JPH10301950A - Information circulation supporting method and device and storage medium storing information circulation supporting program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To directly access and objectively select effective information corresponding to the suggestion of another user by dividing the circulation history of a circulation order and evaluation into relating reference paths and presenting circulation recommendation information when the user circulates certain information by using an optimum path evaluated for the respective users. SOLUTION: A reference history storage means 12 stores the circulation order that the user refers to the information and the evaluation for reference information as reference history information for the respective users and a path division means 13 divides the circulation history stored in the reference history storage means 12 into the relating reference paths. An optimum path selection means 15 evaluates the divided reference paths by using the evaluation for the respective users and selects the optimum path from the reference paths and an optimum path storage means 16 stores the optimum path selected in the optimum path selection means 15 for re- utilization. Then, a presentation means 20 presents the circulation recommendation information for indicating it is effective when which information is circulated next when the user circulates the certain information by using the stored optimum path.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information circulation support method and apparatus and a storage medium for storing an information circulation support program, and more particularly, to a case where a plurality of users circulate information through a circulation assistance system. Using the operation history of the user who has visited (accessed) the information in advance and the evaluation information for the information, presents which information the user will refer to next to circulate the information most effectively. For supporting information circulation and a storage medium for storing an information circulation support program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional information circulation support methods can be classified as follows according to their realization methods. 1. 1. Recommend information using the degree of interest of users having the same interest (information recommendation method) Displaying the hierarchical relationship of hyperlinks using a GUI (method using a GUI) The information recommendation method described above is set in advance to make a recommendation of the next circulation destination to a user who is referencing certain information. There is a system that provides information to users who have similar interests based on the obtained user information. This allows users with similar interests to self-evaluate pages they refer to, and uses the results and linguistic features included in the pages, such as frequent words, to recommend information to the users. There is something to do.

As an example of this system, “Web Watche
r '', A learning apprentice for the world wide web,
AAAI Apring Symposium on Information Gathering fr
omHeterogeneous, Distributed Environments, pp.6-1
2, 1995 ”. Evaluate the degree of linguistic relevance between the currently referenced information and the information associated as hyperlinks contained in the information, and based on the evaluation result, There is a system that recommends information that the user should refer to next.

As an example of this system, "Latizia
, An agent that assists web browsing, In Proc.o
f IJICAI95, PP.9240929,1995 ”. Next, the GUI
In software used to circulate information on the Internet, when referring to information in which hyperlinks are embedded, the information is colored or underlined. Notify the existence of information. The problem of this method is closely related to the problem of the hyperlink information. However, by referring to the information specified as the hyperlink, the user can reach any information thereafter. May not be predictable.

[0005] In order to compensate for such a drawback, the information designated as a hyperlink is used as a starting point to present the structure of the hyperlink information again using a different window different from the browser. There is a system devised that allows a user to clarify what information can be traced from the information.

As an example of this system, "WINGNAV
I ", WWW-NAVI WWW-NAVI, a database structure and its use, Advanced Database System Symposium '96, 1996".

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional information circulation support method, information referred to by a user is subjectively evaluated, and embedded information is utilized by using linguistic information of the information. A method of making a recommendation by grasping the degree of relevance between them and highlighting similar ones is used. This does not take into account hyperlink relationships, so you may not know where you are now.

Further, in the method of displaying hyperlink information using a GUI, only the hierarchical information of the link is displayed, and there is no objective index for selecting each information. The only option is to select from the title information to be displayed or the information presented by a method such as displaying a reduced version of the information. The present invention
In view of the above, the information circulation support method and apparatus and the information circulation support program which enable direct access to valid information according to the recommendations of other users and allow the user to make objective selections are stored. It is intended to provide a storage medium.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention. The present invention relates to an information circulation support method for efficiently circulating a space in which a huge amount of information associated with each other as a hyperlink exists, and evaluates a circulation order and information when a user circulates information. Is held (step 1), and the held circulation history is divided into related reference paths (step 2).
The divided reference paths are evaluated using the evaluation for each user (step 3), and among the reference paths, the optimum path is stored for reuse (step 4), and the stored optimum path is used. Then, when the user circulates certain information, the user presents circulation recommendation information indicating which information is to be circulated next (step 5).

Further, according to the present invention, when a circulation history is stored, a history in which a user follows a hyperlink or a user directly designates information and refers to information is stored for each user.
Further, according to the present invention, when retaining the circulation history, the circulation history includes the reference time of the information of the user and the result of evaluating the validity of the information. In addition, the present invention, when accumulating the optimal path,
A reference path determined to be optimal by a predetermined evaluation method is set as an optimal reference path.

