Applied artificial intelligence technology for narrative generation based on analysis communication goals

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines using “analyze” communication goals in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired analysis communication goal such that the narratives will express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given analysis communication goal.

INTRODUCTION

There is an ever-growing need in the art for improved natural language generation (NLG) technology that harnesses computers to process data sets and automatically generate narrative stories about those data sets. NLG is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) concerned with technology that produces language as output on the basis of some input information or structure, in the cases of most interest here, where that input constitutes data about some situation to be analyzed and expressed in natural language. Many NLG systems are known in the art that use template approaches to translate data into text. However, such conventional designs typically suffer from a variety of shortcomings such as constraints on how many data-driven ideas can be communicated per sentence, constraints on variability in word choice, and limited capabilities of analyzing data sets to determine the content that should be presented to a reader.

As technical solutions to these technical problems in the NLG arts, the inventors note that the assignee of the subject patent application has previously developed and commercialized pioneering technology that robustly generates narrative stories from data, of which a commercial embodiment is the QUILL™ narrative generation platform from Narrative Science Inc. of Chicago, Ill. Aspects of this technology are described in the following patents and patent applications: U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,374,848, 8,355,903, 8,630,844, 8,688,434, 8,775,161, 8,843,363, 8,886,520, 8,892,417, 9,208,147, 9,251,134, 9,396,168, 9,576,009, 9,697,197, 9, 697,492, 9,720,890, and 9,977,773, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/211,444 (entitled “Method and System for Configuring Automatic Generation of Narratives from Data”, filed Mar. 14, 2014), Ser. No. 15/253,385 (entitled “Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology for Using Narrative Analytics to Automatically Generate Narratives from Visualization Data, filed Aug. 31, 2016), Ser. No. 15/666,151 (entitled “Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology for Interactively Using Narrative Analytics to Focus and Control Visualizations of Data”, filed Aug. 1, 2017), Ser. No. 15/666,168 (entitled “Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology for Evaluating Drivers of Data Presented in Visualizations”, filed Aug. 1, 2017), and Ser. No. 15/666,192 (entitled “Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology for Selective Control over Narrative Generation from Visualizations of Data”, filed Aug. 1, 2017); the entire disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The inventors have further extended on this pioneering work with improvements in AI technology as described herein.

For example, the inventors disclose how AI technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements and an ontology to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines in a manner usable by a narrative generation system without any need to directly author computer code.

Moreover, the inventors also disclose that the ontology used by the narrative generation system can be built concurrently with the user composing communication goal statements. Further still, expressions can be attached to objects within the ontology for use by the narrative generation process when expressing concepts from the ontology as text in a narrative story. As such, the ontology becomes a re-usable and shareable knowledge-base for a domain that can be used to generate a wide array of stories in the domain by a wide array of users/authors.

The inventors further disclose techniques for editing narrative stories whereby a user's editing of text in the narrative story that has been automatically generated can in turn automatically result in modifications to the ontology and/or a story outline from which the narrative story was generated. Through this feature, the ontology and/or story outline is able to learn from the user's edits and the user is alleviated from the burden of making further corresponding edits of the ontology and/or story outline.

The inventors further disclose how the narrative analytics that are linked to communication goal statements can employ a conditional outcome framework that allows the content and structure of resulting narratives to intelligently adapt as a function of the nature of the data under consideration.

Further still, the inventors also disclose how “analyze” communication goals can be supported by the system, including various examples of communication goal statements that drive the generation of narratives that express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given analysis communication goal.

Through these and other features, example embodiments of the invention provide significant technical advances in the NLG arts by harnessing AI computing to improve how narrative stories are generated from data sets while alleviating users from a need to directly code and re-code the narrative generation system, thereby opening up use of the AI-based narrative generation system to a much wider base of users (e.g., including users who do not have specialized programming knowledge).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

The example embodiments described herein further extend and innovate on the pioneering work described in the above-referenced and incorporated patent application serial numbers U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,576,009, 9,697,197, 9,697,492, 9,720,890, and 9,977,773, where explicit representations of communication goals are used by AI technology to improve how NLG technology generates narratives from data. With example embodiments described herein, AI technology is able to process a communication goal statement in relation to a data set in order to automatically generate narrative text about that data set such that the narrative text satisfies a communication goal corresponding to the communication goal statement. Furthermore, innovative techniques are disclosed that allow users to compose such communication goal statements in a manner where the composed communication goal statements exhibit a structure that promotes re-usability and robust story generation.

FIG. 1Adepicts a process flow for an example embodiment. At step100, a processor selects and parameterizes a communication goal statement. The processor can perform this step in response to user input as discussed below with respect to example embodiments. The communication goal statement can be expressed as natural language text, preferably as an operator in combination with one or more parameters, as elaborated upon below.

At step102, a processor maps data within the data set to the parameters of the communication goal statement. The processor can also perform this step in response to user input as discussed below with respect to example embodiments.

At step104, a processor performs NLG on the parameterized communication goal statement and the mapped data. The end result of step104is the generation of narrative text based on the data set, where the content and structure of the narrative text satisfies a communication goal corresponding to the parameterized communication goal statement.

WhileFIG. 1Adescribes a process flow that operates on a communication goal statement, it should be understood that multiple communication goal statements can be composed and arranged to create sections of an outline for a story that is meant to satisfy multiple communication goals.FIG. 1Bdepicts an example process flow for narrative generation based on multiple communication goal statements. At step110, multiple communication goal statements are selected and parameterized to create sections of a story outline. At step112, a processor maps data within a data set to these communication goal statements as with step102(but for multiple communication goal statements). Step114is likewise performed in a manner similar to that of step104but on the multiple communication goal statements and the mapped data associated therewith. The end result of step114is a narrative story about the data set that conveys information about the data set in a manner that satisfies the story outline and associated communication goals.

It should be understood that steps102and104, as well as steps112and114, need not be performed in lockstep order with each other where step102(or112) maps all of the data before the system progresses to step104(or step114). These steps can be performed in a more iterative manner if desired, where a portion of the data is mapped at step102(or step112), followed by execution of step104(or step114) on that mapped data, whereupon the system returns to step102/112to map more data for subsequent execution of step104/114, and so on.

Furthermore, it should be understood that a system that executes the process flows ofFIGS. 1A and/or 1Bmay involve multiple levels of parameterization. For example, not only is there parameterization in the communication goals to build story outlines, but there can also be parameterization of the resulting story outline with the actual data used to generate a story, as explained hereinafter with respect to example embodiments.

FIG. 2depicts an example process flow that shows how a story outline can be composed as part of step110. The process flow ofFIG. 2can be performed by a processor in response to user input through a user interface. To begin the process, a name is provided for a section (step120). Within this section, step100is performed to define a communication goal statement for the subject section. At step122, the section is updated to include this communication goal statement. The process flow then determines whether another communication goal statement is to be added to the subject section (step124). If so, the process flow returns to steps100and122. If not, the process flow proceeds to step126. At step126, the process flow determines whether another section is to be added to the story outline. If so, the process flow returns to step120. Otherwise, the process flow concludes and the story outline is completed. Thus, through execution of the process flow ofFIG. 2, a processor can generate a story outline comprising a plurality of different sections, where each section comprises one or more communication goal statements. This story outline in turn defines the organization and structure of a narrative story generated from a data set and determines the processes required to generate such a story.

The previous example shows how an outline can be built by adding sections and parameterizing goals completely from scratch. The user is generally not expected to start from scratch, however. A narrative generation system instance will generally include a library of prebuilt components that users can utilize to more easily and quickly build out their outline. The narrative generation system's library provides access to previously parameterized and composed goals, subsections, sections, and even fully defined outlines. These re-usable components come fully parameterized, but can be updated or adjusted for the specific project. These changes are initially isolated from the shared library of components.

Components from the system's shared library can be used in two ways. First, a new project can be created from an entire project blueprint providing all aspects of a project already defined. This includes sample data, data views, the ontology, outline, sections, parameterized goals, and data mappings. Second, a user can pull in predefined components from the system's library ad hoc while building a new project. For example, when adding a section to an outline, the user can either start from scratch with an empty section or use a predefined section that includes a set of fully parameterized goals.

The system's library of components can be expanded by users of the platform through a mechanism that enables users to share components they have built. Once a component (outline, ontology, section, etc.) is shared, other users can then use them from the system's library in their own projects.

Composable Communication Goal Statements:

FIG. 3Adepicts an example process flow for composing a communication goal statement, where the process flow ofFIG. 3Acan be used to perform step100ofFIGS. 1A and 2(see also step110ofFIG. 1B). The process flow ofFIG. 3Acan be performed by a processor in response to user input through a user interface. The process flow begins at step300when the processor receives user input that indicates a base communication goal statement. The base communication goal statement serves as a skeleton for a parameterized and composed communication goal and may comprise one or more base goal elements that serve to comprise the parameterized and composed communication goal statement. Base goal elements are the smallest composable building blocks of the system out of which fully parameterized communication goal statements are constructed. Internal to the system, they are structured objects carrying necessary information to serve as the placeholders for parameters that are to be determined during the composition process. Communication goal statements are displayed to the user in plain language describing the goal's operation and bound parameters. In an example embodiment, the base communication goal statement is represented to a user as an operator and one or more words, both expressed in natural language, and where operator serves to identify a communication goal associated with the base communication goal statement and where the one or more words stand for the base goal elements that constitute parameters of the parameterized communication goal statement.FIG. 4Adepicts examples of base communication goal statements as presented to a user that can be supported by an example embodiment.

As shown byFIG. 4A, base communication goal statement402is “Present the Value” where the word “Present” serves as the operator410and “Value” serves as the parameter placeholder412. The operator410can be associated with a set of narrative analytics (discussed below) that define how the AI will analyze a data set to determine the content that is to be addressed by a narrative story that satisfies the “Present the Value” communication goal. The parameter placeholder412is a field through which a user specifies an attribute of an entity type to thereby define a parameter to be used as part of the communication goal statement and subsequent story generation process. As explained below, the process of parameterizing the parameter placeholders in the base communication goal statements can build and/or leverage an ontology that represents a knowledge base for the domain of the story generation process.

As shown byFIG. 4B, another example of a base communication goal statement is base communication goal statement404, which is expressed as “Present the Characterization”, but could also be expressed as “Characterize the Entity”. In these examples, “Present” (or “Characterize”) can serve as operator414can “Characterization” (or Entity”) can serve as a parameter placeholder416. This base communication goal statement can be used to formulate a communication goal statement geared toward analyzing a data set in order to express an editorial judgment about data within the data set.

As shown byFIG. 4B, another example of a base communication goal statement is base communication goal statement406, which is expressed as “Compare the Value to the Other Value”, where “Compare” serves as operator418, “Value” serves as a parameter placeholder420, and “Other Value” serves as parameter placeholder422. The “Compare” operator418can be associated with a set of narrative analytics that are configured to compute various metrics indicative of a comparison between the values corresponding to specified attributes of specified entities to support the generation of a narrative that expresses how the two values compare with each other.

Another example of a base communication goal statement is “Callout the Entity”408as shown byFIG. 4A. In this example, “Callout” is operator424and “Entity” is the parameter placeholder426. The “Callout” operator424can be associated with a set of narrative analytics that are configured to compute various metrics by which to identify one or more entities that meet a set of conditions to support the generation of a narrative that identifies such an entity or entities in the context of these conditions.

It should be understood that the base communication goal statements shown byFIG. 4Aare just examples, and a practitioner may choose to employ more, fewer, or different base communication goal statements in a narrative generation system. For example, additional base communication goal statements could be employed that include operators such as “Review”, “Analyze”, “Explain”, “Predict” etc. to support communication goal statements associated with communication goals targeted toward such operators. An example structure for a base “Review” communication goal statement could be “Review the [timeframe interval] [attribute] of [the entity] over [timeframe]”. An example structure for a base “Explain” communication goal statement could be “Explain the [computed attribute] of [the entity] in [a timeframe]”. Also, example embodiments describing how communication goal statements with an “Analyze” operator can be used to support the generation of narratives that satisfy an “analysis” communication goal are discussed below.

The system can store data representative of a set of available base communication goal statements in a memory for use as a library. A user can then select from among this set of base communication goal statements in any of a number of ways. For example, the set of available base communication goal statements can be presented as a menu (e.g., a drop down menu) from which the user makes a selection. As another example, a user can be permitted to enter text in a text entry box. Software can detect the words being entered by the user and attempt to match those words with one of the base communication goal statements as would be done with auto-suggestion text editing programs. Thus, as a user begins typing the character string “Compa . . . ”, the software can match this text entry with the base communication goal statement of “Compare the Value to the Other Value” and select this base communication goal statement at step300.

Returning toFIG. 3A, the process flow at steps302-306operates to parameterize the base communication goal statement by specifying parameters to be used in place of the parameter placeholders in the base communication goal statement. One of the technical innovations disclosed by the inventors is the use of an ontology320to aid this part of composing the communication goal statement. The ontology320is a data structure that identifies the types of entities that exist within the knowledge domain used by the narrative generation system to generate narrative stories in coordination with communication goal statements. The ontology also identifies additional characteristics relating to the entity types such as various attributes of the different entity types, relationships between entity types, and the like.

Step302allows a user to use the existing ontology to support parameterization of a base communication goal statement. For example, if the ontology320includes an entity type of “Salesperson” that has an attribute of “Sales”, a user who is parameterizing base communication goal statement402can cause the processor to access the existing ontology320at step304to select “Sales of the Salesperson” from the ontology320at step306to thereby specify the parameter to be used in place of parameter placeholder412and thereby create a communication goal statement of “Present the Sales of the Salesperson”.

Also, if the existing ontology320does not include the parameters desired by a user, step306can operate by a user providing user input that defines the parameter(s) to be used for parameterizing the communication goal statement. In this situation, the processor in turn builds/updates the ontology320to add the parameter(s) provided by the user. For example, if the ontology320did not already include “Sales” as an attribute of the entity type “Salesperson”, steps306-308can operate to add a Sales attribute to the Salesperson entity type, thereby adapting the ontology320at the same time that the user is composing the communication goal statement. This is a powerful innovation in the art that provides significant improvement with respect to how artificial intelligence can learn and adapt to the knowledge base desired by the user for use by the narrative generation system.

At step310, the processor checks whether the communication goal statement has been completed. If so, the process flow ends, and the user has composed a complete communication goal statement. However, if other parameters still need to be specified, the process flow can return to step302. For example, to compose a communication goal statement from the base communication goal statement406of “Compare the Value to the Other Value”, two passes through steps302-308may be needed for the user to specify the parameters for use as the Value and the Other Value.

FIG. 4Bshows examples of parameterized communication goal statements that can be created as a result of theFIG. 3Aprocess flow. For example, the base communication goal statement402ofFIG. 4Acan be parameterized as communication goal statement402(“Present the Price of the Car”, where the parameter placeholder412has been parameterized as parameter412b, namely “Price of the Car” in this instance, with “Price” being the specified attribute of a “Car” entity type). Similarly, the base communication goal statement402ofFIG. 4Acould also be parameterized as “Present the Average Value of the Deals of the Salesperson”, where the parameter placeholder412has been parameterized as parameter412b, namely “Average Value of the Deals of the Salesperson” in this instance).

FIG. 4Balso shows examples of how base communication goal statement404can be parameterized (see relatively lengthy “Present the Characterization of the Highest Ranking Department in the City by Expenses in terms of the Difference Between its Budget and Expenses” statement404b1where the specified parameter404b1is the “Characterization of the Highest Ranking Department in the City by Expenses in terms of the Difference Between its Budget and Expenses”; see also its substantially equivalent in the form of statement404b2).

Also shown byFIG. 4Bare examples of parameterization of base communication goal statement406. A first example is the communication goal statement406bof “Compare the Sales of the Salesperson to the Benchmark of the Salesperson” where the specified parameter for “Value”420is “Sales of the Salesperson”420band the specified parameter for “Other Value”422is “Benchmark of the Salesperson”422b. A second example is the communication goal statement406bof “Compare the Revenue of the Business to the Expenses of the Business” where the specified parameter for “Value”420is “Revenue of the Business”420band the specified parameter for “Other Value”422is “Expenses of the Business”422b.

