From
Information World Review January 2001
(http://www.iwr.co.uk/iwr/results.asp?sid=13&page=1&aid=1061&ft=&prel=curren
t&auth=&ino=165)
Looks like a subject directory to me!
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Ian Winship
Learning Resources, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
City Campus Library, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
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e-mail: [log in to unmask]
phone: 0191 227 4150 fax: 0191 227 4563
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An end to journeys without maps
Ex-crime writer Bill Hutchison's former profession was all about solving
mysteries.
This time round he hopes his company, Bath-based Wordmap, will provide the
key
to the mysteries of navigating the internet and corporate information
systems.
Wordmap specialises in the development and use of knowledge maps -
visualised
versions of traditional classification systems. It claims its products can
cut
research time and make workers more efficient by enabling more accurate
navigation and retrieval of information.
Knowledge maps provide an "intelligent layer" above information systems.
They aim
to give "a frame of reference by which to understand, describe, classify and
find
information," and they allow users to employ their own terminology to find
information and see it in context.
All information workers have experienced the problems of searching on a term
with
several possible meanings: "lotus" could relate to cars, software or
flowers.
Wordmap's technology alerts the user to these ambiguities, lets them choose
the
correct path and provides pointers to other subject categories and cross
references that might also be useful. So a search on "diaper" will also
search for
"nappy", a search on "Bob Dylan" will also search for "Robert Zimmerman" and
a
search on "Burma" will also search for "Myanmar."
Hutchison outlined Wordmap's development to IWR at Online Information 2000.
The
company began in 1999 by developing its ideas with computational linguistics
experts at Sheffield University. After developing a prototype model, the
company
won funding from private and institutional investors, including Reuters
Venture
Capital and started business in March 2000. He said the next 18 months would
be
the key growth period for the company.
Hutchison said "No-one would think of travelling to an unfamiliar place
without a
map. But millions of people are lost on the web or on their intranets every
day
because they have nothing to give them a sense of direction. The Wordmap
technology allows people to get a sense of where they are in the information
universe, then strike a path to what they're looking for."
www.wordmap.com
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