Further, according to the present invention, when presenting the circulation recommendation information, the evaluation value of the optimum path candidate is also presented. Further, according to the present invention, when presenting the circulation recommendation information, the information of the layer below the circulation recommendation information is also presented. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an information circulation support device for assisting efficient circulation in a space in which a huge amount of information associated with each other as a hyperlink exists. A reference destination input unit 11 for inputting a destination, a reference history storage unit 12 for storing, for each user, a circulation order in which the user referred to the information and an evaluation of the reference information as reference history information, and a reference history storage unit 12 Path dividing means 13 for dividing the obtained circulation history into related reference paths, and evaluating the divided reference paths by using the evaluation for each user, and selecting the optimum path from the reference paths. Means 15 and optimal path selecting means 15
When the user circulates certain information using the optimum path storage means 16 for storing the optimum path selected in the above for reuse and the optimum path stored in the optimum path storage means 16,
Next, there is provided presentation means 20 for presenting circulation recommendation information indicating which information is valid to circulate.

The optimum path selecting means 15 includes an evaluation means for setting a reference path determined to be optimum by a predetermined evaluation method as an optimum path. In addition, the presentation unit 20 includes an evaluation value providing unit that also presents the evaluation values of the candidates for the optimal path.
The presentation unit 20 includes a hierarchy display unit that presents information of a hierarchy below the circulation recommendation information.

Further, the storage medium storing the information circulation support program of the present invention includes a reference destination input process for inputting a reference destination of information to be referred by a user, a circulation order in which the user referred to the information, and a reference order. A reference status collection process for collecting information, a reference history accumulation process for accumulating the evaluation of the reference information as reference history information in a storage unit for each user, and reading out a circulation history held in the storage unit to obtain a related reference path A path division process of dividing the reference path and an evaluation of each divided reference path are performed by using an evaluation for each user, and an optimal path selection process of selecting an optimal path and an optimal path selection process of the reference paths. The optimal path accumulation process for accumulating the optimal path in the storage means for reuse, and circulating the user with certain information using the optimal path accumulated in the storage means The next storage medium that consists presenting process to store information circulation assistance program characterized for presenting circulation recommendation information indicating whether valid if circulation which information.

As described above, according to the present invention, a circulation history indicating how many users circulate information is stored in advance, and the circulation history is divided and held according to a certain purpose. ing. Further, each piece of information is subjectively evaluated and accumulated by each user. When the user is referring to certain information, search the above-mentioned divided circulation histories to find out which information has been frequently followed next or later, and to evaluate each information. By recommending information to be referred next to the user while referring to the information, effective information can be provided.

At the time of presentation, starting from the specified information,
By presenting the structure of the hyperlink information in a tree structure including the validity thereof, it becomes possible for the user to visually recognize the structure.

[0017]

FIG. 3 shows a system configuration applied to the present invention. In the system shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of local area networks 4 and a proxy server (proxy server) 2 are connected to the Internet 5. The proxy server 2 is connected to a browser 1 as information circulation software via a local area network 4.

Consider an information space in which various information as shown in FIG. The Internet can be thought of as a collection of separate local networks 4, which are mutually accessible. Users A and B have information 3 on Internet 5
Is accessed using information circulation software called a browser 1. This circulation software (for example, Netscape
) Can display information in which hyperlink information to other information is incorporated. The method of displaying the hyperlink depends on the browser 1.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the information circulation support device of the present invention. The information circulation support device is provided in the proxy server 2 described above. The information circulation support device shown in FIG. 1 includes a reference destination input unit 11, a reference history accumulation unit 12, and a path division unit 1.
3, path storage unit 14, optimal path calculation unit 15, optimal path storage unit 16, reference history information database 17, path information database 18, reusable path information database 19
Consists of

The operation of the above configuration will be described below. FIG.
In the case where the user A accesses the information 3 via the Internet 5, for example, the action history indicating whether the user has referred to the information 3 at a certain time should be set to access the Internet 5 via the proxy server 2. Thus, it is possible to accumulate on the proxy server. The proxy server 2 stores “http (Hyper Protocol Transfer Protocol) on a computer that can directly access the Internet 5.
It can be realized by running a process that understands col) and relaying the access from the browser 1.