Also shown byFIG. 4Bare examples of parameterization of base communication goal statement408. A first example is the communication goal statement408bof “Callout the Highest Ranked Salesperson by Sales” where the specified parameter for “Entity”426is the “Highest Ranked Salesperson by Sales”426b. A second example is the communication goal statement408bof “Callout the Players on the Winning Team” where the specified parameter for “Entity”426is “Players on the Winning Team”426b. A third example is the communication goal statement408bof “Callout the Franchises with More than $1000 in Daily Sales” where the specified parameter for “Entity”426is “Franchises with More than $1000 in Daily Sales”426b.

As with the base communication goal statements, it should be understood that a practitioner may choose to employ more, fewer, or different parameterized communication goal statements in a narrative generation system. For example, a parameterized Review communication goal statement could be “Review the weekly cash balance of the company over the year”, and a parameterized Explain communication goal statement could be “Explain the profit of the store in the month”.

Ontology Data Structure:

FIG. 3Bdepicts an example structure for ontology320. The ontology320may comprise one or more entity types322. Each entity type322is a data structure associated with an entity type and comprises data that describes the associated entity type. An example of an entity type322would be a “salesperson” or a “city”. Each entity type322comprises metadata that describes the subject entity type such as a type324(to identify whether the subject entity type is, e.g., a person, place or thing) and a name326(e.g., “salesperson”, “city”, etc.). Each entity type322also comprises one or more attributes330. For example, an attribute330of a “salesperson” might be the “sales” achieved by a salesperson. Additional attributes of a salesperson might be the salesperson's gender and sales territory.

Attributes330can be represented by their own data structures within the ontology and can take the form of a direct attribute330aand a computed value attribute330b. A direct attribute330ais an attribute of an entity type that can be found directly within a data set (e.g., for a data set that comprises a table of salespeople within a company where the salespeople are identified in rows and where the columns comprise data values for information such as the sales and sales territory for each salesperson, the attribute “sales” would be a direct attribute of the salesperson entity type because sales data values can be found directly within the data set). A computed value attribute330bis an attribute of an entity type that is derived in some fashion from the data set. Continuing with the example above, a direct attribute for the salesperson entity type might be a percentage of the company's overall sales that were made by the salesperson. This information is not directly present in the data set but instead is computed from data within the data set (e.g., by summing the sales for all salespeople in the table and computing the percentage of the overall sales made by an individual salesperson).

Both the direct attributes330aand computed value attributes330bcan be associated with metadata such as a type340(e.g., currency, date, decimal, integer, percentage, string, etc.), and a name342. However, computed value attributes330bcan also include metadata that specifies how the computed value attribute is computed (a computation specification348). For example, if a computed value attribute330bis an average value, the computation specification348can be a specification of the formula and parameters needed to compute this average value.

Each entity type322may also comprise one or more characterizations332. For example, a characterization332of a “salesperson” might be a characterization of how well the salesperson has performed in terms of sales (e.g., a good performer, an average performer, a poor performer). Characterizations can be represented by their own data structures332within the ontology. A characterization332can include metadata such as a name360(e.g., sales performance). Also, each characterization332can include a specification of the qualifications364corresponding to the characterization. These qualifications364can specify one or more of the following: (1) one or more attributes330by which the characterization will be determined, (2) one or more operators366by which the characterization will be determined, and (3) one or more value(s)368by which the characterization will be determined. For example, a “good performer” characterization for a salesperson can be associated with a qualification that requires the sales for the salesperson to exceed a defined threshold. With such an example, the qualifications364can take the form of a specified attribute330of “sales”, an operator366of “greater than”, and a value368that equals the defined threshold (e.g., $100,000).

Each entity type322may also comprise one or more relationships334. Relationships334are a way of identifying that a relationship exists between different entity types and defining how those different entity types relate to each other. Relationships can be represented by their own data structures334within the ontology. A relationship334can include metadata such as the related entity type350with respect to the subject entity type322. For example, a “salesperson” entity type can have a relationship with a “company” entity type to reflect that the salesperson entity type belongs to a company entity type. The ontological objects (e.g., entity types322, direct attributes330a, computed value attributes330b, characterizations332, and relationships334) may also comprise data that represents one or more expressions that can be used to control how the corresponding ontological objects are described in narrative text produced by the narrative generation system.

For example, the entity type322can be tied to one or more expressions328. When the narrative generation process determines that the subject entity type needs to be described in narrative text, the system can access the expression(s)328associated with the subject entity type to determine how that entity type will be expressed in the narrative text. The expression(s)328can be a generic expression for the entity type322(e.g., the name326for the entity type, such as the name “salesperson” for a salesperson entity type), but it should be understood that the expression(s)32may also or alternatively include alternate generic names (e.g., “sales associate”) and specific expressions. By way of example, a specific expression for the salesperson entity type might be the name of a salesperson. Thus, a narrative text that describes how well a specific salesperson performed can identify the salesperson by his or her name rather than the more general “salesperson”. To accomplish this, the expression328for the salesperson can be specified indirectly via a reference to a data field in a data set (e.g., if the data set comprises a table that lists sales data for various sales people, the expression328can identify a column in the table that identifies each salesperson's name). The expression(s)328can also define how the subject entity type will be expressed when referring to the subject entity type as a singular noun, as a plural noun, and as a pronoun.

The expression(s)346for the direct attributes330aand computed value attributes330bcan take a similar form as and operate in a manner similar to the expression(s) for the entity types322; likewise for the expression(s)362tied to characterizations332(although it is expected that the expressions362will often include adjectives and/or adverbs in order to better express the characterization332corresponding to the subject entity type322). The expression(s)352for relationships334can describe the nature of the relationship between the related entity types so that this relationship can be accurately expressed in narrative text if necessary. The expressions352can typically take forms such as “within” (e.g., a “city” entity type within a “state” entity type, “belongs to” (e.g., a “house” entity type that belongs to a “person” entity type, “is employed by” (a “salesperson” entity type who is employed by a “company” entity type), etc.

Another ontological object can be a timeframe344. In the example ofFIG. 3B, timeframes344can be tied to direct attributes330aand/or computed value attributes330b. A direct attribute330aand/or a computed value attribute330bcan either be time-independent or time-dependent. A timeframe344can define the time-dependent nature of a time-dependent attribute. An example of a time-dependent attribute would be sales by a salesperson with respect to a data set that identifies each salesperson's sales during each month of the year. The timeframe344may comprise a timeframe type356(e.g., year, month, quarter, hour, etc.) and one or more expressions(s)358that control how the subject timeframe would be described in resultant narrative text. Thus, via the timeframe344, a user can specify a timeframe parameter in a communication goal statement that can be used, in combination with the ontology320, to define a specific subset of data within a data set for consideration. While the example ofFIG. 3Bshows timeframes344being tied to direct attributes330aand computed value attributes330b, it should be understood that a practitioner might choose to make timeframes344only attachable to direct attributes330a. Also, a practitioner might choose to make timeframes344also applicable to other ontological objects, such as characterizations332, entity types322, and/or even relationships334. As indicated in connection withFIG. 3A, users can create and update the ontology320while composing communication goal statements. An example embodiment for such an ability to simultaneously compose communication goal statements and build/update an ontology is shown byFIG. 3C. At step370, the system receives a text string entry from a user (e.g., through a text entry box in a user interface (UI)). As indicated, this text entry can be a natural language text entry to facilitate ease of use by users. Alternative user interface models such as drag and drop graphical user interfaces or structured fill in the blank templates could also be used for this purpose.

At step372, the processor attempts to match the received text string to a base communication goal statement that is a member of a base communication goal statement library504(seeFIG. 4A). This matching process can be a character-based matching process where the processor seeks to find a match on an ongoing basis as the user types the text string. Thus, as a user types the string “Comp”, the processor may be able to match the text entry to the “Compare the Value to the Other Value” base communication goal statement. Based on this matching, the system can auto-fill or auto-suggest a base communication goal statement that matches up with the received text entry (step374). At this point, the system can use the base communication goal statement as a framework for guiding the user to complete the parameterization of the communication goal statement.

At step376, the system continues to receive text string entry from the user. At step378, the processor attempts to match the text string entry to an object in ontology320. Is there is a match (or multiple matches), the system can present a list of matching ontological objects for user selection (step380). In this fashion, the system can guide the user to define parameters for the communication goal statement in terms of objects known within ontology320. However, if the text string does not match any ontological objects, the system can provide the user with an ability to create a new object for inclusion in the ontology (steps382-384). At step382, the system provides the user with one or more UIs through which the user creates object(s) for inclusion in ontology320(e.g., defining an entity type, attribute, characterization, relationship, and/or timeframe). At step384, the system receives the user input through the UI(s) that define the ontological objects. The ontology can thus be updated at step308in view of the text string entered by a user that defines a parameter for the communication goal statement.

If step310results in a determination that the communication goal statement has not been completed, the process flow returns to step376as the user continues entering text. Otherwise, the process flow concludes after step310if the communication goal statement has been fully parameterized (seeFIG. 4Bfor examples of parameterized communication goal statements).

Through the use of composable communication goal statements and ontology320, example embodiments are capable of generating a robust array of narrative stories about data sets that satisfy flexibly-defined communication goals without requiring a user to directly author any program code. That is, a user need not have any knowledge of programming languages and does not need to write any executable code (such as source code) in order to control how the narrative generation platform automatically generates narrative stories about data sets. To the extent that any program code is manipulated as a result of the user's actions, such manipulation is done indirectly as a result of the user's higher level compositions and selections through a front end presentation layer that are distinct from authoring or directly editing program code. Communication goal statements can be composed via an interface that presents them in natural language as disclosed herein, and ontologies can similarly be created using intuitive user interfaces that do not require direct code writing.FIG. 3Dillustrates this aspect of the innovative design. In an example embodiment, communication goal statements390(e.g.,3901and3902) are composed by a user using an interface that presents the base goal elements as natural language text where one or more words represent the goal operators and one or more words serve to represent the parameters as discussed above. These parameters, in turn, map into ontology320and thus provide the constraints necessary for the narrative generation platform to appropriately determine how to analyze a data set and generate the desired narrative text about the data set (described in greater detail below). Hidden from the user are code-level details. For example, a computed value attribute (such as330bn) is associated with parameterized computational logic394that will be executed to compute its corresponding computed value attribute. Thus, if the computed value attribute330bnis an average value of a set of data values, the computational logic394can be configured to (1) receive a specification of the data values as input parameters, (2) apply these data values to a programmed formula that computes an average value, and (3) return the computed average value as the average value attribute for use by the narrative generation platform. As another example, computational logic392and396can be configured to test qualifications for corresponding characterizations3321and3322respectively. The data needed to test the defined qualifications can be passed into the computational logic as input parameters, and the computational logic can perform the defined qualification tests and return an identification of the determined characterization for use by the narrative generation platform. Similar computational logic structures can leverage parameterization and the ontology320to perform other computations that are needed by the narrative generation platform.

The inventors also disclose that the ontology320can be re-used and shared to generate narrative stories for a wide array of users. For example, an ontology320can be built that supports generation of narrative stories about the performance of retail businesses. This ontology can be re-used and shared with multiple users (e.g., users who may have a need to generate performance reports for different retail businesses). Accordingly, as ontologies320are created for different domains, the inventors envision that technical value exists in maintaining a library of ontologies320that can be selectively used, re-used, and shared by multiple parties across several domains to support robust narrative story generation in accordance with user-defined communication goals.

Example Narrative Generation Architecture Using Composed Communication Goal Statements:

FIG. 5depicts a narrative generation platform in accordance with an example embodiment. An example embodiment of the narrative generation platform can include two artificial intelligence (AI) components. A first AI component502can be configured to determine the content that should be expressed in a narrative story based on a communication goal statement (which can be referred to as “what to say” AI502). A second AI component504can be configured to perform natural language generation (NLG) on the output of the first AI component502to produce the narrative story that satisfies the communication goal statement (where the AI component504can be referred to as “how to say it” AI504).

The platform can also include a front end presentation layer570through which user inputs572are received to define the composed communication goal statement390. This presentation layer570can be configured to allow user composition of the communication goal statement390using natural language inputs. As mentioned herein, it can also employ structured menus and/or drag/drop features for selecting elements of a communication goal statement. Examples of various user interfaces that can be used by the presentation layer570are shown inFIGS. 22-293and further described in Appendix A. As can be seen from these sample UIs, the presentation layer570can also leverage the ontology320and source data540to facilitate its user interactions.

The “what to say” AI502can be comprised of computer-executable code resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as computer memory. The computer memory may be distributed across multiple memory devices. One or more processors execute the computer code in cooperation with the computer memory. AI502operates on a composed communication goal statement390and ontology320to generate a computed story outline528.

AI502includes a communication goal statement interpreter506, which is configured to process and interpret the communication goal statement390to select a set of narrative analytics that are to be used to analyze a data set about which the narrative story will be generated. The computer memory may include a library508of narrative analytics510(e.g.,5101,5102,5103, . . . ). The narrative analytics510may take the form of parameterized computer code that performs analytical operations on the data set in order to facilitate a determination as to what content should be included in the narrative story so that the communication goal(s) corresponding to the communication goal statement390are satisfied. Examples of narrative analytics510can be the computational logic392,394, and396shown inFIG. 3D.

AI502can maintain a mapping that associates the various operators that may be present in communication goal statements (e.g., “Present”, “Compare”, etc.) to a sequence or set of narrative analytics that are to be performed on data in order to support the data analysis needed by the platform to generate narrative stories that satisfy the communication goal statement390. Thus, the “Compare” operator can be associated with a set of narrative analytics that do simple difference (a−b), absolute difference (abs(a−b)), or percent difference ((b−a)/b). In an example embodiment, the mapping can also be based on the parameters that are included in the communication goal statement390. The mapping can take the form of a data structure (such as a table) that associates operators (and possibly also parameters) with sets of narrative analytics510from library508. Interpreter506can then read and interpret the communication goal statement390to identify the operator included in the communication goal statement, access the mapping data structure to map the identified operator to its corresponding set of narrative analytics510, and select the mapped narrative analytics. These selected narrative analytics512in turn drive downstream operations in AI502.

AI502can also include computer code516that is configured to determine the data requirements that are needed by system to generate a narrative story in view of the selected narrative analytics512and the parameters that are included in the communication goal statement390. This code516can walk through the selected narrative analytics512, the communication goal statement390, and ontology320to identify any parameters and data values that are needed during execution of the selected narrative analytics512. For example, the communication goal statement390may include parameters that recite a characterization of an entity. Computer code390can identify this characterization in the communication goal statement and access the ontology320to identify the data needed to evaluate the characterization of the subject entity such as the attribute(s)330and value(s)368needed for the subject characterization332in ontology320. The ontology320can then be further parsed to determine the data requirements for the subject attribute(s) needed by the subject characterization332, and so on until all data requirements for the communication goal statement390and selected narrative analytics512are determined. This ultimately yields a set of data requirements518that define the data needed by AI502in order to support the data analysis used to determine the content to be expressed in the narrative story. In situations where the input to AI502comprises multiple communication goal statements390in a story outline, code516can be configured to walk through the outline to assemble a list of the data requirements for all of the communication goal statements in the outline.

Once the data requirements518have been determined, the AI502can execute computer code522that maps those data requirements522to source data540. (This can be done either in a “batch” model wherein all the data requirements are determined first, and the code to map those to source data is executed; or it can be done individually for each data requirement either as needed or as the other information necessary to make the determination becomes available.) The source data540serves as the data set from which the narrative story will be generated. Source data540can take the form of data in a database, data in spreadsheet files, or other structured data accessible to AI502. Computer code522can use a data structure520(such as a table) that associates parameters from the data requirements to parameters in the source data to perform this mapping. For example, consider a scenario where the communication goal statement is “Present the Sales of the Salesperson”. The data requirements518for this communication goal statement may include a parameter that corresponds to the “sales” attribute of a salesperson. The source data540may include a data table where a column labeled as “Amount Sold ($)” identifies the sales amount for each salesperson in a company. The parameter mapping data structure520can associate the “Sales” parameter from the data requirements518to the “Amount Sold ($)” column in the source data540so that AI502accesses the proper data. This parameter mapping data structure520can be defined by an author when setting up the system, as discussed hereinafter. The output of computer code522can be a set of mapped source data524for use by the selected narrative analytics512.

