InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by markfoley on 2009/06/02 19:05

I believe a 'list of equivalents' or synonym list would be a great thing to consider for InfoQube.

Reason for suggestion

When I am in meetings etc I take many notes (as most people will). I use varying terms to refer to certain things- for example I'm running a "Transactional Banking" project which is referred to in my notes as "Transactional Banking", "Trans Banking", "TB" or "Banking Transition".

Same goes for references to people. References to Shane North in quick notes could be: SN, Shane N, S North, Shane North, Shane or even 'Credit Manager'.

Implementation

Pretty simple I'd hope for the benefits it would add.

Basically a listbox, each line containing the 'main title' and a list of the equivalent terms, so one line would look like:

SN: SN, Shane N, S North, Shane North, Shane, Credit Mgr, Credit Manager

You add and remove lines as desired. Not unlike the 'autocorrect' list you see in Word.

Then, in your searches, there would be a checkbox saying "include synonyms." If checked, a small bit of code before the existing search code looks at each term in the search and if it's in the synonym list it replaces the text simply ie:

"Credit Mgr" => "SN" OR "Shane" ... etc)

If it had %'s or other things around it those would be duplicated for each of the OR's. Then the search code runs as normal.

This is really a simple but effective implementation of the 'semantic search' ideas that have been kicking around for a while but are poorly implemented normally. This same functionality can also allow you to define 'sets' of items that sit under a concept, without the hassle of implementing complex relationships between items. For example you could define:

EmailApps: Thunderbird, Outlook, Gmail

Cars: GM, VW, VolksWagen, Ford, Jaguar.

Then in your search you could say "like EmailApps" and pick up all those items that contain a reference to Gmail etc. You could even put the headers of the sets in a dropdown using some existing functionality. You'd probably have to decide whether this could only work on the quick search or if it could work easily with the other filters and things.

What do you think everyone? If no personal examples for yourself have come to mind while reading this, I've stuffed up my description of the feature! :)

Comments

Were / are you familiar w the use of synonyms in Agenda or Zoot? Especially good for assignments ( I believe this can currently be done in IQ) but it is different than what you are referring to (I think).

I guess you are talking about allowing user to create a list of equivalents, ie. JR = Jan Rifkinson so if I type JR, it is replaced by Jan Rifkinson. Is that it?

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

The equivalents would be for searching only. Kind of like when you want to search in google and you want stuff to do with VolksWagen, conceptually you really want things referring to 'VW' as well.

I haven't seen how Agenda or Zoot do it (looked at zoot ages ago but it didn't do the trick for me). In searching for those tools on google I found this interesting link which compares the merits of tags vs hierarchies of categorisation:

http://support.biblioscape.com/node/620

Interesting stuff.

From my point of view, if I'm doing an update meeting with Shane (in my example above) I want to bring up a list of all items he's been involved with so we can discuss them. Entering all those OR's isn't practical each time so synonyms are the solution to it.

Not to rain on your parade as I always admire new ideas, but I think IQ can handle that right now in a very simple way.

Let's say you have 4 colleagues in your office:

Jan

Pierre

Keith

Tom

And let's say each name is represented in a yes / no field

Every time you are working on some project & Jan is associated with it, just check Jan = yes, i.e. checkmark

Now when you click on Jan in available fields or some form, all my assignments will come up in a new view / grid

Does that help your situation?

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

This certainly does the trick, provided you're very structured. Most of us, use IQ in a combination of unstructured and structured way (that's part of its beauty). Some stuff is entered as text, some is coded into fields.

What I think Mark was asking for, was regarding the unstructured part. In fact, it is so unstructured that different words are used to mean the same thing. So he wants to search for, not only the entered term, but all synonyms also.

It is, IMO, an excellent idea. I don't have the time to tackle this now, but will think about it. I should revisit the Fast Search dialog within the next month, and will try to fit that in, along with other boolean type enhancements.

Hi Pierre,

That's right! Jan's suggestion would work, but it's basically a manual 'tagging' exercise for every line. It would mean you'd have to manually add metadata to every line of your notes, and also include a column for every concept you might need for that particular meeting. Then you'd have to scroll way to the right and click each one line by line. Not many people are organised enough to do it, not me certainly!

I'll look forward to what you come up with Pierre, just drop me a line if I can help out!

[quote=Pierre_Admin] [snip] What I think Mark was asking for, was regarding the unstructured part. In fact, it is so unstructured that different words are used to mean the same thing. So he wants to search for, not only the entered term, but all synonyms also.

[/quote]

Then I've mis-understood what he was after. As long as you've got his meaning, that's all that counts. However, until you have the time to tackle this, I'm wondering if Mark understands that some assignments can be 'automated' via field properties.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Jan I've been meaning to check field assignments out, must have a look. it would still require a field for every person etc but could be a good intermediate step!

thanks