Regarding the proxy server 2, here,
Although not described, W3Chttpd (http://www.w3.org/pub/W
See WW / Daemon /). The user A refers to the information by following the hyperlink from the reference destination input unit 11 or directly specifying the information. The reference history storage unit 12 of the proxy server 2 stores the circulation history for each user. It is stored in the reference history information database 17. The information to be stored includes an ID that can identify the individual, the URL referred, the time when the reference was started, the user's evaluation of the information, and
An original URL indicating from which information the URL is linked can be considered.

FIG. 5 shows an example of history information in the reference history information database according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a user A represented by a user ID “0001” is represented by a URL (Uniform resource Locator) http://foo.isl.ntt.co.jp/ with a reference number “1”. Starting from the information, follow the hyperlink information http://foo.isl.ntt.co.jp/doc/ in the information, and then follow the http://foo.isl.ntt in the information .co.jp / doc / vrml / summary.html This indicates that the user has sequentially referred to the reference number “1” using the action history.

The reference number “5” http://foo.abc.ntt.co.jp/ is followed as the hyperlink information of the reference number “1”. For the URL referred in this manner, the reference time of the user A and the evaluation of the validity of the information in five steps are stored in the evaluation column of the reference history database 17.

The time is determined by using the difference between the times referring to the respective URLs, and the evaluation is performed by introducing a mechanism for directly inputting the subjective judgment of each user, or automatically. Introduce a collection mechanism. For example,
In the case of the direct input method, a method is conceivable in which an input screen for evaluation is displayed at the same time as referring to the screen, and the evaluation is input to the screen. In the case of a method of automatically collecting information, it is used that whether or not a user is interested in information can be regarded as a time when the information is actually referred to. When the user actually refers to the information, he / she pays attention to the screen, and when the user refers to the information for a certain period of time or more, it may be determined that the user is interested. Whether the user is paying attention to the screen or not can be determined by the fact that the face is directly facing the screen. Since the input method of the evaluation is not the gist of the present invention, an existing method is used.

In this way, the reference history information is stored in the reference history information database 17 in the order in which the user A refers to the information on the Internet 5. By arranging the referenced URLs in order, it becomes clear what the referenced information is, and furthermore, a flow of information linked by hyperlinks can be constructed, which will be referred to as a reference path. A reference path exists for each user. This reference path is divided for reuse by the path division unit 13 and is accumulated in the path information database 18 by the path accumulation unit 14 as path information.

There are various methods for dividing the path in the path dividing unit 13. Here, a method of dividing from URL information and a method of using an operation history will be described. First, U
A method of dividing a path from RL information will be described. The definition of the URL is as follows. scheme: //host.domain: port / path Here, “scheme” indicates a protocol for actually performing communication, and “http”, “ftp”, “gopher”, or the like is specified as an example. “Host” and “domain” indicate which server the information belongs to. “Host” is a host name, and “domain” indicates a domain name to which the host belongs. The port information represented by “port” is an option specification and must be specified when a program used in the system accesses a service that does not use a predetermined standard service number. . Finally, there is “path” information, which indicates a location in the server. With such information, the uniqueness of the information represented by the URL is guaranteed. Path division is performed by the following steps.

Step 1) The same host and domein are grouped and set as a partial path. Step 2) If there is a partial path that includes the same path, it is divided (shortest match). Step 3) The missing portion of the path divided in step 2 is complemented. Step 4) Steps 2 and 3 are repeated.

FIG. 6 shows an example of path division according to an embodiment of the present invention. The division of the path will be described with reference to FIGS. Assuming that the reference history of the user A is as shown in FIG. 5, when this is displayed using nodes and arcs, the uppermost diagram in FIG. 6 (FIG. 6A) is obtained. This is simply displayed in the order of reference.

In step 1, first, information considered to be on the same server is grouped. This is “hos
The process is executed by referring to the “t” and “domein” portions.In the example of FIG. 6, the nodes 1 to 4, 5 to 10 are respectively recognized as the same group (FIG. 6B). Step 2
To search for nodes with the same path in the same group,
If there is the same one, the group is subdivided immediately before the node (FIG. 6C).