Computer code522can also map data requirements to source data using story variable(s)542. For example, the communication goal statement390might be “Compare the Sales of Salesperson “John Smith” to the Benchmark of the Salesperson”. The mapped source data524can identify where in the source data the sales and benchmark for salespeople can be found. If the source data540includes sales data for multiple salespeople (e.g., rows in a data table correspond to different sales people while columns in the data table correspond to sales amounts and benchmarks for salespeople), the selection of a particular salesperson can be left as a story variable542such that the parameter mapping data structure520does not identify which specific row to use as the salesperson and instead identifies the salesperson data requirement as a story variable. When a user composes the communication goal statement such that “John Smith” is expressed in the statement where the salesperson parameter is located, the computer code522can use “John Smith” in the communication goal statement390as the story variable542that governs the selection of which row of source data540should be used. Similarly, the benchmark parameter might be expressed as a story variable542. For example, the source data540may not include a benchmark field, but the composed communication goal statement might express a number to be used as the benchmark. In such a situation, this number could be a story variable542used by the system.

FIGS. 41 and 220-232, described below with reference to Appendix A, depict example GUIs through which a user can map the determined data requirements for a story outline to source data and story variables. These GUIs can be configured to list each data requirement in association with a user input mechanism through which the user can identify where in the source data a data requirement can be found (and whether a data requirement is to be parameterized as a story variable). As explained in Appendix A with respect to an example embodiment, the source data can take a number of forms, such as tabular data and document-based data, and the data requirements GUIs can be configured to accommodate both types.FIGS. 233-250and their supporting description in Appendix A further describe how source data can be managed in an example embodiment of the system.

AI502can also include computer code526that executes the selected narrative analytics512using the mapped source data524(and potentially any story variable(s)542) to produce a computed story outline528. The narrative analytics512specifies at least four components: the input parameters (e.g., an entity to be ranked, a metric it is to be ranked by, and a group in which it is to be ranked); the code that will execute the narrative analytics (i.e., that will determine the rank of the entity in the group according to the metric); the output parameters (i.e., the rank of the entity); and a statement form containing the appropriate input and output parameters that will form the appropriate statement for inclusion in the computed outline (in this case, rank(entity, metric, group, rankvalue)). The communication goal statement390can be associated with a general story outline that provides the basic structure for the narrative story to be generated. However, this general story outline will not be populated with any specific data—only general identifications of parameters. Through execution of the selected narrative analytics by computer code526, this general story outline can be populated with specific data in the form of the computed story outline528. For example, continuing with an example from above where the communication goal statement390is “Compare the Sales of Salesperson “John Smith” to the Benchmark of the Salesperson”, the selected narrative analytics may include parameterized code that computes data indicative of the difference between John Smith's sales amount and the benchmark in both absolute terms (e.g., performing a subtraction between the sales amount and the benchmark) and as a percentage (e.g., dividing the subtracted difference by the benchmark and multiplying by 100). Code526executes these narrative analytics to compute data values for use in the story outline. These data values are then embedded as values for the parameters in the appropriate statement forms associated with the narrative analytics to produce statements for inclusion in the computed outline. The statement will be included in the computed outline as a new element of the section containing the communication goal for which it was computed, under the node representing that communication goal. Code526will progress through the execution of the selected narrative analytics using mapped source data524and story variable(s)542(if any) until all elements of the story outline have been populated with statements. Also associated with communication goals are characterizations that serve to express a characterization or editorialization of the facts reported in the statements in a manner that may have more narrative impact that just a reporting of the facts themselves. For example, rather than saying that an entity is ranked first, we might say that it is the best. (In another approach, these might be associated with sections rather than communication goals.) The characterizations associated with each communication goal are assessed with respect to the statements generated by the narrative analytics in response to that goal. This results in generating additional propositions or statements corresponding to those characterizations for inclusion in the computed outline in those cases when the conditions for those characterizations are met by the input statements. The characterizations are also linked to the statements which they characterize. The result of this process is a computed story outline528that serves to identify the content that is to be expressed in the narrative story.

The “how to say it” AI504can be comprised of computer-executable code resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as computer memory. The computer memory may be distributed across multiple memory devices. One or more processors execute the computer code in cooperation with the computer memory. AI504employs NLG logic530to generate a narrative story550from the computed story outline528and ontology320. As indicated above, objects in ontology320can be associated with expressions (e.g., expressions328,346,352,358, and362) that can be used by NLG530to facilitate decision-making regarding the appropriate manner of expressing the content in the computed story outline528. Thus, NLG530can access the ontology320when forming sentences from the computed story outline528for use in the narrative story550. Example embodiments of NLG530are discussed below with reference toFIGS. 6D and 8A-H.

Once again, by leveraging predefined sets of parameterized narrative analytics510, AI502is able to shield the low level program coding from users so that a user need only focus on composing communication goal statements390in a natural language in order to determine the content that is to be included in a narrative story. Further still, AI504also operates transparently to users so that a narrative story550can be generated from a composed communication goal statement390without requiring the user to directly write or edit program code.

Example Platform Operation:

FIG. 6Adepicts a high level view of an example embodiment of a platform in accordance with the design ofFIG. 5. The narrative generation can proceed through three basic stages: setup (an example of which is shown byFIG. 6B), analysis (an example of which is shown byFIG. 6C), and NLG (an example of which is shown byFIG. 6D). The operation of theFIG. 6Aembodiment can be described in the context of a simple example where the project has an outline with a single section and a single communication goal statement in that section. The communication goal statement can be “Present the sales of the salesperson”. In this example, “salesperson” is an entity type in the ontology and it has an attribute of “sales”. Also, the project has a single data view backed by a static file that contains the names and sales data for the salespeople.

During setup, the system loads the story configuration from a configuration store. The configuration store is a database where configurations are maintained in persistent form, managed, and versioned. The configuration for a story includes items representing the outline (sections, communication goals, and their components), the ontology (entity types, relationships, timeframe types), and data connectors (sources, data mappings). Once the configuration for the story is loaded into memory, the story outline is constructed, as shown inFIG. 6B. The story outline is a hierarchical organization of sections and communication goals (seeFIG. 2). At this time, along with constructing the story outline, the connectors to the data sources are initialized. These will be used as needed during the story generation process to access the necessary data required by the narrative analytics specified in the outline. Specifically how this is accomplished can depend on whether the data is passed in via an API, in a static file managed by the system, or via a connection to a database.

Once the setup phase is complete, the outline can be used to govern the generation of a story. This is accomplished by traversing the outline and executing the analytics associated with each communication goal statement; and the results serve to parameterize the associated statement forms of the communication goal in order to generate the facts of the story (seeFIG. 6C). These facts are then organized into the computed outline as described above.

When this generation process is invoked by a client, e.g., via an API request, the client provides certain values for parameters of the configuration. In this instance, for example, the story is about the sales of some particular salesperson. So the client may need to provide a unique identifier for the specific salesperson which can be interpreted via the mapping provided between parameters of the story outline and the data source to be used.

As shown byFIG. 7, the narrative analytics can access source/customer data through Entity and Entity Collection objects. These objects provide an interface based on the project ontology320and hide the source of the data from other components. These objects can use Entity Types, mappings from relevant Attributes of the Entity Types to data sources and specifiers (e.g., columns or column names in tables or databases, or keypaths in documents, etc.) as previously specified by the user during configuration, and data interfaces to access the actual relevant data. Some computations that comprise aspects of the narrative analytics, such as sorting and certain aggregations, can be handled by the data stores themselves (e.g., as database operations). The specific Entity objects provide methods to invoke these external operations, such as parameterizable database queries.

Continuing with the example, the single communication goal statement in this case, “Present the Sales of the Salesperson”, is made up of two base communication goal statements, composed together by embedding one inside the other. The top level statement is AttributeOfEntity(AttributeName, <Entity>), and its Entity parameter is satisfied by the embedded statement EntityById(Id). EntityById is resolved first. This is computed by retrieving the entity's ID as provided by the client when invoking the generation process, e.g., via an API request. EntityById creates an (internal) Entity object corresponding to the (external) ID and returns that Entity object as its result. This internal Entity object is a new Entity of the appropriate Entity Type as specified in the configuration and with appropriate attributes as determined by the entity data mapping, in this instance, since we are talking about a Salesperson, relevant attributes of the Salesperson in question such as his or her name, gender, sales, office—whatever in fact the configuration specifies be retrieved or computed. This result is in the form of the embedded communication goal statement, namely, EntityById(Id, <Entity>); it is then, in turn, passed into the top-level AttributeOfEntity statement along with the attribute name “sales”. The AttributeOfEntity analytic comprises code that takes the entity object and returns the corresponding value for that attribute of the entity as its result. The analytic looks up where to get the attribute data based on the entity data mappings provided during configuration, and retrieves the specific relevant attribute data from the client's data. The results for both of these are wrapped up in statement forms to produce statements as described above, and these statements are then added to the Computed Outline. In this specific case, as mentioned above, the statements are composed by one being embedded inside the other. The resulting compound statement added to the Computed Outline in this instance, fully parameterized, would look something as follows: AttributeOfEntity(‘Sales’, EntityByID(‘1234’, Salesperson1234), 15000).

FIG. 6Dshows a high level view of NLG being performed on a computed outline in order to generate a narrative story.FIGS. 8A-8Helaborate on this NLG process.

As shown byFIG. 8A, the NLG process starts with the Computed Outline. Each phase of the NLG process walks through the Computed Outline and processes each computed statement form individually. Some stages look across multiple statements at once (such as Model Muting (seeFIG. 8B) and Entity Referencing (seeFIG. 8F), described below.

The first phase, Model Generation, converts the compound statements in the computed outline into NLGModel graphs, as shown byFIG. 8A. Model graphs are similar to the compound statement structures, but are structured specifically for constructing sentences. For example, dependencies between nodes in the model graph will represent where dependent clauses should be placed on the sentence. An NLGModel provides a mechanism for generating sentences, phrases, and words needed to produce a story. There is model type for each concept that needs to be expressed from authoring mapping to each individual type of statement included in the computed outline. Examples include attributes, values, units, entities, relationships, rankings, filters, and comparisons. The models produced from the statements in the computed outline are organized into a graph based on how the ideas are related to each other. The shape of the graph provides a method for the NLG system to handle phrase muting, clause placement, anaphora, and connectives.

For example, the statement for AttributeOfEntity(‘Sales’, EntityByID(‘1234’, Salesperson1234), 15000) is converted into a model graph where the root is an EntityModel representing the Salesperson1234. The EntityModel has a dependent AttributeModel representing the Sales attribute since Sales is an attribute of that entity. The attribute Sales has a value of 15000 so a ValueModel representing 15000 is added as a dependent to the AttributeModel. Finally, the ValueModel has a UnitModel representing the type of value. In this case it is ‘dollars’. This model graph now provides the structure needed for the NLG system to construct a sentence for this statement. This was a simple example. The more complicated the statement, the more complicated the model graph will be. The system can also combine multiple statements into a single big model graph assuming they are related somehow, for example each of them are about the same entity. This then allows the system to then express multiple sets of ideas in a single sentence. If the model graph is too big, i.e. there are too many ideas to express in one sentence, it is split up into reasonably sized subgraphs that make up individual sentences.

After a model graph has been generated for each node, adjacent nodes are compared with each other to mute redundant facts. This can be referred to as Model Muting, as shown byFIG. 8B. Model Muting reduces redundant information from being expressed across sentences. Since the working example has only a single goal, there is only one node involved, and there will be nothing to mute in this phase with respect to the example. Say though, the goal also had a timeframe associated with it so instead it was “Present the sales in the month of the Sales Person” and an adjacent goal was “Present the sales in the month of the top ranking Sales Person by sales”. Without muting these goals would express as, “In August of 1993, Joe had sales of $15000. In August of 1993, Bob, the best seller, had sales of $430000”. The timeframe “In August of 1993” is redundant between these two sentences and will be dropped in the second sentence resulting in language of “In August of 1993, Joe had sales of $15000. Bob, the best seller, had sales of $430000”.

Next, sentences are generated based on each model graph during Sentence Generation as shown byFIG. 8C. The base of the sentence is generated first. It is the core subject/verb/object constituents of a sentence. Initially this will not have expressed all of the models in the graph (those will be added later as clauses). Not all models in the graph can generate base sentences, but multiple models can add to the set of possible sentences for a node. Sentences almost always come from preferences set by the user in the ontology320through things like attribute expressions, rank expressions, and/or relationship expressions. The sentences generated in this phase will be built upon, and later one of these sentences will be picked to be used in the narrative story.

Continuing with the working example, only the Attribute model can generate sentences for this model graph. It will generate them based on the attribute expressions configured by the user for “sales”. Let's suppose the user configured three options: “the salesperson had sales of $100”, “the salesperson sells $100”, and “the salesperson's sales are $100”. The Attribute model would generate three sentences, one for each of these options.

After the base sentences have been generated, the models not expressed in that base sentence are then be expressed as clauses on the sentence. This can be referred to as Clause Placement (seeFIG. 8D). Depending on where the unexpressed models are in the model graph, they will be placed as phrases on the sentence attached to the noun representing the model in the graph they are dependents of. This is done for each sentence from the list of sentences produced by the sentence generation phase. Clauses are generated similarly to how sentences were generated in the previous phase based on the user's expression preferences within the ontology.

In our example, there are no extra models that need to be added as clauses. However, to illustrate how the clause placement phase would work, let's say that the goal was actually “Present the sales of the salesperson working in the city.” A sentence from the Relationship model would be “Sally sells in Chicago.” This leaves the Attribute/Value/Unit models still needing to be expressed. The Attribute model can produce clauses for these. Based on the attribute expression configuration, it would generate clauses of “who has sales of $1000” or “who has sold $1000”. These would be added as a relative clause to “Sally” giving a complete sentence of “Sally, who has sales of $1000, sells in Chicago” (as one of the sentences among the several available permutations).

The next phase is Sentence Selection (seeFIG. 8E). At this point, complete sentences have been built, and the system needs to pick one for use in the narrative story. The Sentence Selection phase can take into consideration several factors when selecting sentences. For example, the selected sentence should (1) correctly convey the intent of the goal, (2) only express what is necessary, and (3) prefer patterns that generally sound better. With these criteria, the system will likely be still left with more than one valid sentence. At this point, the system can choose from the remaining sentences that provide the best variability of expression. In an example embodiment, with all factors being equal, the system can randomly select a sentence from among the qualifying sentences. In our example, based on the goal, all three sentences are equally valid, so the system will randomly choose one to include in the final story. At the conclusion of the Sentence Selection phase, a sentence will have been selected for each node in the outline.

At this point, the system seeks to improve fluidity by looking across the nodes in the outline. At this stage, referred to as Entity Referencing (seeFIG. 8F), nodes in the same section that repeat entities will be replaced with pronouns. The pronoun used will depend on the type of entity being replaced. If the base entity type is a Person and gender is available, the system will use gendered pronouns (e.g., he/she), otherwise it will use a non-gendered pronoun (e.g., they).

In our example, since there is only a single goal there would be no pronoun replacement. If instead there were two adjacent goals in the same section (e.g., “Present the sales of the salesperson” and “Present the title of the salesperson”, a pronoun would be used for the second sentence, resulting in the language “Sally had sales of $10000. She had the title VP of Sales.”

At this point, the sentences have been finalized. The next thing to do is ensure that the sentences are grammatically correct. This phase can be referred to as Realization (seeFIG. 8G). To perform realization, the system adds articles (definite—“the”—and indefinite—“a/an”), conjugates verbs, and adds punctuation. After realization, the system has the final language for use in the story.

