of the document, and an edge between the first graphical icon and the second graphical icon that indicates that an author has assigned the annotation to the document.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the visualization further comprises a fourth graphical icon that is representative of a second document and a second edge between the first graphical icon and the fourth graphical icon that indicates that the annotation has been assigned to the second document.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing function comprises executing a data mining algorithm over the plurality of data packets in the data repository.

14. A system that comprises a plurality of components that are executable by a processor, the components comprising:

a receiver component that receives a data packet from an application executing on a client-computing device by way of a network connection, wherein the data packet has a first format, and wherein the data packet comprises;

an annotation that has been assigned to the document by an individual, wherein the annotation comprises a tuple, wherein the tuple comprises a first word or phrase, a second word or phrase, and a third word or phrase, and wherein the third word or phrase relates the first word or phrase with the second word or phrase; and

relationship data that indicates that the annotation has been assigned to the document; and

an aggregator component that places the data packet in a data repository with other data packets of the first format, wherein contents of the data repository are accessible to users by way of a network.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the network is the Internet.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the first word or phrase is a subject of a parent phrase in the document, the second word or phrase is an object of the parent phrase in the document, and the third word or phrase is a predicate of the parent phrase in the document.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of components further comprises a search component that executes a search over data packets in the data repository responsive to receipt of a query from a user.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the application executing on the client computing device is a word processing application, wherein a user has assigned the annotation to the document utilizing the word processing application, and wherein the receiver component is configured to receive the data packet subsequent to a user of the word processing application approving the annotation for publishing.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the application executing on the client computing device is an Internet browser, wherein the document is a web page, and wherein the annotation is automatically generated.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving, from a word processing application on a computing device, a data packet, wherein the data packet comprises;

an annotation that corresponds to a portion of a document reviewed by a user of the word processing application, wherein the annotation comprises a tuple, wherein the tuple comprises a subject of a sentence or phrase, an object of the sentence or phrase, and a predicate that relates the subject and the object; and

relationship data that comprises;

first data that indicates that the annotation has been assigned to the document;

second data indicates the portion of the document that corresponds to the annotation;

third data that identifies an author of the document; and

fourth data that identifies an author of the annotation; and

repeating the act of receiving from a plurality of different computing devices, such that a plurality of data packets that comprise respective annotations and relationship data are received;

causing the plurality of different data packets to be retained in a searchable database;

receiving a query from another user;

executing a search over the searchable database responsive to receiving the query from the another user; and

outputting search results to the another user subsequent to executing the search over the searchable database, wherein the search results comprise an indication of relationships between documents, document authors, and annotation authors.