Finally, in step 3, in the example shown in FIG. 6 in which the portion deleted in the division in step 2 is complemented, nodes 5 to 7 are complemented before node 10 to form a new path (FIG. 6). (D)). Next, a method of using the operation history will be described. When the user circulates the information space from the browser 1, the reference history information database 17 of the proxy server 2
The reference history information is stored in the. The stored contents are, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, and include the referred personal ID, time, reference time, URL, original URL, and the like. This former URL is
If information is linked by hyperlink, URL
Enters. That is, a hyperlink is provided because the information manager is related or interested. Let such hyperlinks be attached to each other as one partial path. That is, in the method using the above URL, it is possible to reduce the amount of calculation by limiting the path first, narrowing the search range, and dividing the path under this assumption. . In addition, the degree of association of information between servers can be reflected.

As described above, the path created from the reference history of each user is stored in the path information database 18 by the path information storage unit 14. FIG. 7 is an example of a path information database according to an embodiment of the present invention. The data is accumulated in a searchable form for each path obtained by the above processing. In this example, paths 1 to 4 are displayed. For each URL,
Reference frequency and evaluation for each user are accumulated. For example, the information of http://foo.isl.ntt.co.jp/ which is the URL of the path No. 0001-1 is referred to 25 times in total, and the evaluation of each user for this is 1, 2 2, 3. The path information obtained in this way can be used as it is, but the optimum path for the more effective use is newly created in the optimum path calculation unit 15 and stored as optimum path storage as reusable path information. The information is stored in the reusable path information database 19 by the unit 16.

The optimum path can be referred to from the URL reference count and the user's evaluation point, and is created by extracting and marking nodes with low evaluation in advance. Here, the specific method of calculating the evaluation points is not the gist of the present invention, and thus will not be described in detail. For example, an arithmetic mean of the evaluation points of the user and a value obtained by normalizing the number of references are added. Those that are calculated and do not exceed a predetermined threshold are not referred to. The last node of each path is determined not to be marked. According to such rules, FIG.
8 is partially marked for the path information as shown in FIG.
The optimized path information of the reusable path information database 19 shown in FIG.

The information circulation support of the user is performed by using the support information thus constructed. Details of the circulation support processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, 9, and 10. FIG. FIG.
Is an example of the internal structure of an information server according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart of information circulation support according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that a user B shown in FIG. 3 is connected to the Internet 5 via the same proxy server 2 as the user A. The reusable path information as shown in FIG. 8 can be accessed from the reusable path information database 19 from the proxy server 2. It is assumed that the user B refers to information in a certain information server 3 (step 21).

It is assumed that the information structure of the information server 3 at this time has the contents shown in FIG. 9, and this server is represented by a URL of http://foo.abc.ntt.co.jp/. The node corresponding to the hyperlink information starting with the "index.html" file as the root node is selected (step 24). In the case of the above example, since there is information about the file “index.html” of the server represented by http://foo.abc.ntt.co.jp/ (step 23), the algorithm shown in FIG. Along, a breadth-first search is performed. In the breadth-first search, the search is performed in order from the one with the highest path evaluation (step 25). In this manner, the search is continued until the depth becomes "3" as the depth of the hyperlink (steps 22, 34, and 3).
5) The search is advanced until all candidates are completed (step 26). The depth of the search varies depending on the speed of the CPU of the computer, the amount of memory, the load status of the network, and the like.

When the search for all valid paths meeting the conditions is completed, each path is evaluated (step 2).
7). From the result, the highest evaluation is selected in order (step 28). At the same time, the reference information currently referred to is accumulated in the reference history information database 17 (step 29), the path is divided by the path dividing unit 13 (step 30), and the optimal path calculating unit 15 calculates the evaluation amount of the node. It is calculated (step 31) and stored in the reusable path information database 19 by the optimum path storage unit 16 (step 32).

Then, the candidate of the last selected optimum path is presented to the user (step 33). When the information is presented, the evaluation value of the path is also described, and furthermore, the information is displayed down to the lower layer, so that the user is shown the validity. FIG.
9 shows an example of presenting additional information including an optimal path according to an embodiment of the present invention. When information is accessed via the present invention, additional information is added to the original document and displayed.

First, in an initial state, an evaluation point for hyperlink information is assigned to an anchor portion in which the information is embedded. When the user moves the mouse while looking at the evaluation points and comes to a portion where the hyperlink information is embedded, the information under the hierarchy is displayed on a separate window together with the tree structure. Information below the hierarchy is displayed in line with the evaluation points, and title information can be added if necessary.

While referring to the information displayed in this way, the user follows a link from the information displayed on the browser screen or directly accesses information linked by a hyperlink from newly added information. Can be determined by one's own intention, and the information pointed out to be more effective by other users can be smoothly accessed.