Wrapping up the example, the realized sentence ends up being “Sally has sales of $10,000.” To get to that, the verb “has” was conjugated into present tense because the lack of a timeframe. The system can be configured to assume the timeframe is “now” in cases where no timeframe is specified in the communication goal statement. Also, the Realization phase inspects “sales” and determines that it was plural so an indefinite article was not needed. Finally, “Sally” is determined to be a name proper noun, which accordingly means that a definite article is not needed before “Sally”.

As a last step, which can be referred to as Document Generation (seeFIG. 8H), the system puts the realized language into a formatted document. Examples of suitable formats can include HTML, Microsoft Word documents, and JSON. The system returns the formatted document to the client.

FIGS. 9-13depict example process flows that show how the ontology320can be built in response to user input, including user input during the process of composing communication goal statements. Appendix A included herewith is a user guide for an example narrative generation platform, where the user guide shows examples of GUI screens that demonstrate how the ontology320can be built in response to user input.

FIG. 9depicts an example process flow for parameterizing a value in a communication goal statement, which relates to the attribute objects in the ontology320. It should be understood that the order of many of the steps in this process flow could be changed if desired by a practitioner. At step900, the processor determines in response to user input whether a new attribute should be created for the value to be parameterized or whether an existing attribute should be used. Appendix A depicts example GUI screens that can assist the user as part of this process (see, e.g.,FIG. 159et seq.). If an existing attribute is to be used, the system can access the ontology320to provide the user with a list of attributes available for selection by the user. The user can select an existing attribute from this list (step918). The system can also use string matching technology to match any characters entered by a user through the GUI to existing attributes in the ontology320. Upon detecting a match or partial match, the system can then suggest an existing attribute for selection.

If a new attribute is to be created for the value, the process flow proceeds to step902. At step902, the process flow makes a decision as to whether the new attribute should be a direct attribute or a computed value attribute.

If a direct attribute is to be created, the process flow proceeds to step904. At step904, the processor defines a label for the attribute in response to user input. This label can serve as the name for the attribute (e.g., “sales”—seeFIG. 54). Next, at step906, the processor defines a base type for the attribute in response to use input. Examples of base types for attributes can include currency, date, decimal, integer, percentage, and string.FIG. 55shows an example GUI screen through which a user can set the type for the subject attribute.

Next, at step908, the processor defines the expression(s) that are to be associated with the subject attribute. Through specification of one or more expressions for the subject attribute, the user can provide the system with a number of options for expressing the attribute in words when rendering a narrative story.

At step910, the processor selects the entity type for the subject attribute in response to user input.FIGS. 56-61show example GUI screens for step910. Step910is further elaborated upon with reference toFIG. 11discussed below.

If step902results in a determination that a computed value attribute is to be created, the process flow proceeds to step912from step902. At step912, the system presents the user with a choice of making the computed value attribute a function or an aggregation (step912). If a function is selected at step912, the process flow proceeds to step914where the processor sets the computed value attribute according to the user-selected function. If an aggregation is selected at step912, the process flow proceeds to step916where the processor sets the computed value attribute according to the user-selected aggregation. Examples of available aggregations can include count, max, mean, median, min, range, and total. These aggregations can be associated with corresponding parameterized computational logic (seeFIG. 3D) that is programmed to compute the desired aggregation. An example of an available function is a contribution function, which evaluates how much a component contributes to an aggregate. However, it should be understood that other functions can be available through the system. For example, additional functions could include a multiplication, a division, a subtraction, standard deviation, a first derivative, and a second derivative.FIGS. 166-167, described in greater detail below in Appendix A, illustrate some example GUI screens through which a user can define computed value attributes.

After the attribute has been defined via the process flow ofFIG. 9, the ontology320can be updated by adding the details for attribute330to ontology320.

It should be understood that additional operations can be included in the attribute definition process flow if desired by a practitioner. For example, if a practitioner wishes to attach timeframe details to attributes, a timeframe definition process flow can be added to theFIG. 9process flow.

FIG. 10depicts an example process flow for parameterizing a characterization object in a communication goal statement and ontology. Characterizations332are editorial judgments based on defined qualifications that determine the language used when certain conditions are met. Through a characterization332, a user is able to associate descriptive language with an entity type based on the nature of one or more attributes of that entity type. At step1000, the processor selects the entity type to be characterized in response to user input.FIG. 11provides an example process flow that elaborates on how the entity type can be defined.

At step1002, the system determines whether the user wants to create a new characterization or select an existing characterization. This step can be performed in a manner similarly to step900inFIG. 9, but for characterizations rather than attributes. If an existing characterization is desired, the system can make a selection of an existing characterization in response to user input at step1012. However, if a new characterization is desired, the process flow proceeds to step1004.

At step1004, the user selects the attribute(s) for use in the characterization. If the attribute needs to be defined, the process flow ofFIG. 9can be followed. For example, if the characterization332is meant to characterize the performance of a salesperson in terms of sales by the salesperson, step1004can result in the user selecting the attribute “sales” as the attribute by which the characterization will be determined.

At step1006, the user sets the qualification(s) by which to evaluate the characterization. For example, these qualifications can be a series of thresholds by which the values of the sales attribute are judged (e.g., the characterization changes based on whether the sales amount are above or below a threshold of $10,000). Multiple thresholds can be defined for a characterization, which would then yield more than two potential outcomes of a characterization (e.g., three or more tiers of characterization outcomes). Also, the qualifications need not be defined in terms of fixed thresholds. The thresholds can also be flexibly defined in terms of direct attributes and/or computed value attributes (for example, a salesperson can be characterized as a satisfactory salesperson if the sales attribute for the subject salesperson has a value that exceeds the value of the benchmark attribute for the subject salesperson; as another example, a salesperson can be characterized as an above-average salesperson if the sales attribute for the subject salesperson has a value that exceeds the average value of the sales attributes for the all of the salespeople within a company). As part of defining the qualifications, step1006can also involve the user specifying the operators by which to judge qualifications. Examples of operators may include “greater than”, “less than”, “greater than or equal to”, “equals”, etc.

At step1008, the user sets the expression(s) for the subject characterization. These expressions can then be used by the NLG process when articulating the subject characterization in a narrative story. For example, in a characterization relating to the performance of a salesperson in terms of sales, expressions such as “star performer”, “outperformed”, “high performer” etc. can be used in situations where the sales exceeded the highest threshold, while expressions such as “laggard”, “poor performer”, “struggled”, etc. can be used in situations where the sales were below the lowest threshold.

FIGS. 72-75, 141-156, and 199-204depict example GUIs through which a user can provide inputs for the process flow ofFIG. 10. Upon the completion of theFIG. 10process flow, the system can update the ontology320to add the details for the defined characterization332. It should be understood that additional operations can be included in the characterization definition process flow if desired by a practitioner. For example, if a practitioner wishes to attach timeframe details to characterization, a timeframe definition process flow can be added to theFIG. 10process flow.

FIG. 11depicts an example process flow for parameterizing an entity type in a communication goal statement and ontology. Entity types are how the system knows what to talk about with respect to a communication goal statement. An entity type is a primary object in the ontology which has particular attributes (e.g., a department (entity type) has expenses (attribute). An entity is a specific instance of an entity type, with data-driven values for each attribute (e.g., John Smith is a specific instance of a salesperson entity type, and this entity has a specific data value for the sales attribute of a salesperson entity type). Ontology320may include more than one entity type.

At step1100, the processor decides, in response to user input, whether to create a new entity type or select an existing entity type. This step can be performed while a user is composing a communication goal statement. If step1100results in a determination that an existing entity type is to be used, the process flow can proceed to step1150where an existing entity type is selected.

If step1100results in a determination that a new entity type is to be created, the process flow proceeds to step1102. At step1102, the user provides a label for the entity type. This label can be used as the entity type's name (e.g., a “salesperson” entity type). Next, at step1104, the user sets a base type for the subject entity type. Examples of available base types to choose from can include person, place, thing, and event. However, it should be understood that more, fewer, and/or different base types can be used. The specified base type can be used by the AI logic to inform decision-making about the types of pronouns that can be used to express the subject entity type, among other expressive qualities for the entity type.

At step1106, the user sets one or more expressions in relation to the subject entity type. These expressions provide the NLG process with a variety of options for expressing the entity type in a story.

TheFIG. 11process flow can also include options for attaching a number of additional features to entity types.

For example, a relationship can be added to the subject entity type at steps1108-1116. At step1110, the user identifies the entity type to which the subject entity type is to be related. If the relating entity type does not exist, the process flow ofFIG. 11can be recursively invoked to create the relating entity type. An example of a relating entity type might be a “company” entity type with respect to a subject entity type of “salesperson”. Steps1112-1116operate to define the nature of the relationship between the subject entity type and the relating entity type. At step1112, the process flow determines whether the user wants to create a new relationship or select an existing relationship. If create new is selected at step1112, the process flow proceeds to step1114where the user provides an expression for the new relationship (e.g., the relating expression can be “employed by” to relate the subject entity type of “salesperson” to the relating entity type of “company” (thus, the “salesperson” is “employed by” the “company”). Multiple expressions may be provided at step1114to provide variability during story rendering. For example, the expressions “works for”, “is a member of”, “belongs to” might be used as alternative expressions for the relationship between the “salesperson” entity type and the “company” entity type. If select existing is selected at step1112, the process flow proceeds to step1116where a user can be presents with a list of existing relationship expressions known to the system or within the ontology. The user can then select one or more of these expressions to define the nature of the relationship between the subject entity type and the relating entity type.

Another example of a feature that can be added to an entity type is a rank. Steps1120-1124describe how a rank can be attached to an entity type. The rank feature provides the AI with a mechanism for notionally identifying entities to be discussed in a narrative story even if the user does not know in advance which specific entities are to be discussed. For example, a user may want the system to generate a story about the3top ranked salespeople in terms of sales, but does not know a priori who these salespeople are. The rank feature attached to the salesperson entity type allows for a user to easily compose a communication goal statement that can be used by the AI to generate an appropriate narrative story. At step1122, the user sets the attribute by which the subject entity type is to be ranked. For example, if salespeople are to be ranked by sales, the user can specify the sales attribute at step1122. TheFIG. 9process flow can be followed to specify the subject attribute for ranking. At step1124, the user sets a rank slice for the rank feature. The rank slice defines a depth for the rank feature with respect to the subject entity type. If the rank slice is set to 1, only the top ranked entity would be applicable. If the rank slice is set to n, the n highest rank entities would be returned.

Another example of a feature that can be added to an entity type is a qualification. Steps1130-1134describe how a qualification can be attached to an entity type. Similarly to the rank feature, the qualification feature provides the AI with a mechanism for notionally identifying entities to be discussed in a narrative story even if the user does not know in advance which specific entities are to be discussed. For example, a user may want the system to generate a story about the salespeople who have 10 years of more of experience or who have been characterized as star performers in terms of sales, but does not know a priori who these salespeople are. The qualification feature attached to the salesperson entity type allows for a user to easily compose a communication goal statement that can be used by the AI to generate an appropriate narrative story. At step1132, the user sets the attribute330and/or characterization332that will be used to filter/qualify the subject entity type. For example, if the user wants the story to focus on salespeople with at least 10 years of experience, the user can specify a “years worked” or “start date” attribute at step1132. TheFIG. 9process flow can be followed to specify the subject attribute for qualification. If a user wants to specify a characterization at step1132, theFIG. 10process flow can be followed in order to specify a characterization of qualification. At step1134, the user defines condition(s) for the qualification. For example, if a “years worked” attribute is set as the qualification and the user wants to qualify salespeople based on 10 years of experience, the user can define the condition on the attribute as 10 years.

FIGS. 116-156depict example GUIs through which a user can provide inputs for the process flow ofFIG. 11. Upon the completion of theFIG. 11process flow, the system can update the ontology320to add the details for the defined entity type322. It should be understood that additional operations can be included in the entity type definition process flow if desired by a practitioner. For example, if a practitioner wishes to attach timeframe details to characterization, a timeframe definition process flow can be added to theFIG. 11process flow. As another example, theFIG. 11process flow can include branching options for adding an attribute to an entity type directly from theFIG. 11process flow if desired. Similarly, theFIG. 11process flow can also include branching options for adding a characterization to an entity type directly from theFIG. 11process flow if desired.

FIG. 12depicts an example process flow for parameterizing a timeframe in a communication goal statement and ontology. A timeframe is a unit of time used as a parameter to constrain the values included in the expression of a communication goal statement or narrative story. Ontology320may include more than one timeframe.

At step1200, the processor decides, in response to user input, whether to create a new timeframe or select an existing timeframe. This step can be performed while a user is composing a communication goal statement. If step1200results in a determination that an existing timeframe is to be used, the process flow can proceed to step1212where an existing timeframe is selected.

If step1200results in a determination that a new timeframe is to be created, the process flow proceeds to step1202. At step1202, the system determines whether the user wants to create a new timeframe type or select from among existing timeframe types. Examples of timeframe types include years, months, days, hours, etc.

If a new timeframe type is desired, the process flow proceeds to step1204where the user defines the timeframe type and step1206where the user sets the expression(s) for the timeframe type. The expression(s) provide the NLG process with a variety of options for expressing the timeframe in a story.

If an existing timeframe type is desired, the process flow proceeds to step1208where the user makes a selection from among existing timeframe types and step1210where the user defines a designation for the selected timeframe type. Through this designation, the user can define qualifications via a “when” statement or the like that defines time-based conditions (e.g., “the month of the year when the sales of the store were highest”).

FIGS. 62-64, 87-88, 96, 102, 162-165, 187, and 196-198depict example GUIs through which a user can provide inputs for the process flow ofFIG. 12. Upon the completion of theFIG. 12process flow, the system can update the ontology320to add the details for the defined timeframe344.

FIG. 13depicts an example process flow for parameterizing a timeframe interval for use with a timeframe. The timeframe interval defines how the system should consider intervals of time within a timeframe (e.g., days of the month, weeks of the month, months of the year, quarters of the year, hours of the day, etc.). At step1300, the processor decides, in response to user input, whether to create a new timeframe interval or select an existing timeframe interval. If step1300results in a determination that an existing timeframe interval is to be used, the process flow can proceed to step1306where an existing timeframe interval is selected. If step1300results in a determination that a new timeframe interval is to be created, the process flow proceeds to step1302. At step1302, the user defines the timeframe interval, and at step1204the user sets one or more expression(s) for the timeframe interval. The expression(s) provide the NLG process with a variety of options for expressing the timeframe interval in a story. Upon the completion of theFIG. 13process flow, the system can update the ontology320to add the details for the defined timeframe interval.

As explained above, the ontology320defined via the process flows ofFIGS. 9-13can be leveraged by the AI in coordination with the composed communication goal statements to not only determine the content to be expressed in the narrative story but also to determine how that content should be expressed in the narrative story.

Subgoals within Communication Goal Statements:

The communication goal statements may be interpreted by the system to include a plurality of subgoals or related goals. Thus, in order for a narrative story to satisfy the communication goal associated with a communication goal statement, it may be desirable to the narrative story to first satisfy one or more subgoals related to the communication goal of the communication goal statement. An example of this is shown byFIGS. 14A-D. As shown byFIG. 14A, a communication goal statement1400may be associated with a parent or base communication goal. The interpreter506may be configured to interpret communication goal statement1400as being comprised of two or more communication goal statements1402and1404, where these communication goal statements1402and1404are associated with subgoals relating to the parent/base goal. When the AI502seeks to determine the content for inclusion in the story, the interpreter506will process the communication goal statements1402and1404when generating the computed outline.

FIG. 14Bshows an example of this. In this example, the base communication goal statement corresponding to the parent/base goal is “Compare Value 1 to Value 2” (see base communication goal statement406). This base communication goal statement406can be comprised of a series of three base communication goal statements, each relating to subgoals of the parent/base goal. In this example, these three base communication goal statements are: (1) “Present Value 1”4021, (2) “Present Value 2”4022, and (3) “Characterize the Difference Between Value 1 and Value 2”404. Thus, for the narrative story to accomplish the overall parent/base goal of comparing Value 1 to Value 2, it will be helpful for the narrative story to first present Values 1 and 2 and then provide a characterization of the difference between Values 1 and 2.

