1. A system for managing public communications, comprising:
a server computer operatively connected to a network;
a communications manager having:
an information module;
a project team tools module;
a communications tools module;
site management tools module; and
wherein the server computer provides access, following authentication, to one or more of the information module, the project team tools module, the communications tools module, and the site management tools module.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information module provides one or more of project overview, recent project changes, and project status
3. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one software interface for receiving public comments.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one software interface comprises:
a first sub-interface for creating and submitting authenticating an individual; and
a second sub-interface for receiving information about the individual.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the first and second interfaces are presented to the individual in a seamless manner.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the project team tools module provides one or more of a task manager, related links, a project calendar, an image manager, a document library, a project showcase, a directory, a listing of team members, and electronic communications with team members.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications tool module provides one or more of web conferencing and message board.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the site management tools module provides one or more of site maintenance, survey maintenance, web trend tools, survey reports, public comment and public comment reports.
9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a backend software interface for interactions with team members, the backend interface comprising:
an option for uploading documents;
an option for one or more of sorting and searching public submissions and documents in accordance with a specified search criteria; and
an option for filtering public submissions.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the site management tools module include screening public submission to identify presence of inappropriate subject matter.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the identified inappropriate subject matter is sequestered for detailed review.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the project team tools include searching for public submissions in accordance with one or more of a keyword, a time of submission, an identifier, an idea, a theme, and a vision.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications management module comprises:
shared modular code; and
means for responding to different browser implementations by invoking corresponding code.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the communications management module further supports Web site maintenance by one or more of updating dynamic text areas, creating Web sites by using templates, handling multiple Web sites by using customizations of at least one shared feature, providing a separate address linked to a Web site for accepting public comments, providing a separate address for accepting comments, automatic font and color adjustments, and supporting substantially unlimited number of active pages.
15. The system of claim 1, wherein work product is published on a Website substantially concurrently with its generation to invite comments to complete a feedback loop.
16. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication management module enables one or more of a public agency, a quasi public agency and an enterprise to manage public comments, managing comments from a select audience, support one or more teams of consultants, agency staff, stakeholder organizations relevant to one or more projects at the same time
17. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication management module provides one or more of a public agency, a quasi public agency and an enterprise electronic project management with work-flow, document and image management, content management, Web-site management, and reporting technologies.
18. The system of claim 1, wherein access is provided at a plurality of levels.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the plurality of access levels include User Manager for adding and assigning users to projects, Project Manager for creating new projects and having full access to the communications management module, and Team Member for having access to a limited number of modules with readupdate privileges.
20. The system of claim 1 further comprising a public website maintenance interface for providing access to one or more of project overview, a timeline, a document repository, an events calendar, an image manager, a public comment manager module, and a survey module
21. The system of claim 19, wherein the communications management module can access the public website maintenance interface via a project site maintenance interface.
22. The system of claim 19, wherein the public comment module includes providing a submitter with one or more of an option of being notified of additional developments and participating in at least one survey.
23. The system of claim 1 further comprising modules for one or more of general information about a project, project goals, a project team, public documents, public notices, an image resource library, a project calendar, a project showcase, and a public comment module with one or more of a notification and survey functionality.
24. A communications manager module comprising:
an information module;
a project team tools module;
a communications tools module;
site management tools module; and
wherein the communication manager provides access, following authentication, to one or more of the information module, the project team tools module, the communications tools module, and the site management tools module.
25. The communications manager module of claim 24 further having a plurality of access levels including User Manager for adding and assigning users to projects, Project Manager for creating new projects and having full access to the communications management module, and Team Member for having access to a limited number of modules with readupdate privileges.
26. An interface for a Web site coupled to the communications manager of claim 24 comprising a plurality of links selected from links to general information about a project, project goals, a project team, documents, notices, an image resource library, a project calendar, a project showcase, and a comment module.
27. The interface of claim 26, wherein the comment module further includes one or more of a notification and survey functionality.
28. The interface of claim 26, wherein the single point of entry is provided by requiring authentication of one or more of a username, a password, a encrypted session, and a challenge-response protocol.
29. A method of using updated comments from a Web site coupled to the communications manager of claim 24, comprising:
authenticating a submitter;
receiving a plurality of comments from the submitter;
storing the plurality of comments from the submitter with other comments received at the Web site;
retrieving comments by the submitter by carrying out a search;
organizing the retrieved comments chronologically to prepare an updated comment; and
using the updated comment in a comment report.
