[Sigia-l] Thesaurus/Vocabulary building, management, and integration tools

[Patrick Clark]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
WebChoir, Inc.
11301 Olympic Blvd., Suite 586
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 966-1558
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, indexing, and information retrieval system, marketed as
a suite that includes TermChoir, ViewChoir, LinkChoir, and SeekChoir.  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 indexing 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 in 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 collaborative
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
link 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