During the composition process, a user may parameterize the base communication goal statement406ofFIG. 14Bas shown byFIG. 14C. As shown byFIG. 14C, the parameterized communication goal statement406bcan read “Compare the Sales of the Salesperson during the Timeframe to the Benchmark of the Salesperson”, where Value 1 is the “Sales of the Salesperson during the Timeframe” and Value 2 is the “Benchmark of the Salesperson”. The interpreter506can be configured to interpret parameterized communication goal statement406bfor the purposes of story generation as the following three parameterized communication goal statements: (1) “Present the Sales of the Salesperson during the Timeframe”4021b, (2) “Present the Benchmark of the Salesperson”4022b, and (3) “Characterize the Difference Between the Sales of the Salesperson during the Timeframe and the Benchmark of the Salesperson”404b. The system can then interact with ontology320to generate a narrative story as shown byFIG. 14Dfrom these three parameterized communication goal statements. As can be seen byFIG. 14D, the NLG process created the first sentence of the narrative story in a compound form to satisfy the subgoals associated with the first two parameterized communication goal statements4021band4022b. The final sentence of the narrative story satisfies the subgoal associated with the third parameterized communication goal statement404b. Overall, the narrative story satisfies the parent/base goal associated with parameterized communication goal statement406b.

During the process of composing communication goal statements for use in the narrative generation process, the system can provide GUI screens to a user that allows the user to expand a communication goal statement to show communication goal statements associated with subgoals. Furthermore, the GUI can be configured to respond to user input to selectively opt in and opt out of which subgoals are to be included in the narrative generation process for a section of the story outline. Thus, if a user wants the story to include a headline or a title that is drawn from the “Compare” communication goal statement, a user can use a GUI to expand the “Compare” communication goal statement into statements for its constituent subgoals. For the headline/title, a user can choose to selectively opt out of the first two “Present” statements but retain the “Characterize” statement so that the headline/title is focused on a desired main point. Then, in the body of the narrative story, the user can selectively retain all of the constituent subgoals for the “Compare” statement so that the body of the narrative story provides the context for the comparison.FIGS. 70-71 and 210depict example GUIs through which a user can expand a communication goal statement to view its related subgoals and selectively choose which of the subgoals will be used during the narrative generation process.

Example Embodiments for a Conditional Outcome Framework to Determine Narrative Content:

In another example embodiment, the system can employ a conditional outcome framework to support narrative generation. For example, AI502can employ a conditional outcome framework to determine content for inclusion in a narrative.FIG. 15Aillustrates a simplified example where a conditional outcome data structure1502is linked with one or more idea data structures1504, where each idea data structure1504represents an idea that is to be expressed in a narrative. The conditional outcome structure1502can comprise (1) a name corresponding to the conditional outcome, (2) one or more conditions that define when the conditional outcome is defined as true, and (3) one or more links to one or more content or idea structures1502/1504. Thus, the conditional outcome data structure provides a mechanism for analyzing data to intelligently determine what ideas should be expressed in a narrative about that data. This can serve as a powerful building block for constructing the AI502in a manner so that the content expressed in a narrative will intelligently respond to the underlying data being considered.

FIG. 15Bdepicts an example that shows how the conditional outcome framework can be used in combination with a communication goal statement to intelligently adapt narratives to their underlying data in a manner that satisfies a desired communication goal. InFIG. 15B, narrative analytics510employ a conditional outcome framework1500. As explained in connection withFIG. 5, the narrative analytics510can be associated with a communication goal statement390. Thus, as the system processes a communication goal statement390, an appropriate set of narrative analytics510tailored toward satisfying that communication goal statement can be selected. The conditional outcome framework1500can include one or more outcome data structures1502linked with one or more idea data structure1504as discussed above in connection withFIG. 15A. Furthermore, any of the outcome data structures1502and/or idea data structures1504can be associated with supporting analytics1506. The supporting analytics provide logic that can be used by the system to compute information used for navigating the conditional outcome framework1500and identifying ideas during execution at526(seeFIG. 5).

It should be understood that the outcome data structures1502can be tied together in numerous arrangements to define branching logic for the conditional outcome framework1500. For example, there can be multiple layers of outcome data structures1502(each with associated conditions) to provide branching operations at multiple levels. Such branching structures allow for the conditional outcome framework1500to accommodate highly complex and intelligent decision-making as to what ideas should be expressed in a narrative in view of the nature of the data under consideration. Moreover, the outcome data structures1502, idea data structures1504, and supporting analytics1506can be parameterized to allow their re-use in a wide variety of contexts.

It should also be understood that the same idea data structure1504might be linked to multiple different outcome data structures1502. Furthermore, a given outcome data structure1502might be linked to multiple idea data structures1504. Examples of such arrangements are discussed below with reference toFIG. 16et seq.

Example Embodiments for “Analyze” Communication Goal Statements:

As mentioned above, an operator such as “Analyze” can be used to identify a communication goal statement corresponding to an analysis communication goal. An example of a base communication goal statement for an analysis communication goal that could be supported by the system is “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute”, where “Entity Group” serves as a parameter for a group of entities in the ontology320and “Attribute” serves as a parameter for an attribute of the specified entity group in the ontology320. Such a base communication goal statement could be parameterized into a communication goal statement as “Analyze the Salespeople by Sales”, where the Entity Group is specified as “Salespeople” (which can be a group of entities in the ontology320that have the entity type of “Salesperson”), and where the Attribute is specified as “Sales” (which can be an attribute of a “Salesperson” in the ontology320). However, it should be understood that such a base communication goal statement could be parameterized in any of a number of different ways. Further still, it should be understood that different base communication goal statements could be used to satisfy other analysis-related communication goals, some examples of which are discussed below.

The system can link a base communication goal statement of “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute” with narrative analytics510that are linked to a story structure that aims to provide the reader with an understanding of the distribution of a particular value across a group of entities. Accomplishing this may involve expressing a variety of quantitative ideas (the number of entities in the group, the average value within a group, the median value within a group, the entities with the highest and lowest values, etc.) and more qualitative ideas (the values are distributed normally, the values are distributed exponentially, the values demonstrate a “long-tail” distribution, one entity in particular had a much higher value than the other entities, etc.). Accordingly, if desired by a practitioner, the system can directly map such a communication goal statement to parameterized narrative analytics and a parameterized story configuration that will express these concepts. However, the use of a conditional outcome framework1500by the relevant narrative analytics can provide additional flexibility where the resulting narrative story structure will adapt as a function of not only the specified communication goal but also as a function of the underlying data.

FIG. 16discloses an example embodiment for a conditional outcome framework that can be used by the narrative analytics510associated with a communication goal statement390for “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute”. In this example, the conditional outcome framework can employ multiple levels or layers of outcomes1502. For example, a first layer of outcomes1502can correspond to different conditional outcomes that characterize the size of the group specified in the communication goal statement390. The second layer of outcomes1502can correspond to different conditional outcomes that characterize the distribution of group members within the group based on the attribute specified by the communication goal statement390. The first layer conditional outcomes1502can include a “tiny group” outcome1502, a “decent sized group” outcome1502, and a “large group” outcome1502. Each of these different conditional outcomes1502can be tied to the conditions that are evaluated by the system to assess whether that conditional outcome1502fits the underlying data.

To drive the assessments regarding group size, the supporting analytics1506for the conditional outcome framework can include group size characterization analytics1600for the various group size outcomes1502. For example, the “tiny group” outcome1502can be associated with parameterized logic that determines whether the number of members of the group specified by the communication goal statement390is less than or equal to 1 (it should be understood that other thresholds could be used to define the boundary conditions for a “tiny group”). If so, the “tiny group” outcome1502would evaluate as true. As another example, the “decent sized group” outcome1502can be associated with parameterized logic that determines whether the number of members of the group specified by the communication goal statement390is between 2 and 50 (it should be understood that other thresholds could be used to define the boundary conditions for a “decent sized group”). If so, the “decent sized group” outcome1502would evaluate as true. As another example, the “large group” outcome1502can be associated with parameterized logic that determines whether the number of members of the group specified by the communication goal statement390exceeds 50 (it should be understood that other thresholds could be used to define the boundary conditions for a “large group”). If so, the “large group” outcome1502would evaluate as true.

To drive the assessments regarding distribution within the group, the supporting analytics1506for the conditional outcome framework can include group distribution characterization analytics1602for the various group distribution outcomes1502. In this example, the system seeks to characterize (1) a “tiny group” as being an empty group (see the “empty” outcome1502) or a single member group (see the “just one” outcome1502), (2) a “decent sized group” as being a typical distribution (see “typical distribution” outcome1502), a distribution that is clumpy at the top (see “clump at top” outcome1502), or a flat distribution (see the “flat distribution” outcome1502), and (3) a “large group” as being a normal distribution (see “normal distribution” outcome1502) or a long-tail distribution (see the “long-tail distribution” outcome1502). Each of these second level outcomes1502can be associated with parameterized analytics1602that specify the computations used for characterizing the nature of the distributions within the group. For example, the “clump at top” outcome1502can be associated with parameterized analytics1602that are configured to sort entities by a particular value, group entities with similar values, and then determine if the highest ranked entities constitute a subgroup of similar values. Any thresholds or parameters used in determining such subgroups may be built into the system, specified directly by users, or tuned automatically by the system. As another example, the “long-tail distribution” outcome1502can be associated with parameterized analytics1602that are configured to perform distribution analysis and then determine if a significant proportion of the entities contributed values well below the mean contribution. Again, any thresholds or parameters used could be built into the system, specified directly by users, or tuned automatically by the system.

InFIG. 16, each second layer/level outcome1502is linked to one or more idea data structures1504. Thus, the resolution of which ideas should be expressed in a given narrative that is generated to satisfy the communication goal statement390will depend on which outcomes1502were deemed true in view of the underlying data. The relationships between ideas for expression in a narrative to the nature of the underlying data in this example can be seen in the table below:

Outcome ofCharacterizing theIdeas to be Expressed in the Narrative AboutUnderlying Datathe Underlying DataTiny Group (EmptyNarrative should express the following idea:Set)A count of the group membersTiny Group (SingleNarrative should express the following idea:Member)A count of the group membersDecent Sized GroupNarrative should express the following ideas:(Typical Distribution)A count of the group membersThe total of the attribute values for the groupThe mean of the attribute values for the groupThe names and values of the top N groupmembers as ranked according to the groupmembers' associated attribute values.Decent Sized GroupNarrative should express the following ideas:(Clump at TopA count of the group membersDistribution)The total of the attribute values for the groupThe mean of the attribute values for the groupA discussion of the clumpy nature of thedistribution of members within the group withrespect to the attribute values.The names and values of the group members inthe top clump (as ranked according to the groupmembers' associated attribute values).Decent Sized GroupNarrative should express the following ideas:(Flat Distribution)A count of the group membersThe total of the attribute values for the groupThe mean of the attribute values for the groupA discussion of the flat nature of the distributionof members within the group with respect to theattribute values.Large Group (NormalNarrative should express the following ideas:Distribution)A count of the group membersThe mean of the attribute values for the groupThe names and values of the group members inthe top n percentile (as ranked according to thegroup members' associated attribute values).Large Group (LongNarrative should express the following ideas:Tail Distribution)A count of the group membersThe total of the attribute values for the groupA discussion of the long tail nature of thedistribution of members within the group withrespect to the attribute values.The names and values of the group members inthe top n percentile (as ranked according to thegroup members' associated attribute values).
Any ideas1504that are resolved based on the conditional outcome framework could then be inserted into the computed story outline528for use by AI504(together with their associated specifications in view of the underlying data) when rendering the desired narrative.

To the extent that any of the ideas1504need additional computed values in order to be expressed (where such values were not previously computed by analytics1600or1602), the supporting analytics1506can further include idea support analytics1604. For example, if the analytics1600and1602do not compute a mean value for the attribute values within the group, the idea support analytics1604can include parameterized logic that computes such a mean value for the underlying data.

Thus, it can be seen that the example conditional outcome framework for a communication goal statement can define a hierarchical relationship among linked outcomes and ideas together with associated supporting analytics to drive a determination as to which ideas should be expressed in a narrative about a data set, where the selection of ideas for expression in the narrative can vary as a function of the nature of the data set.

In example embodiments, the conditional outcome framework can be designed so that it does not need any input or configuration from a user other than what is used to compose the communication goal statement390(e.g., for the “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute” communication goal statement, the system would only need to know the specified entity group and the specified attribute). However, for other example embodiments, a practitioner might want to expose some of the parameters of the conditional outcome framework to users to allow further configurations or adjustments of the conditional outcome framework.

For example, a practitioner might want to implement the thresholds used within the conditional outcome framework as user-defined values. In the context ofFIG. 16, this could involve exposing the thresholds used for characterizing the size of the group to users so that a user can adjust the group size boundaries in a desired manner (e.g., in some contexts, a large group might have a minimum of 100 members, while in other contexts a large group might have a minimum of 1000 members). Similarly, the values for “n” used by the conditional outcome framework ofFIG. 16(e.g., the top “n” group members or the “nth percentile”) could be exposed to users to allow adjustments of the value used for n.

As another example, a practitioner might want to provide users with a capability to enable/disable the links between outcomes1502and ideas1504in a conditional outcome framework. For example, a GUI could present a user with lists of all of the outcomes1502and ideas1504that can be tied to a communication goal statement within a conditional outcome framework. The user could then individually select which ideas1504are to be linked to which outcomes1502. If desired by a practitioner, that conditional outcome framework can include default linkages that are presented in the GUI, and the user could make adjustments from there.

FIG. 17Ashows an example where a user has adjusted the conditional outcome framework to add a linkage1700between the “present the mean” idea1504and the “long tail distribution” outcome1502.FIG. 17Bshows an example where a user has removed the linkages1702that had previously existed between the “present the mean” idea1504and the “typical distribution”, “clump at top”, “flat distribution”, and “normal distribution” outcomes1502.

FIG. 18Ashows an example of a narrative1802that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework ofFIG. 16as applied to a communication goal statement1800of “Analyze the salespeople by bookings” with respect to a data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings). In this example, the narrative1802would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes1804were true (the salespeople group was “decently sized” and has a “typical distribution” of salespeople with respect to their bookings). As can be seen inFIG. 18A, the narrative text1802expresses the following ideas1806that are tied to the outcomes1804: (1) a count of the number of salespeople in the group, (2) the total amount of bookings for the salespeople in the group, (3) the mean value of bookings for the salespeople in the group, and (4) the names of the top 3 salespeople in the group (by the booking values) and the booking values for each of the top 3.

FIG. 18Bshows an example of a narrative1812that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework ofFIG. 16as applied to a communication goal statement1810of “Analyze the citizens by their salary” with respect to a data set that includes various citizens and their associated salaries. In this example, the narrative1812would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes1814were true (the citizens group was a “large group” and has a “normal distribution” of citizens with respect to their salaries). As can be seen inFIG. 18B, the narrative text1812expresses the following ideas1816that are tied to the outcomes1814: (1) a count of the number of citizens in the group, (2) the mean value of the salaries for the citizens in the group, and (3) the average salary of the top decile of citizens (with respect to their salaries).

FIGS. 18A and 18Bthus show how the same parameterized conditional outcome framework can be used to generate narrative stories across different content verticals (e.g., a story about salespeople and their bookings as inFIG. 18Aversus a story about citizens and their salaries as inFIG. 18B), which demonstrates how the parameterized conditional outcome framework provides an effective technical solution to the technical problem of horizontal scalability in the NLG arts.