Further, according to the present invention, each of the above-described processes can be processed, stored in a storage medium as a program, installed in the proxy server 2, and executed.
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
Various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Access to the information in the order of connection of the hyperlink information when referring to the information, or use a search system or the like to directly access valid information according to the suggestions of other users, instead of accessing the information you want to know .

Furthermore, by presenting the validity of the hyperlink by numerical values while taking into account the physical connection of the hyperlink, it is possible to allow the user to make an objective selection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an information circulation support device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of history information of a reference history database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of path division according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of a path information database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of storing optimized path information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an example of an internal structure of an information server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of information circulation support according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an example of information presentation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of Signs] 1 Browser 2 Proxy Server 3 Information 4 Local Network 5 Internet 10 Information Circulation Support Device 11 Reference Input Unit, Reference Input Unit 12 Reference History Storage Unit, Reference History Storage Unit 13 Path Division Unit, Path Division Unit 14 path storage unit 15 optimum path calculation unit, optimum path selection unit 16 optimum path storage unit, optimum path storage unit 17 reference history information database 18 path information database 19 reusable path information database 20 presentation unit

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An information circulation support method for efficiently circulating in a space in which a huge amount of information associated with each other as a hyperlink exists. The circulation history of the evaluation is retained, the retained circulation history is divided into related history sections (hereinafter referred to as reference paths), and the divided reference paths are evaluated using the evaluation for each user. It is effective to store the optimum path among the reference paths for reuse, and to circulate which information next when the user circulates certain information using the stored optimum path. An information circulation support method characterized by presenting circulation recommendation information indicating whether the information is circulation. 2. The information circulation support according to claim 1, wherein, when the circulation history is retained, the user follows a hyperlink or directly designates information and retains a history of referring to the information for each user. Method. 3. The information circulation support according to claim 1, wherein, when the circulation history is held, a reference time of the information of the user and a result of evaluating the validity of the information are included in the circulation history. Method. 4. The information circulation support method according to claim 1, wherein when accumulating the optimal paths, a reference path determined to be optimal by a predetermined evaluation method is set as an optimal path. 5. When presenting the circulation recommendation information, the evaluation value of the optimum path candidate is also presented.
And the information circulation support method described in 4. 6. The information circulation support method according to claim 1, wherein, when presenting the circulation recommendation information, information of a layer below the circulation recommendation information is also presented. 7. An information circulation support device for assisting efficient circulation in a space in which a huge amount of information associated with each other as a hyperlink exists, wherein a reference destination of information referred by a user is provided. A reference destination input unit for inputting, a circulation order in which the user referred to the information, a reference history accumulation unit for accumulating evaluations for the reference information for each user as reference history information, and the reference history accumulation unit stored in the reference history accumulation unit. Path dividing means for dividing the circulation history into related reference paths; and optimal path selecting means for evaluating the divided reference paths by using an evaluation for each user and selecting an optimal path from the reference paths. An optimal path accumulating unit that accumulates the optimal path selected by the optimal path selecting unit for reuse, and a user using the optimal path accumulated in the optimal path accumulating unit. When circulating certain information, an information circulation support device characterized by having presentation means for presenting circulation recommendation information indicating which information is valid next to circulate. 8. The information circulation support apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said optimum path selecting means includes an evaluation means for setting a reference path determined to be optimum by a predetermined evaluation method as said optimum path. 9. The information circulation support device according to claim 7, wherein the presenting unit includes an evaluation value assigning unit that presents an evaluation value of the candidate of the optimal path together. 10. The information circulation support device according to claim 7, wherein the presentation means includes a hierarchy display means for presenting information of a hierarchy below the circulation recommendation information. 11. A reference destination input process for inputting a reference destination of information referred by a user, a circulation order in which the user refers to the information, a reference status collection process for collecting reference information, and the reference information A reference history accumulation process of accumulating the evaluation of the reference history information in the storage unit for each user, and reading out the circulation history held in the storage unit,
A path division process of dividing the relevant history section (hereinafter, referred to as a reference path), and evaluating the divided reference path by using an evaluation for each user, and determining an optimum reference path among the reference paths. An optimal path selection process to be selected, an optimal path accumulation process for accumulating the optimal path selected in the optimal path selection process in a storage unit for reuse, and using the optimal path accumulated in the storage unit, A storage medium for storing an information circulation support program, which comprises a presentation process for presenting circulation recommendation information indicating which information is effective next when a user circulates certain information.