What is claimed is:
1. A method for accessing a subsurface formation from the surface, comprising:
forming a first well bore extending downwardly from the surface;
forming a second well bore spaced apart from the first well bore at the surface, the second well bore having a first portion intersecting the first well bore at a first location and a second portion intersecting the first well bore at a second location;
forming a first well bore pattern extending from the first portion into a first target zone; and
forming a second well bore pattern extending from the second portion into a second target zone.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming a first cavity and a second cavity in the first well bore, the first cavity disposed in the first target zone and the second cavity disposed in the second target zone.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the first and second well bore patterns comprises providing first and second pinnate well bore patterns.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the first and second portions comprises forming the first and second portions substantially within the respective first and second target zones.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing the resources from the first and second target zones through the first well bore.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a vertical pump disposed in the first well bore to lift the resources collected in the first well bore to the surface.
7. A method for accessing a subterranean zone from the surface, comprising:
forming a first well bore extending from the surface to the subterranean zone;
forming a second well bore extending from the surface to the subterranean zone, the second well bore intersecting the first well bore at a junction proximate to the subterranean zone; and
forming, through the second well bore, a well bore pattern from the junction into the subterranean zone.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
forming an enlarged cavity in the first well bore proximate to the subterranean zone;
forming the second well bore to intersect the enlarged cavity; and
forming the well bore pattern extending from the enlarged cavity.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein forming the well bore pattern comprises:
forming a third well bore extending from the junction into the subterranean zone; and
forming a plurality of lateral well bores extending outwardly from opposite sides of the third well bore.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein a length of each of the lateral well bores decreases as a distance between the corresponding lateral well bore and the junction increases.
11. The method of claim 7, wherein forming the well bore pattern comprises:
forming the well bore pattern using an articulated drill string extending through the second well bore and the junction;
supplying drilling fluid through the articulated drill string to remove cuttings generated by the drill string; and
pumping the drilling fluid with the cuttings to the surface through the first well bore to minimize hydrostatic pressure on the subterranean zone during drilling of the drainage pattern.
12. The method of claim 7, wherein forming the well bore pattern comprises forming a pinnate well bore pattern.
13. The method of claim 7, further comprising injecting a substance into the subterranean zone through the well bore pattern.
14. The method of claim 7, further comprising removing a resource from the subterranean zone through the first well bore.
15. A system for accessing a subterranean zone from the surface, comprising:
a first well bore extending from the surface to the subterranean zone;
a second well bore extending from the surface to the subterranean zone, the second well bore intersecting the first well bore at a junction proximate the subterranean zone; and
a well bore pattern extending from the junction into the subterranean zone.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the well bore pattern comprises a pinnate well bore pattern.
17. The system of claim 15, wherein the well bore pattern comprises:
a third well bore extending from the junction into the subterranean zone; and
a plurality of lateral well bores extending outwardly from opposite sides of the third well bore.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein a length of each of the lateral well bores decreases as a distance from a respective lateral well bore to the junction increases.
19. The system of claim 15, further comprising an enlarged cavity formed at the junction proximate the subterranean zone.
20. The system of claim 15, wherein the well bore pattern comprises:
a third well bore extending from the junction;
a first set of lateral well bores extending outwardly from a first side of the third well bore; and
a second set of lateral well bores extending outwardly from a second side of the third well bore.
21. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the lateral well bores of the first and second sets are substantially evenly spaced from each other.
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 method for collecting metadata related to documents in a corpus, the method comprising:
providing a user interface with a first control element operable by a user to indicate a desire to annotate a current document;
receiving, via a network, metadata related to the current document from the user;
adding to a data store an annotation including the metadata provided by the user, the annotation being persistently associated with the user and with the current document; and
thereafter, transmitting, via the network, the metadata of the annotation to the user in response to a user request.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first control element is further operable by the user to submit the metadata.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first control element is further operable by the user to obtain a form for submitting the metadata.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the user interface includes adding the first control element to a search report generated in response to a query submitted by the user.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein:
the search report includes a listing of hits, each hit being a document from the corpus;
the search report provides a different instance of the first control element corresponding to each hit; and
the hit is identified as the current document in the event that the user operates the corresponding instance of the first control element.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the search report includes a listing of hits, each hit being a document from the corpus, the method further comprising:
for each of the hits, determining whether the data store includes an annotation associated with the user and the hit;
in the event that the data store includes an annotation associated with the user and the hit, including in the search result page a second control element operable by the user to view the metadata of the annotation; and
in the event that the data store does not include an annotation associated with the user and the hit, including in the search result page an instance of the first control element corresponding to the hit, wherein the hit is identified as the current document in the event that the user operates the corresponding instance of the first control element.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first control element is provided in a toolbar interface for a document browser configured to display documents from the corpus.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein a document being displayed by the document browser when the user operates the first control element is identified as the current document.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the first control element is active only when the document browser is displaying a document for which the data store does not include an annotation associated with the displayed document and the user.
10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
providing a second control element in the toolbar interface, the second control element being operable by the user to request transmission of the metadata for a document being displayed by the document browser,
wherein the second control element is active only when the document browser is displaying a document for which the data store includes an annotation associated with the displayed document and the user.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes a rating of the associated document.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
displaying the rating when the associated document is displayed for the user.
13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
receiving a query from the user;
generating a search report for the user in response to the query, the search report including a listing of documents in the corpus determined to be relevant to the query; and
including in the search report the rating for each document in the listing for which the data store includes an annotation associated with the document and the user.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes a keyword describing the associated document.
15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
receiving a query from the user; and
using the keyword to determine whether the associated document is relevant to the query.
16. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes a label describing the associated document, the label being selected by the user from a predefined vocabulary.
17. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes a free-text description of the associated document.
18. The method of claim 17 further comprising;
receiving a query from the user; and
using the free-text description to determine whether the associated document is relevant to the query.
19. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the metadata includes providing a second control element operable by the user to edit the metadata, the method further comprising:
receiving edited metadata from the user; and
updating the annotation in the data store using the edited metadata.
20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
providing a second control element operable by the user to request a display of annotations from the data store; and
in response to operation of the second control element, retrieving the requested annotations from the data store and transmitting the metadata for the retrieved annotations to the user.
21. The method of claim 20 wherein the second control element is provided in a toolbar interface for a document browser configured to display documents from the corpus.
22. The method of claim 1 wherein the corpus is the World Wide Web.
23. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is a computer.
24. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is a human.
25. A computer system for collecting metadata related to documents in a corpus, the computer system comprising:
a personalization data store configured to store a plurality of annotations, each annotation associated with an annotating user and with one of the documents in the corpus, each annotation including metadata relating to the one of the documents; and
an annotation module communicably coupled to the personalization data store, the annotation module including:
input control logic configured to receive metadata from the annotating user and to associate the received metadata with one of the documents in the corpus;
storage control logic configured to store the received metadata in the personalization store as an annotation associated with an identifier of the annotating user and the one of the documents; and
retrieval control logic configured to locate an annotation in the personalization data store by reference to the identifier of the annotating user and the associated one of the documents.