It should be understood that the system can also be designed to support other “analyze” communication goals. For example, another base communication goal statement that can be used by the system can be “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute 1 and Attribute 2”. Such a multi-attribute analysis goal can trigger the performance of tradeoff analysis as between the two attributes (and the expression of ideas that result from this analysis). For example, this goal may trigger analysis that results in quantitative ideas like the average values for Attribute 1, the average values for Attribute 2, the entity with the largest value for Attribute 1, etc. Assuming the system has an understanding of the relationship between Attribute 1 and Attribute 2 (for instance that “Attribute 1 is a driver of Attribute 2” or that higher values for Attribute 1 represent a positive outcome while higher values for Attribute 2 represent a negative outcome), the goal may also result in more qualitative ideas that capture intuitive understandings like “Entities that score have high values for Attribute 1 also have high values for Attribute 2”, “The entity with the highest value for Attribute 1 actually has a really low value for Attribute 2”, or “There's no correlation between values for Attribute 1 and Attribute 2 in the group”. Accordingly, it should be understood that it may be desirable for the narratives produced in response to the “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute 1 and Attribute 2” communication goal statement to express different ideas than the narratives produced in response to the “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute” communication goal statement.

FIGS. 19Aand B disclose an example embodiment for a conditional outcome framework that can be used by the narrative analytics510associated with a communication goal statement390for “Analyze Entity Group by Attribute 1 and Attribute 2”. In these examples, the outcomes can be associated with group size characterization analytics1600and group distribution characterization analytics1602as discussed above in connection withFIG. 16. However, these outcomes can be linked to different ideas (and associated idea support analytics1604) as indicated byFIGS. 19Aand B. For example, the ideas ofFIGS. 19Aand B can include totals, means, and names/values for the top n with respect to each attribute of the communication goal statement390. The ideas can also express whether the distributions of salespeople with respect to the two attributes are similar to each other or different than each other.

FIG. 19Ashows an example of a narrative1902that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown by the upper portions ofFIG. 19A-Bas applied to a communication goal statement1900of “Analyze the salespeople by bookings and count of deals” with respect to a data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings) and counts of their sales deals. In this example, the narrative1902would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes1904were true (the salespeople group was a “tiny group” with only a single member). As can be seen inFIG. 19A, the narrative text1902expresses the following ideas1906that are tied to the outcomes1904: (1) a count of the number of salespeople in the group, (2) the names of the top n salespeople in the group (by the first attribute, bookings value) and the booking values for each of the top n salespeople (which in this example is a single person's bookings), and (3) the names of the top n salespeople in the group (by the second attribute, deal count) and the count of deals for each of the top n salespeople (which in this example is a single person's deals).

FIG. 19Bshows an example of a narrative1912that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown by the upper portions ofFIGS. 19A-Bas applied to the same communication goal statement1900shown byFIG. 19A(“Analyze the salespeople by bookings and count of deals”) but with respect to a different data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings) and counts of their sales deals. In this example, the narrative1912would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes1914were true (the salespeople group was a “decent sized group” and has similar distributions of values among the salespeople with respect to the two attributes, bookings and deal counts). As can be seen inFIG. 19B, the narrative text1912expresses the following ideas1916that are tied to the outcomes1914: (1) a count of the number of salespeople in the group, (2) the total value of the first attribute (bookings) for the salespeople group, (3) the total value of the second attribute (deal counts) for the salespeople group, (4) the mean value of the first attribute (bookings) for the salespeople group, (5) the mean value of the second attribute (deal counts) for the salespeople group, (6) the names and attribute values for the top n of the salespeople group with respect to the first attribute (bookings), (7) the names and attribute values for the top n of the salespeople group with respect to the second attribute (deal counts), and (8) a statement that the distributions of salespeople with respect to the two attributes were similar to each other.FIGS. 19Aand B thus show how the same conditional outcome framework and same communication goal statement can produce dramatically different stories based on the content of the data set under consideration.

Another example of a base communication goal statement for an “analyze” communication goal that can be used by the system can be “Analyze Entity Group by a Change in Attribute (Over Time)”. Such communication goal statement can trigger analysis that eventually results in quantitative ideas representing the total change in value, average change in value, the median change in value, which entity had the biggest change in values, the number of entities that had positive changes, etc. Such a goal might also produce more qualitative ideas that capture intuitive understandings such as “All members of the group had positive changes”, “About half of the group had positive changes and about half had negative changes”, or “The group as a whole had a positive change, but it was really a small group of entities that had large positive changes while the rest had smaller negative changes. A practitioner may desire that narratives produced from this communication goal statement express different ideas than those generated from the other “analyze” communication goals discussed above.

FIG. 20Adiscloses an example embodiment for a conditional outcome framework that can be used by the narrative analytics510associated with a communication goal statement390for “Analyze Entity Group by a Change in Attribute (Over Time)”. In this example, the framework includes attribute change analytics2008that computes the changes/deltas in the specified attribute values for each member of the entity group over the relevant time period. These deltas can then be used as the attribute values for the conditional outcome framework that can otherwise function as shown byFIG. 16.

FIG. 20Ashows an example of a narrative2002that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown by the upper portion ofFIG. 20Aas applied to a communication goal statement2000of “Analyze the salespeople by the change in their bookings” (where the relevant time frame can be either a default timeframe, system-determined time frame, or user-determined time frame, in this case corresponds to a time frame of Q1 to Q2) with respect to a data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings) over time. In this example, the narrative2002would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes2004were true (the salespeople group was a “decent sized group” with a typical distribution of attribute delta values for the salespeople). As can be seen inFIG. 20A, the narrative text2002expresses the following ideas2006that are tied to the outcomes2004: (1) a count of the number of salespeople in the group, (2) the total number of salespeople in the group, (3) the mean value of changed bookings from Q1 to Q2 for the salespeople group, and (4) the names of the top n salespeople in the group (by their associated booking value deltas) and the booking value deltas for each of the top n salespeople.

FIG. 20Bdiscloses another example embodiment for a conditional outcome framework that can be used by the narrative analytics510associated with a communication goal statement390for “Analyze Entity Group by a Change in Attribute (Over Time)”. In this example, the framework includes group size change characterization analytics2010, where these analytics2010are configured to analyzed the specified entity group to assess how its size changed over the relevant time period. In the example ofFIG. 20B, there are three outcomes associated with these analytics2010—a conclusion that the group size increased significantly, a conclusion that the group size stayed mostly consistent, and a conclusion that the group sized decreased significantly. To reach these outcomes, the analytics2010can tie each outcome to thresholds that are applied to computed changes in group size for the relevant time frame. For example, a group size change of +25% or more can be characterized as a significant increase, a group size change of −25% or more can be characterized as a significant decrease, and group sizes changes between these bounds can be characterized as consistent. Other outcomes within the conditional outcome framework can assess the nature of any change with respect to how the group members are ranked by the attribute over the relevant time frame. The analytics for these outcomes can also be parameterized to test whether their corresponding outcomes are applicable to the subject data. Furthermore,FIG. 20Bshows how the various ideas tied to the outcomes can include various informational items tied to the starting and ending times for the subject time frame, as well as ideas that express how certain group members rankings changed over the time frame.

FIG. 20Cshows an example of a narrative2022that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown byFIG. 20Bas applied to the communication goal statement2000of “Analyze the salespeople by the change in their bookings (over Q1 and Q2)” with respect to a data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings) over time. In this example, the narrative2022would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes2024were true (the size of the salespeople group increased significantly over Q1 to Q2, with the leaders among the salespeople with respect to bookings being largely unchanged over Q1 to Q2). As can be seen inFIG. 20C, the narrative text2022expresses the following ideas2026that are tied to the outcomes2024: (1) an identification of the change in size for the salespeople group from Q1 to Q2, (2) a count of the members of the salespeople group at Q1, (3) a count of the members of the salespeople group at Q2, (4) the total amount of bookings for the salespeople group at Q1, (5) the total amount of bookings for the salespeople group at Q2, (6) the mean value of bookings for the salespeople group at Q2, and (7) the names and booking values for the top n salespeople at Q2 (in terms of bookings value).

FIG. 20Dshows an example of a narrative2032that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown byFIG. 20Bas applied to the same communication goal statement2000shown byFIG. 20C(“Analyze the salespeople by the change in their bookings (over Q1 and Q2)”) but with respect to a different data set that includes various salespeople and their associated bookings (e.g., the dollar values of their bookings) over time. In this example, the narrative2032would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes2034were true (the size of the salespeople group decreased significantly over Q1 to Q2, with the salespeople who were leaders at Q1 with respect to bookings having been surpassed in Q2). As can be seen inFIG. 20D, the narrative text2032expresses the following ideas2036that are tied to the outcomes2034: (1) an identification of the change in size for the salespeople group from Q1 to Q2, (2) a count of the members of the salespeople group at Q1, (3) a count of the members of the salespeople group at Q2, (4) the total amount of bookings for the salespeople group at Q1, (5) the total amount of bookings for the salespeople group at Q2, (6) the names and booking values for the top n salespeople at Q1 (in terms of bookings value), (7) the names and booking values for the top n salespeople at Q2 (in terms of bookings value), (8) the positions at Q2 of the salespeople who were in the top n at Q1, (9) the positions at Q1 of the sales people who were in the top n at Q2, and (10) a statement that notes the change in leadership for salespeople as between Q1 and Q2.FIGS. 20C and 20Dthus show another example of how the same conditional outcome framework and same communication goal statement can produce dramatically different stories based on the content of the data set under consideration.

Yet another example of a base communication goal statement for an “analyze” communication goal that can be used by the system can be “Analyze Entity Group by Characterization”. Such communication goal statement can trigger analysis that eventually results in quantitative ideas representing the count and percentage of entities with each characterization, the most common characterization, etc. Such a goal might also produce more qualitative ideas that capture intuitive understandings such as “There was a roughly even distribution of characterizations across the group”, “Every entity in the group had the same characterization”, “Almost all of the entities in the group had the same characterization”, etc. A practitioner may desire that narratives produced from this communication goal statement express different ideas than those generated from the other “analyze” communication goals discussed above.

FIGS. 21Aand B disclose an example embodiment for a conditional outcome framework that can be used by the narrative analytics510associated with a communication goal statement390for “Analyze Entity Group by Characterization”. In these examples, the outcomes can be associated with group size characterization analytics1600and group distribution characterization analytics1602as discussed above in connection withFIG. 16. However, these outcomes can be linked to different ideas (and associated idea support analytics1604) as indicated byFIGS. 21Aand B. For example, the ideas ofFIGS. 21Aand B can express concepts such as which characterizations are most common among members of the entity group, and corresponding counts and percentages for various characterizations within the entity group.

FIG. 21Ashows an example of a narrative2102that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown by the upper portions ofFIG. 21A-Bas applied to a communication goal statement2100of “Analyze the properties by their type” with respect to a data set that includes various properties and associated types for those properties (e.g., single unit homes, duplexes, commercial storefronts, etc.). In this example, the narrative2102would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes2104were true (the size of the group of properties was a “large group” where almost all of the properties in that group shared the same characterization). As can be seen inFIG. 21A, the narrative text2102expresses the following ideas2106that are tied to the outcomes2104: (1) an identification of the most common type characterization for the properties in the group (single unit homes in this case), (2) the percentage of properties in the group that have this type characterization, and (3) other common type characterizations that exist in the property group.

FIG. 21Bshows an example of a narrative2112that can be generated using the conditional outcome framework shown by the upper portions ofFIGS. 21A-Bas applied to the same communication goal statement2100shown byFIG. 21A(“Analyze the properties by their type”) but with respect to a different data set that includes various properties and their associated type characterizations. In this example, the narrative2112would be generated after an analysis of the data set arrived at a determination that the outcomes2114were true (the size of the group of properties was a “decent sized group” where there was a relatively even distribution of properties in that group with respect to their type characterizations). As can be seen inFIG. 21B, the narrative text2112expresses the following ideas2116that are tied to the outcomes2114: (1) an identification of the common type characterizations for the properties in the group (single family homes, duplex-style homes, and commercial storefronts in this case), (2) the count of properties in the group with each of these common type characterizations, (3) an identification of the uncommon type characterizations for the properties in the group (warehouses and parking lots in this case), and (4) the count of properties in the group with each of these uncommon type characterizations. Thus,FIGS. 21Aand B show yet another example of how the same conditional outcome framework and same communication goal statement can produce dramatically different stories based on the content of the data set under consideration.

Live Story Editing:

Another innovative feature that may be included in a narrative generation platform is an editing feature whereby a user can use a story outline comprising one or more composed communication goal statements and an ontology to generate a narrative story from source data, where the narrative story can be reviewed and edited in a manner that results in automated adjustments to the narrative generation AI. For example, an author using the system in an editing mode can cause the system to generate a test narrative story from the source data using one or more composed communication goal statements and a related ontology. The author can then review the resulting test narrative story to assess whether the story was rendered correctly and whether any edits should be made. As an example, the author may decide that a different expression for an entity would work better in the story than the expression that was chosen by the system (e.g., the author may decide that a characterization expressed as “slow growth” in the narrative story would be better expressed as “sluggish growth”). The user can directly edit the text of the narrative story using text editing techniques (e.g., selecting and deleting the word “slow” and typing in the word “sluggish” in its place). Upon detecting this edit, the system can automatically update the ontology320to modify the subject characterization object332by adding “sluggish growth” to the expression(s)364for that characterization (and optionally removing the “slow growth” expression).

To accomplish this, words in the resultant test narrative story can be linked with the objects from ontology320that these words express. Further still, sentences and clauses can be associated with the communication goal statements that they serve. In this fashion, direct edits on words, clauses, and sentences by an author on the test narrative story can be traced back to their source ontological objects and communication goal statements.

Another example of an innovative editing capability is when an author chooses to re-order the sentences or paragraphs in the test narrative story. Given that sentences and paragraphs in the test narrative story can be traced back to communication goal statements in the story outline, the act of re-ordering sentences and/or paragraphs can cause the system to automatically re-order the communication goal statements in the story outline in accordance with the editing. Thus, consider a story outline that comprises Communication Goal Statement 1 followed by Communication Goal Statement 2 followed by Communication Goal Statement 3 that produces a narrative story comprising Sentence 1 (which is linked to Communication Goal Statement 1), followed by Sentence 2 (which is linked to Communication Goal Statement 2), followed by Sentence 3 (which is linked to Communication Goal Statement 3). If the user decides that the story would read better if Sentence 2 came before Sentence 1, the user can perform this edit in the live story editing mode of the system, and this edit can cause the system to automatically adjust the story outline to comprise Communication Goal Statement 2 followed by Communication Goal Statement 1 followed by Communication Goal Statement 3.

Similarly, if a user edits the narrative story by deleting a sentence, the system can automatically adjust the story outline by deleting the communication goal statement linked to that sentence.

Through the automated changes to the ontology320and/or story outline, the system can be able to quickly adjust its story generation capabilities to reflect the desires of the author. Thus, during a subsequent execution of the story generation process, the system can use the updated ontology320and/or story outline to control the narrative generation process.

FIGS. 251-273and their supporting description in Appendix A describe aspects of such editing and other review features that can be included in an example embodiment of a narrative generation platform. Appendix A also describes a number of other aspects that may be included in example embodiments of a narrative generation platform.

While the invention has been described above in relation to its example embodiments, various modifications may be made thereto that still fall within the invention's scope. Such modifications to the invention will be recognizable upon review of the teachings herein.

