Updated: 11/27/09; 11:45:15 AM.
The Mediaburn Radio Weblog
"THE FOCUS OF DIGITAL MEDIA" - Gary Santoro and Mediaburn.net


Support This Site
        

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Patron Saint of Mediaburn


Press Release 06-006
Ben Franklin Web Portal Brings the Man to the Masses

Driven by search-engine technology, site highlights three centuries of revolutionary influence

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by artist David Martin (1737-1797)

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by artist David Martin (1737-1797).
Credit and Larger Version

January 9, 2006

In time for the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth, a Web portal (http://ben.clusty.com) based on clustering technology is offering a new method to separate useful Franklin facts from the normal flood of online information.

Developed and curated by Vivísimo, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa., the portal uses the company's unique clustering search engine. The underlying algorithms filter and index results to create clusters that are easier to navigate than numerous pages of "hits."

Curators manage the portal, which is a comprehensive, searchable resource of the iconic statesman's writings and quotations, along with a targeted search engine and tools for teachers. By adding the words Images or "pictures" to a search, users can access related visuals.

The clustering component, known publicly by the name Clusty.com, works with any set of electronic documents, and as applications have arisen, developers have applied it to languages ranging from Arabic to Korean. The clustering is gaining wider recognition as it evolves, and the portal expands upon such evolution by highlighting the benefits of combining this automated technology with curation.

Franklin was an important figure not only in U.S. history, but also for science and engineering. From studies of electricity, weather and ocean currents to his development of the lightning rod, double spectacles (bifocals) and the odometer, many of his innovations and discoveries were groundbreaking.

A vast wealth of material on Ben Franklin exists on the Internet, but standard searches do not differentiate between references to the man and references to countless objects and entities named in his honor. The curators of the Web portal have simplified such searches by managing the results to weed out distracting references - from high schools to retailers - unrelated to Franklin himself.

Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Raul Valdes-Perez and graduate students Chris Palmer and Jerome Pesenti created the underlying clustering algorithms in the early 1990s - with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Pa.'s appropriately named Ben Franklin economic development initiative. The researchers founded Vivísimo and improved upon the technology, furthering the engine's development with NSF Small Business Innovation Research grants.

Since its development, various users have applied the software to both institutional and World-Wide Web searches. Most recently, the U.S. General Services Administration chose Vivísimo's platform for a re-launch of the FirstGov.gov search, the U.S. government's official search gateway for government web pages.

NSF's monetary support for Valdes-Perez's work began more than a decade ago with funding from the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering and continued with grants from the Directorate for Engineering.

As Franklin himself has noted, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

In addition to NSF support, the portal effort has been aided by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Libraries, the Carnegie Science Center and Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF (703) 292-7730 jchamot@nsf.gov
Stacy Monarko, Vivísimo (412) 422-2499 pr@vivisimo.com
Anne Watzman, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute (412) 268-3830 aw16@andrew.cmu.edu

Program Contacts
Sara B. Nerlove, NSF (703) 292-7077 snerlove@nsf.gov
Juan E. Figueroa, NSF (703) 292-7054 jfiguero@nsf.gov
Ephraim P. Glinert, NSF (703) 292-8930 eglinert@nsf.gov

Principal Investigators
Raul Valdes-Perez, Vivísimo (412) 422-2499 valdes@vivisimo.com

Related Websites
Vivísimo Website: http://vivisimo.com/





Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by artist David Martin (1737-1797).
A picture named benfranklin2_f.jpg
8:34:05 PM    

Bookmark and Share


Tech Companies Form Ethernet Alliance
Tech companies form Ethernet group. Several tech companies band together to form a marketing alliance to promote new advancements in the technology. [CNET News.com]
8:09:57 PM    

Bookmark and Share


Art by b
Cat & Mouse. Art by b. Many thanks to Frank for the link.

Catwoman
[The Cartoonist]
9:30:45 AM    

Bookmark and Share


Gov. Napolitano's $100M Border Request
GOP foes laud governor's $100M border request. PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano wants $100 million to help deal with illegal border crossers, expanded use of the Arizona National Guard and sanctions against firms that hire people not here legally. [Daily Star Front Page]
9:09:58 AM    

Bookmark and Share


Article on Burkhard Heim
Make the Kessel run in less than twelve par-secs!. Hyperdrive and a possible Unified Theory. New Scientist article about a paper and proposal to NASA outlining development parameters and possiblities for a faster-than-light anti-gravity propulsion system, based on some rather interesting physics theories originated by a guy named Heim. You mean you've never heard of the Millenium Falcon? (via) [MetaFilter]
8:24:53 AM    

Bookmark and Share


© Copyright 2009 Gary Santoro.
 

M E D I A B U R N



January 2006
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31        
Dec   Feb

< # phoenix bloggers ? >


Search This Website
PicoSearch

Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website.

Support This Site


Subscribe to "The Mediaburn Radio Weblog" in Radio UserLand.
Subscribe to the Mediaburn news feed if you have a Radio Userland Weblog


Subscribe with Bloglines Blog Directory - Blogged

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

RSS Blog Syndication