[Sigdl-l] FW: Announcement of new vocabulary-control and information retrieval product: WebChoir

[Suzie Allard]

----------
From: Linda Hill <l7hill at GTE.NET>
Organization: UCSB/Alexandria Digital Library
Reply-To: lhill at alexandria.ucsb.edu
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 20:28:28 -0800
To: NKOS at dli2.nsf.gov
Subject: Announcement of new vocabulary-control and information retrieval
product: WebChoir

NKOS  list -

I'm forwarding this announcement from WebChoir, Inc. about their
vocabulary-control and information retrieval system in the spirit of getting
the word out about this new product of interest to our community. If there
are those on the NKOS list who have investigated this product, perhaps they
will post their comments to the list also.

- Linda Hill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
WebChoir, Inc.
11301 Olympic Blvd., Suite 586
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 966-1558
www.webchoir.com <http://www.webchoir.com>
sales at webchoir.com


WebChoir Offers Information Control via Vocabulary Control

Los Angeles, CA---March 12, 2002-WebChoir, Inc., an outgrowth of the
Liu/Palmer collaboration, creators of the original Thesaurus Construction
System (TCS), announces the release of its full-featured, integrated
vocabulary-control and information retrieval system, marketed
as a suite that includes TermChoirT, ViewChoirT, LinkChoirT and
SeekChoirT.  A modified and less expensive client/server version of
TermChoir, TCS-8, also is available.

"Information control cannot be achieved without vocabulary control.
WebChoir
represents a significant advance in information control," said
Dr. Elaine
Svenonius, Professor Emerita, Department of Information Studies, UCLA.

WebChoir extends designer Songqiao Liu's already successful, full-featured
thesaurus creation system (TCS) by incorporating two new state-of the art
integration features. The first is a controlled-vocabulary interface that
enables searchers to search for information concurrently within their own
database environment or on the
Internet, and to do this through a sophisticated portal that screens for
homonyms and synonyms, which allows for hierarchical navigation.  The second
is an editorial support system that integrates the application of a
controlled
vocabulary, whether imported or created in-house, in the
indexing and searching of information resources.  Employing back-and-forth
windowed systems, WebChoir tools can import any licensed vocabulary,
whatever
its format, and provide easy navigation of its structure.  A particularly
useful feature is the automatic updating of database i
ndexing when changes
are made to a controlled vocabulary.

"It is fairly common for corporations to spend a lot of money and hours
building a thesaurus, but be unable to use it extensively because of the
difficulty in integrating the thesaurus with external information sources.
WebChoir offers the crucial tools that allow other
applications to globally access and use descriptors to index the databases
in
these applications, providing the only answer to this persistent problem,"
said Dr. Songqiao Liu, WebChoir CEO.

WebChoir tools are designed for those seeking a controlled vocabulary to
index
and search their in-house resources, offering a support system for the
application of uniquely created or existing, standard controlled
vocabularies
that can integrate with in-house or Web-based information
sources.  Webchoir also offers mechanisms for developing semantic webs and
Topic Maps for navigating internal databases or the Internet; a thesaurus
component for use i
n Dublin Core subject indexing; and a precision/recall
device for browsing and locating information internally
or on the Internet.

PRODUCT BRIEFS

TermChoir, a revolutionary hierarchical information organizing and searching
tool that enables information professionals to create and search upon
varieties of hierarchical subject categories, controlled vocabularies, and
taxonomies based on either pre-defined standards or a
user-defined structure, includes these key features:

?Web-based architecture
?Unique indexing
?Robust editing capabilities
?Sophisticated data import
?Customized reporting
?Web Thesaurus Navigator
?Data validation
?A flexible log viewer
?Multi-lingual support
?User based permission and privileges
?A truly open platform
?Flexible data connection capability

ViewChoir is a read-only version of TermChoir.  ViewChoir enables the
thesaurus created using TermChoir to be available for anyone to browse and
navigate.  ViewChoir is excellent for constructing coll
aborative environments
within organizations or with cooperating user groups,
enhancing the effectiveness and reach of controlled vocabularies and the
products and resources that they supplement.

LinkChoir enables indexers to consolidate thesauri and indexing vocabularies
with a diverse range of client information sources through an interactive
interface that allows for the assignment and linking of thesaurus
descriptors
to records, which are then linked to the
descriptors' references in the thesauri used in indexing.

SeekChoir is a complete, full-featured retrieval system that enables users
to
browse thesaurus descriptors and their references, allowing the searcher
many
ways to investigate and employ related and synonymous concepts while
searching.  SeekChoir supports vocabulary-enhanced
keyword searches within database records as well as controlled vocabulary
searches of those records indexed with terms from an associated thesaurus.
The user can interactively li
nk from a term embedded within a record back to
its corresponding thesaurus descriptor
and its references to further elaborate a search.

WebChoir, Inc. was founded in April 2000 as a Delaware Corporation.  For
more
information visit: www.webchoir.com  <http://www.webchoir.com&nbsp;> 

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