Appendix A

This appendix describes a user guide for an example embodiment referred to as Quill, and it is organized into the following sections:

A1 (iii): How to use this Guide

A2: Getting Started

A2(ii): General StructureA2(ii)(a): Creating an OrganizationA2(ii)(b): Creating Users

A2(iii): Creating ProjectsA2(iii)(a): AuthoringA2(iii)(b): Data ManagerA2(iii)(c): Project Administration
A3: Configure a Story from a Blueprint

A4(i): Entity Types and ExpressionsA4(i)(a): Entities TabA4(i)(b): Creating an Entity Type

A4(ii): RelationshipsA4(ii)(a): Creating a Relationship

A4(iv): AttributesA4(iv)(a): Attribute ValuesA4(iv)(b): Computed Attributes
A5: Configure a Story from Scratch

A5(i): The OutlineA5(i)(a): SectionsA5(i)(a)(1): Renaming a SectionA5(i)(a)(2): Deleting a SectionA5(i)(a)(3): Moving a SectionA5(i)(b): Communication GoalsA5(i)(b)(1): Creating a Communication GoalA5(i)(b)(1)(A): Entity TypesA5(i)(b)(1)(B): Creating an Entity TypeA5(i)(b)(1)(C): Creating a RelationshipA5(i)(b)(1)(D): CharacterizationsA5(i)(b)(2): Deleting a Communication GoalA5(i)(b)(3): Moving a Communication GoalA5(i)(b)(4): Linked GoalsA5(i)(b)(5): Related Goals (Subgoals)A5(i)(b)(6): Styling Communication GoalsA5(i)(b)(7): ChartsA5(i)(c): Data RequirementsA5(i)(c)(1): Tabular DataA5(i)(c)(2): Document-Based DataA5(i)(d): Data FormattingA5(i)(e): Data Validation
A6: Data Management

A6(i): Getting Data Into QuillA6(i)(a): Uploading a FileA6(i)(b): Adding a Connection
A7: Reviewing Your Story

A8: Managing Story Versions

A8(i): Drafts and Publishing

A8(ii): Change Log

A9: Writing Stories in Production

A10: Sharing and Reuse

A12: Communication Goal Families

A13(i): Supported Chart Types

A13(iii): Styling Rules

A13(iv): Using Multiple Data Views

A13(v): Permission Structure

The following sections can be read in combination withFIGS. 22-293for an understanding of how the example embodiment of Appendix A can be used by users.

Quill is an advanced natural language generation (Advanced NLG) platform that transforms structured data into narratives. It is an intelligent system that starts by understanding what the user wants to communicate and then performs the relevant analysis to highlight what is most interesting and important, identifies and accesses the required data necessary to tell the story, and then delivers the analysis in the most intuitive, personalized, easy-to-consume way possible—a narrative.

Quill is used to automate manual processes related to data analysis and reporting. Its authoring capabilities can be easily integrated into existing platforms, generating narratives to explain insights not obvious in data or visualizations alone.

Natural Language Generation (NLG) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) which produces language as output on the basis of data input. Many NLG systems are basic in that they simply translate data into text, with templated approaches that are constrained to communicate one idea per sentence, have limited variability in word choice, and are unable to perform the analytics necessary to identify what is relevant to the individual reader.

Quill is an Advanced NLG platform that does not start with the data but by the user's intent of what they want to communicate. Unlike templated approaches that simply map language onto data, Quill performs complex assessments to characterize events and identify relationships, understands what information is especially relevant, learns about certain domains and utilizes specific analytics and language patterns accordingly, and generates language with the consideration of appropriate sentence length, structure, and word variability. The result is an intelligent narrative that can be produced at significant scale and customized to an audience of one.

A1 (iii): How to Use this Guide

Getting Started walks through how to log in to Quill and set up Organizations, Users, and Projects. It also provides an overview of the components of Quill.

Ontology Management is a high-level description of the conceptual elements stories in Quill are based on. This section will help you understand the building blocks of writing a story.

Configuring a Story from Scratch and Configuring a Story from a Blueprint talk through the steps of configuring a story in Quill. Jump to one of these sections if you want to learn the basics of using Quill.

Data Management contains the necessary information for setting up data in Quill, discussing the accepted formats and connections.

Reviewing Your Story discusses the tools available to review, edit, and monitor the stories you configure in Quill.

Managing Story Versions covers publishing stories and tracking changes made to projects.

Writing Stories in Production addresses administrative aspects of story generation, including setting up an API endpoint and scheduling story runs.

Sharing and Reuse goes through how to make components of a particular project available across projects.

Common Troubleshooting offers simple, easy-to-follow steps for dealing with common questions that arise when working in Quill.

The Terminology will help you understand the terminology used in this manual and throughout Quill, while the Communication Goal Families describes the available communication goals and how they relate to each other.

The Miscellaneous section presents an example of a state of Quill functionality.

A2: Getting Started

A2(i): Logging in

Quill is a web-based application that supports Firefox, versions 32 ESR and up, and all versions of Chrome. Logging in will depend on whether Narrative Science is hosting the application or Quill has been installed on-premises.

For on-premises installations of Quill, if you are an authenticated user, go to your custom URL to access Quill. You will be taken directly to your project dashboard. If you see an authentication error, contact your site administrator to be set up with access to Quill.

A2(ii): General Structure

Quill is made up of Organizations and Projects. An Organization is the base level of access in Quill. It includes Administrators and Members and is how Projects are grouped together. Projects are where narratives are built and edited. They exist within Organizations. Users exist at all levels of Quill, at the Site, Organization, and Project levels. Access privileges can be set on a per User basis and apply differently at the Site, Organization, and Project levels. (For more detail, refer to the Permissions Structure section of the Miscellaneous section.)

A2(ii)(a): Creating an Organization Creating an Organization is a Site Administrative privilege. At the time that Quill is installed, whether hosted by Narrative Science or on-premises, a Site Administrator is designated. Only a Site Administrator has the ability to create an Organization (seeFIG. 22).

Site Administrators can add users, and users can only see the Organizations of which they are members. Site Administrators have access to all Organizations with the View All Dashboards option (seeFIG. 23), but Organization Members do not.

Members only see the Organizations they have access to in the Organization dropdown and can toggle between them there (seeFIG. 24).

Site Administrators can use the Organization dropdown to switch between Organizations or from the Organizations page. Each Organization will have a dashboard listing Projects and People.

FIG. 25shows where Organization Administrators and Members may create Projects, but only Organization Administrators may create Users. Both Organization Administrators and Members may add Users to Projects and set their permissions. For both Administrators and Members, Quill will show the most recent Organization when first opened.

A2(ii)(b): Creating Users

Only an Administrator (both Site or Organization) may create a User (seeFIG. 26). Users can be added to Organizations as Administrators or Members (seeFIG. 27).

Administrative privileges cascade through the structure of Quill. (See Permission Structure in the Miscellaneous section for more information.) That is to say, an Administrator at the Organization level has Administrative privileges at the Project level as well. The Project permissions of Members are set at the Project level.

At the Project level, a user can be an Administrator, an Editor, or a Reviewer (seeFIG. 28).

An Administrator on a Project has full access, including all aspects of Authoring, sharing, drafts and publishing, and the ability to delete the Project. An Editor has access to Authoring but cannot share, publish and create a new draft, or delete the Project. A Reviewer only has access to Live Story in Review Mode. A user's access to a Project can be edited on the People tab of the Organization dashboard.

A2(iii): Creating Projects

Both Administrators and Members can create Projects from the Organization dashboard (seeFIG. 29).

The creator of a Project is by default an Administrator. When creating a new Project, select from the list of blueprint options whether it will be an Employee History, Empty Project, Municipal Expenses, Network Analysis, or a Sales Performance report (seeFIG. 30).

This is also where you can access shared components of existing projects which members of an Organization have elected to share for reuse by other Organization members. As shown byFIG. 31, you can filter them based on what parts of them have been shared: Outline, Ontology, and Data Sources; Outline and Ontology; and Outline. (Refer to the Sharing and Reuse section for additional information.)

An Empty Project allows the user to configure a Project from the ground up, and a Sales Performance Report provides the framework to configuring a basic version of a sales performance report. A user can be added to a project by clicking the plus symbol within a project (seeFIG. 32) and adding them by user name. To add a user to a Project, the user should be a member of the Organization.

You can set Project level permissions using the dropdown menu (seeFIG. 33).

You can edit permissions and remove users here as well (seeFIG. 34).

Users can also be added to Projects from the People tab of the Organization dashboard (seeFIG. 35).

Each Project includes Authoring, a Data Manager, and Admin (seeFIG. 36).

Authoring is where the narrative gets built and refined; the Data Manager is where the data for the story is configured; and Project Administration is where Monitoring, the Change Log, API documentation, Project Settings, and Scheduling are located.

The main view in Authoring is the Outline, as shown byFIG. 37.

The Outline is where the narrative is built. Sections can be added to provide structure and organization to the story (seeFIG. 38).

Communication Goals are then added to a Section (seeFIG. 39).

Communication Goals are one of the main underpinnings of Quill. They are the primary building blocks a user interacts with to compose a story.

Authoring is also where Entities are managed (seeFIG. 40).

An Entity is any primary “object” which has particular Attributes. It can be set to have multiple expressions for language variation within the narrative or have Relationships to other Entities for more complex representations. All of these things comprise an Ontology.

Data Requirements are how the data that supports a story is mapped to the various story elements.

Based on the Communication Goals in the Outline, the Data Requirements tab will specify what data points it needs in order to generate a complete story (seeFIG. 41).

Live Story is a means of reviewing and editing a story generated from the Outline.

It has two modes, Review mode and Edit mode. Review mode allows the user to see a complete narrative based on specific data parameters (seeFIG. 42). Edit mode allows the user to make changes to the story (seeFIG. 43).

Drafts and Publishing are Quill's system of managing versions of your story (seeFIG. 44).

This is how you publish your story configurations and keep a published version as read-only in order to request stories through the API or via the Scheduler. Each Project can only have one draft and one published version at a time.

A2(iii)(b): Data Manager

The Data Manager is the interface for adding the database connections or uploading the files that drive the story (seeFIGS. 45 and 46).

A2(iii)(c): Project Administration

The Project Administration features of Quill are Monitoring, the Change Log, API documentation, Project Settings, and Scheduling. They are located in the Admin section of the Project.

Monitoring allows the user to see the status (success or failure) of generated stories (seeFIG. 47). Stories run through the synchronous API or generated in Live Story will be listed here and can be filtered based on certain criteria (e.g. date, user).

The Change Log tracks changes made to the project (seeFIG. 48).

Quill supports on-demand story generation through synchronous API access (seeFIG. 49).

Project Settings are where you can change the name of the Project and set the project locale (seeFIG. 50). This styles any currencies in your Project to the relevant locale (e.g. Japanese Yen).

You can set your story to run at regular intervals in Scheduling (seeFIG. 51).

A3: Configure a Story from a Blueprint

The benefit of configuring a story from a project blueprint is the ability to reuse Sections, Communication Goals, Data Views, and Ontology as a starting point. These blueprints are available in the Create Project screen as discussed in the Getting Started section.

A3(i): Configure a Sales Performance Report

Select the Performance Project Blueprint and give your project a name. You can always change this later by going to Admin>Project Settings. After the project is created, you'll be taken to Authoring and presented with an Outline that has a “Headline”, “Overview”, and “Drivers” sections with associated Communication Goals within them (seeFIG. 52).

To begin, set the Attributes in the Communication Goal in the Headline. Select “the value” (seeFIG. 53) to open a sidebar on the right side of the screen.

Create an Attribute by entering “sales” and clicking “Create “sales” (seeFIG. 54).

Then specify “currency” from the list of Attribute types (seeFIG. 55).

The next step in Attribute creation is to associate the Attribute with an Entity type. Since there are no existing Entity types in this blank Project, you'll have to create one (seeFIG. 56).

Click “an entity or entity group” to bring out the Entity type creation sidebar (seeFIG. 57).

Name the Entity type “salesperson” and click to create “salesperson” (seeFIG. 58). Set the base Entity type to Person (seeFIG. 59).

Quill will make a guess at the singular and plural expressions of the Entity type. Make corrections as necessary and click “Okay” (seeFIG. 60).

There are no designations on the Entity type you created, so click “Okay” to return to the Attribute editing sidebar (seeFIG. 61). A designation modifies the Entity type to specify additional context such as relationships to other Entity types or group analysis.

Once an Entity type is created, it will be available for selection throughout the project. Additional Entity expressions can be added in the Entities tab (see Ontology Management).

Next, you'll specify a Timeframe for the Attribute (seeFIG. 62).

Click “Timeframe” to create a new Timeframe (seeFIG. 63).

Choose Month (seeFIG. 64) to complete the creation of the Attribute (seeFIG. 65).

Click “the other value” to set another Attribute (seeFIG. 66).

Name it “benchmark” (seeFIG. 67) and set its type to “currency” (seeFIG. 68).

Associate it with the Entity type “salesperson” and set it to be in the “month” Timeframe (seeFIG. 69).

Click on the arrow to the left of the Communication Goal in the headline section (seeFIG. 70) to expose the list of related goals.

The bottom related goal is the Characterization (seeFIG. 71).

Check the box to opt in to the Characterization (seeFIG. 72).

Quill has default thresholds to determine the comparative language for each outcome. Entering different values into the boxes (seeFIG. 73), with each value being percentage comparisons calculated against your data view, can change these thresholds (seeFIG. 74). As such, these comparisons are done against numerical Attribute Values. If a value is changed to be less than the upper bound or greater than the lower bound of a different outcome, Quill will adjust the values so that there is no overlap.

Configure the first Communication Goal in the Overview section (seeFIG. 75) using the same steps as for the Communication Goal in the Headline section.

Set the Attribute of the first “Present the value” Communication Goal to be “sales in the month of the salesperson,” and the Attribute of the second “Present the value” Communication Goal to be “benchmark in the month of the salesperson” (seeFIG. 76).

Link the two Present Communication Goals by dragging (using the gripper icon on the right side of the Communication Goal that is revealed when you hover your cursor over the Goal —seeFIG. 77) “Present the benchmark in the month of the salesperson” to overlap “Present the sales in the month of the salesperson” (seeFIG. 78).

Step One: Click “the value” in the first Communication Goal in the Drivers section to set the Attribute. Choose computed value in the Attribute creation sidebar and go into the functions tab in order to select “contribution” (seeFIG. 79).

Set the Attribute to be “sales” (seeFIGS. 80 and 81).

Click the first entity and create the new Entity type “sector” of type “Thing” (seeFIG. 82).

Add a relationship (seeFIG. 83) and set the related entity as “salesperson” (seeFIG. 84).

Set the relationship as “managed by” (seeFIGS. 85 and 86).

Add a group analysis and set the Attribute as “sales” and the Timeframe to “month” (seeFIG. 87).

Set the second entity to “salesperson” and the timeframe to “month” (seeFIG. 88).

Step Two: Follow the steps as above to complete the second Communication Goal in the Drivers section but set the position from top to be 2 in the group analysis (seeFIGS. 89-90).

Step Three: Click into the “Search for a new goal” box and select “Call out the entity” (seeFIG. 91).

Set the entity to be “highest ranking sector by sales in the month managed by the “salesperson” (seeFIG. 92).

Then move the goal by grabbing the gripper icon on the right side to the first position in the section (seeFIG. 93).

Step Four: Create another Call out the entity Communication Goal (seeFIG. 94).

Create a new Entity type of “customer” and set the base entity type to “thing” (seeFIG. 95).

Add a group analysis and set the Attribute to “sales” and the Timeframe to “month” (seeFIG. 96).

Then add a relationship and set the related entity to be “highest ranking sector by sales in the month managed by the salesperson” and choose the relationship “within” (seeFIG. 97).

Then move it to the third position in the Drivers section, after the first Present goal (seeFIG. 98).

Step Five: Create another Call out the entity Communication Goal and set the entity to “second highest ranking sector by sales in the month managed by the salesperson” (seeFIG. 99).

And move it to the fourth position in the Drivers section, before the second Present goal (seeFIG. 100).

Step Six: Create another Call out the entity Communication Goal. Create a new entity type of customer following Step Four, but set the related entity to be “second highest ranking sector by sales in the month managed by the salesperson” (seeFIG. 101).

Step Seven: Finally, create another Call out the entity Goal. Create a new plural Entity type of “regions” and set its type to be “place.” Add a group analysis and set the number from top to “3,” the Attribute to “sales,” and the Timeframe to “month” (seeFIG. 102).

Then add a relationship, setting the related Entity type as “salesperson” and the relationship as “managed by” (seeFIG. 103).

The completed outline should matchFIGS. 104 and 105. Quill will update the “Data Requirements” tab with prompts asking for the information necessary to generate the story from that configuration.