30. The method of claim 29, wherein a proposed rule is modified in response to the comment report.
31. A method of updating a posted issue inviting comments at a public Web site coupled to the communications manager of claim 24, comprising:
posting an issue at the public Web site with a specified date for receiving responses;
reviewing submissions received on the posted issue at the public Web site; and
modifying the posted issue in response to the comments prior to the expiry of the specified date for receiving responses, whereby subsequent responses are directed to the modified posted issue.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for developing a rule-based named entity extraction system, the computer program product comprising program instructions configured to implement:
a heuristics modeler configured to:
present a user with a plurality of predefined template rule parameters, wherein one or more of the predefined template rule parameters are defined based on domain specific language patterns;
receive user input selecting at least one rule parameter from among the predefined template rule parameters;
define at least one linguistic rule based on based on the at least rule parameter selected by the received user input, wherein the at least one linguistic rule enables automated extraction of named entities from unstructured text data;
a testing framework configured to enable automated regression testing of the named entity extraction system;
a project settings module configured to perform project management activities for implementing the named entity extraction system; and
a deployment module configured to facilitate deployment of the rule-based named entity extraction system using software components.
2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the heuristics modeler comprises:
a rules builder configured to provide users with a graphical user interface for building linguistic rules, wherein the graphical user interface displays one or more rule templates for defining rules;
a lexicon builder configured to provide the user with a graphical user interface for building and managing lexicon files; and
a regular expressions editor configured to provide the user with an interface or formulating rules by entering regular expressions.
3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the project settings module comprises:
an entity specification module configured to provide users with means to specify one or more entity types relevant to technical domain of the rule-based named entity extraction system;
an input data specification module configured to facilitate users to specify format of input data on which the rule-based named entity extraction system is executed;
a rules browser configured to facilitate users to browse one or more existing rule templates stored in a source code repository, wherein the rules browser operates in communication with the rules builder for building of rules and lexicons; and
a lexicon browser configured to facilitate users to create, modify, manage and reuse one or more lexicon files, wherein the lexicon browser operates in communication with the lexicon builder for building and managing lexicon files.
4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the testing framework comprises:
a test suite builder configured to facilitate building of one or more test suites for conducting regression testing of the rule-based named entity extraction system;
a regression testing unit configured to conduct regression testing of the rule-based named entity extraction system, wherein the regression testing is done to verify functionality of source code modified as a result of a change in rule definition;
a test reporting unit configured to facilitate generation of regression testing results in the form of reports; and
a versioning unit configured to facilitate versioning of the rule-based named entity extraction system.
5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the regression testing unit comprises:
a data fetch module configured to fetch expected output and predicted output of the rule-based named entity extraction system,
wherein expected output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code unmodified by change in named entity extraction rule definition, and
wherein predicted output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code modified by change in named entity extraction rule definition,
a preprocessing module configured to convert the formats of predicted and expected outputs into an intermediate format; and
a comparison engine configured to compare the expected and predicted outputs in order to verify functionality of source code modified as a result of a change in rule definition.
6. A method for developing a rule-based named entity extraction system, the method comprising:
presenting through a graphical user interface (GUI) a plurality of predefined template rule parameters, wherein one or more of the predefined template rule parameters are defined based on domain specific language patterns;
receiving through the GUI, user input selecting at least one rule parameter from among the predefined template rule parameters;
designing the rule-based named entity extraction system, wherein designing the rule-based named entity extraction system comprises defining at least one linguistic rule based on the at least rule parameter selected by the received user input, wherein the at least one linguistic rule enables automated extraction of named entities from unstructured text data;
implementing the design of rule-based named entity extraction system using one or more GUI-based tools;
conducting regression testing of the rule-based named entity extraction system, wherein the regression testing is conducted to verify functionality of source code; and
deploying the rule-based named entity extraction system.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein designing the rule-based named entity extraction system additionally comprises defining one or more of project parameters, rules, lexicons and entities based on the domain specific language patterns.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein implementing the design of rule-based named entity extraction system comprises:
specifying project settings;
building one or more entities; and
building one or more linguistic rules and lexicons.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein specifying project settings comprises specifying project name and working directory.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more entities, the one or more linguistic rules and lexicons are built using one or more GUI-based tools.
11. The method of claim 8, wherein source code corresponding to the one or more entities and the one or more rules and lexicons is automatically generated and stored in a source code repository.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein the source code is saved in form of an XML file in a file system or RDBMS system.
13. The method of claim 6, wherein conducting regression testing of the rule-based named entity extraction system comprises:
structuring one or more tests;
creating one or more test cases;
executing the one or more test cases; and
generating test reports corresponding to the one or more test cases.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more test cases are created by storing expected and predicted outputs of a rule-based named entity extraction system for similar input texts in a source repository,
wherein expected output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code unmodified by change in named entity extraction rule definition, and
wherein predicted output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code modified by change in named entity extraction rule definition.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more test cases are executed to compare the expected and predicted outputs of the rule-based named entity extraction system,
wherein expected output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code unmodified by change in named entity extraction rule definition, and
wherein predicted output comprises a named entity extraction result obtained by executing source code modified by change in named entity extraction rule definition.
16. The method of claim 6, wherein deploying the rule-based named entity extraction system comprises:
assigning a version to the entity extraction system based on regression testing results; and
creating run-time artifacts.