A3(iv)(d): Adding Data

In order to complete the Data Requirements for the story, you add a Data Source to the Project. Go the Data Manager section of the Project to add a Data View (seeFIG. 106).

Choose to Upload a file and name the Data View (seeFIG. 107). Upload the Sales Performance Data csv file that you were provided.

Once Quill has saved the Data View to the Project, you will be presented with the first few rows of the data (seeFIG. 108).

A3(v)(e): Data Requirements

The Data Requirements will guide you through a series of questions to fill out the necessary parameters for Narrative Analytics and Communication Goals (seeFIG. 109). Go to the Data Requirements tab in Authoring.

See the Data Requirements section of Configure a Story from Scratch for more detail. The completed Data Requirements can appear as shown byFIGS. 110-113.

Go to Live Story to see the story (seeFIG. 114).

Toggles for “salesperson” (seeFIG. 115) and “month” will show you different stories on the performance of an individual Sales Person for a given quarter.

A4: Ontology Management

A4(i): Entity Types and Expressions

Entity types are how Quill knows what to talk about in a Communication Goal. An Entity type is any primary “object” which has particular Attributes. An example is that a Department (entity type) has Expenses (Attribute)—seeFIG. 116. An Entity is a specific instance of an Entity type, with data-driven values for each Attribute.

In other words, if you have an Entity type of Department, Quill will express a specific instance of a Department from your data, such as Transportation. Likewise, Expenses will be replaced with the numerical value in your data. Quill also allows you to create Entity and Attribute designations, such as departments managed by the top salesperson or total expenses for the department of transportation (seeFIG. 117).

When you generate a story with such designations, Quill replaces them with the appropriate calculated values.

Entity types are managed in the Entities tab (seeFIG. 118).

Quill defaults to showing all Entity types, but you can filter to only those that are in the story (seeFIG. 119).

Clicking an Entity type tile allows you to view its details and edit it. Here, you can modify or add Entity expressions (seeFIG. 120), edit or add Entity characterizations (seeFIG. 121), add or edit Attributes associated with the Entity (seeFIG. 122), and add Relationships (seeFIG. 123).

A4(i)(b): Creating an Entity Type

Entity types can be created from the Entities tab (seeFIG. 124) or from the Outline (seeFIG. 125).

When you create an Entity type, you select its base Entity type from the options of Person, Place, Thing, or Event (seeFIG. 126).

This gives Quill context for how to treat the Entity. In the case of the Person base Entity type, Quill knows to determine gender and supply an appropriate pronoun.

Entity types can have multiple expressions. These are managed in the Entities tab of a project (seeFIG. 127).

They can be added either from the Entities tab (seeFIG. 128) or from Live Story (seeFIG. 129).

To add expressions, open the details for an Entity type (by clicking on “salesperson,” as shown above) and click in the text area next to the plus icon in the sidebar. Type in the expression you want associated with the Entity. You can add expressions for the Specific, Generic Singular, and Generic Plural instances of the Entity by clicking on the arrow dropdown in the sidebar to toggle between the expressions (seeFIG. 130).

Attributes can be referenced in Specific entity expressions by setting the attribute name off in brackets. For example, if you would like the last name of the salesperson as an expression, set “last name” off in brackets as shown inFIG. 131.

You can also opt into and out of particular expressions. If you have multiple expressions associated with the Entity, Quill will alternate between them at random to add Variability to the language, but you can always uncheck the box to turn the expression off (seeFIG. 132) or click on the x icon to remove it completely. You cannot opt out of whichever expression is set as the primary expression, but if you want to make one you've added the primary expression simply click and drag the expression to the top of the list.

Entity types can be tied to each other through Relationships. For example, a City contains Departments, and Departments are within a City (seeFIG. 133). Relationships are defined and created during Entity type creation in Authoring.

They can also be added to an existing Entity type by editing the Entity type in Authoring.FIG. 134shows how a relationship can be added from the Entity type tile.FIG. 135shows setting the related Entity type, andFIG. 136shows choosing the relationships.

An Entity type can support multiple relationships. For example, Department has a relationship to City: “within cities”; and a relationship to Line Items: “that recorded line items” (seeFIG. 137).

A4(ii)(a): Creating a Relationship

If the Relationships already set in Quill do not meet your needs, you can create your own. Type the relationship you want to create in the “search or create” textbox and click “Create new relationship” at the bottom of the sidebar (seeFIG. 138).

After that, you will be taken through some steps that tell Quill how the new Relationship is expressed. Enter in the present tense and past tense forms of the Relationship, and Quill automatically populates the noun phrase that describes the relationship between the Entities (seeFIG. 139).

Once you complete the steps for both directions of the relationship (seeFIG. 140), Quill will apply the relationship to your Entity types and add the relationship to its library. You can use the Relationship again anywhere else in the project.

Characterizations are editorial judgments based on thresholds that determine the language used when certain conditions are met. Characterizations can be set on Entity types directly or when comparing Attributes on an Entity in a Communication Goal.

An Entity characterization allows you to associate descriptive language with an Entity type based on the performance of a particular Attribute. For example, you might want to characterize a Sales Person by her total sales (seeFIG. 141).

Click “+ Characterization” to create a Characterization (seeFIG. 142).

Once you've named and created the Characterization, you'll have to set the expressions for the Default outcome. Click the grey parts of speech to edit the expression in the sidebar (seeFIG. 143).

Change the Outcome label to describe the outcome. For this example, the Outcome label will be “Star” to reflect an exceptional sales performance. Again, edit the expressions by clicking on the grey parts of speech. In order for the outcome to be triggered under specific conditions, you need to add a Qualification (seeFIG. 145).

Click “+ Qualification” to set the value to Sales (seeFIG. 146) and the comparison as “greater than” (seeFIG. 147).

You have a choice for comparing the value to an Attribute or a static value (seeFIG. 148).

In this case, choose to keep it a static value and set the value to $10,000 (seeFIG. 149).

Follow the same steps to create the lower bound outcome, setting the label as “laggard” and the static value to $1,000 (seeFIG. 150).

Once you have defined Characterizations on an Entity, you can include them in your story by using the Present the Characterization of the entity Communication Goal (seeFIG. 151).

To set the characterizations on a comparative Communication Goal, expand the arrow to the left of the Communication Goal (seeFIG. 152).

This exposes the list of available subgoals (see section below). At the bottom of this list is a goal to assess the difference between the attributes. Check the box to expose the thresholds applied to the comparison (seeFIG. 153).

Quill has default thresholds to determine the comparative language for each outcome. These thresholds can be changed by entering different values into the boxes. If a value is changed to be less than the upper bound or greater than the lower bound of a different outcome, Quill will adjust the values so that there is no overlap (seeFIG. 154).

There is also default language to correspond with each of the possible outcomes. This can also be changed to suit your particular needs and the tone of your story. Click on the green, underlined text to open a sidebar to the right where you can add additional expressions and set which expression you would like to be the primary characterization (seeFIG. 155).

You can also opt into and out of particular expressions. However, in the example of Appendix A, you cannot opt out of whichever expression is set as the primary characterization. If you have multiple expressions associated with the outcome (seeFIG. 156), Quill will alternate between them at random to add Variability to the language. These additional expressions will be tied to the specific Communication Goal where you added them and will not appear for others. You can also opt into and out of particular expressions, as well as delete them using the x. However, in the example of Appendix A, you cannot opt out of whichever expression is set as the primary expression.

These expressions can also be edited in Edit mode in Live Story (seeFIGS. 157 and 158).

An Attribute is a data-driven feature on an Entity type. As described above, Quill will express a specified Attribute with the corresponding value in the data based on your Communication Goal. Quill also supports adding modifiers to attributes in order to perform calculations on the raw value in the data.

A4(iv)(a): Attribute Values

Attribute Values are those values that are taken directly from your data. In other words, no computations are performed on them. An example is the Name of the City. If there is a value in the data for the total expenses of the city, Quill pulls this value directly and performs no computations, unless a data validation rule is applied e.g. “If null, replace with Static Value.” which is set in the Data Requirements when mapping the Outline's information needs to your Data View.FIG. 159shows an attribute creation sidebar.FIG. 160shows creating an attribute value in the attribute creation sidebar.FIG. 161shows setting the type of an attribute in the attribute creation sidebar.FIG. 162shows a completed attribute in a communication goal.

You also have the option of specifying a Timeframe (seeFIGS. 163 and 164).

This allows you to restrict the window of analysis to a particular day, month, or year.

Create a new Timeframe by selecting one of those three options. Once you've done this, Quill also recognizes the “previous” and “next” instances of that Timeframe (seeFIG. 165). In other words, if you create a day Timeframe, Quill will populate the list of known Timeframes with day, along with previous day and next day.

On the other hand, if the total expenses of the city are calculated by taking the sum of the expenses for each department, Quill allows you to create a Computed Value. Computed Values allow you to compute new values from values in your data and use them for group analysis.

In the example of Appendix A, current functions are limited to contribution, which evaluates how much of an aggregate a component contributed (seeFIG. 167).

Computed Values can be created from Present or Callout Communication Goals. When you create the attribute you are presenting or using to filter the group of Entities, click into the Computed Value tab to access the list of aggregations and functions.

A5: Configure a Story from Scratch

Quill allows you to build a story based on an existing blueprint or entirely from the ground up. To build a story specific to your needs, choose to create a Blank Project Blueprint and name it.

A5(i): The Outline

Once you've created your project, you'll be taken to the Outline (seeFIG. 168).

The Outline is a collection of building blocks that define an overall Story. This is where you do the work of building your story.

Create and name Sections to organize your story (seeFIG. 169).

Once created, a Section can be renamed, deleted, or moved around within the outline. Sections are how Communication Goals are grouped together.

A5(i)(a)(1): Renaming a Section

Click the name of the Section and type in the new name.

A5(i)(a)(2): Deleting a Section

Hover your cursor over the Section you want to delete. On the right side, two icons will appear: an ellipses and a gripper icon (seeFIG. 170).

Click the ellipses to reveal the option to delete the Section (seeFIG. 171).

If deleted the Section will disappear from the outline along with any Communication Goals it contains.

A5(i)(a)(3): Moving a Section

As above for deleting a Section, hover your cursor over the Section you want to move. Click and hold the gripper icon (seeFIG. 172) to drag the Section where you want to move it and let go.

A5(i)(b): Communication Goals

Communication Goals provide a bridge between analysis of data and the production of concepts expressed as text. In other words, they are the means of expressing your data in language.

A5(i)(b)(1): Creating a Communication Goal

Click the text box where it says to Search for a new goal. Choose the Communication Goal you′d like to use (seeFIG. 173).

A5(i)(b)(1)(A): Entity Types

Depending on the Communication Goal you choose, you will have to set the Entity type or types it is talking about. An Entity type is any primary “object” which has particular Attributes. An example is that a Department (Entity type) has Expenses (Attribute). An Entity is a specific instance of an Entity type, with data-driven values for each Attribute.

In the example of the Communication Goal “Call out the entity”, the example embodiment for Quill of Appendix A requires that an Entity type be specified. What, in your data, would you like to call out? Click “the entity” in the Communication Goal to open a sidebar to the right (seeFIG. 174).

Here you can select among Entity types that already exist or create a new one. Available entities include entities created from the outline or the entities tab (including any characterizations).

A5(i)(b)(1)(B): Creating an Entity Type

Click “new” in the Entity sidebar (seeFIG. 175). Then choose from existing Entity types or create a new one. Set whether the Entity type is singular or plural (seeFIG. 176). Once you have created the Entity type, you will be asked to set its base Entity type: Event, Person, Place, or Thing (seeFIG. 177). Next, set the plural and singular expressions of the Entity type (seeFIG. 178). Quill takes an educated guess at this, but you have the opportunity to make changes. Next you will designate any relationships, group analysis, or qualification pertaining to the Entity type (seeFIG. 179).

Quill lets you know the state of an Entity type, whether it is unset, in progress, or valid based on the appearance of the Entity type in the Communication Goal. The Entity type appears grey when unset (seeFIG. 180), blue when being worked on (seeFIG. 181), and green when valid (seeFIG. 182).

Adding a relationship allows you to tell Quill that an Entity is related to another Entity. To do so, choose to Add Relationship as you create your Entity type. Then set or create the Entity type that this Entity has a relationship to (seeFIG. 183). Quill suggests a number of relationships from which you can choose, including “lives in”, “managed by”, “within”, and more.FIG. 184shows a list of available relationships between two entities (department and city).FIG. 185shows an entity with a designated relationship. You can also create Relationships that will be added to the library.

When creating an Entity type of the base type event (seeFIG. 186), Quill will prompt you to set a timeframe for it to associate the event with (seeFIG. 187).

A5(i)(b)(1)(C): Creating a Relationship

If the Relationships already set in Quill do not meet your needs, you can create your own. Type the relationship you want to create in the “search or create” textbox and click “Create new relationship” at the bottom of the sidebar (seeFIG. 188).

After that, you will be taken through some steps that tell Quill how the new Relationship is expressed. Enter in the present tense and past tense forms of the Relationship, and Quill automatically populates the noun phrase that describes the relationship between the Entities (seeFIG. 189).

Once you complete the steps for both directions of the relationship (seeFIG. 190), Quill will apply the relationship to your Entity types and add the relationship to its library (seeFIG. 191). You can use the Relationship again anywhere else in the project.

You can also apply Group Analysis to an Entity type (seeFIG. 192).

In the example of Appendix A, rank is supported. This allows you to specify which Entity in a list of Entities to use in a Communication Goal. Select whether you are asking for the position from the top or the position from the bottom and the ranking of the Entity you want (seeFIG. 193).FIG. 194shows setting the attribute to perform the group analysis by.FIG. 195shows an Entity type with group analysis applied.

You also have the option of specifying a Timeframe (seeFIG. 196).

This allows you to restrict the window of analysis to a particular day, month, or year (seeFIG. 197).

Create a new Timeframe by selecting one of those three options. Once you've done this, Quill also recognizes the “previous” and “next” instances of that Timeframe (seeFIG. 198). In other words, if you create a day Timeframe, Quill will populate the list of known Timeframes with day, along with previous day and next day.

Once you have completed the steps to create an Entity type, Quill adds it to the list of Entity types available for use throughout the story. In other words, you can use it again in other parts of the Outline.

Characterizations are editorial judgments based on thresholds that determine the language used when certain conditions are met. Characterizations can be set on Entity types directly or when comparing Attributes on an Entity in a Communication Goal.

Refer to Characterizations in Ontology Management for more information on Entity Characterizations.

To set the characterizations on a comparative Communication Goal, expand the arrow to the left of the Communication Goal (seeFIG. 199).

This exposes the list of available subgoals (see section below). At the bottom of this list is a goal to characterize the difference between the attributes. Check the box to expose the thresholds applied to the comparison (seeFIG. 200).

Quill has default thresholds to determine the comparative language for each outcome. These thresholds can be changed by entering different values into the boxes. If a value is changed to be less than the upper bound or greater than the lower bound of a different outcome, Quill will adjust the values so that there is no overlap (seeFIGS. 201 and 202).

There is also default language to correspond with each of the possible outcomes. This can also be changed to suit your particular needs and the tone of your story. Click on the green, underlined text to open a sidebar to the right where you can add additional expressions and set which expression you would like to be the primary expression (seeFIG. 203).

If you have multiple expressions associated with the outcome (seeFIG. 204), Quill will alternate between them at random to add Variability to the language. These additional expressions will be tied to the specific Communication Goal where you added them and will not appear for others. You can also opt into and out of particular expressions, as well as delete them using the x. However, you cannot opt out of whichever expression is set as the primary expression.

A5(i)(b)(2): Deleting a Communication Goal

To delete a Communication Goal, hover your cursor over it to reveal a trash can icon (seeFIG. 205). Click it to delete the Communication Goal.

A5(i)(b)(3): Moving a Communication Goal

Moving a Communication Goal is done the same way as moving a Section. Hover your cursor over the Communication Goal to reveal the gripper icon (seeFIG. 206).

Click and move the Communication Goal within the Section or to another section (seeFIG. 207). Be careful when you move Communication Goals to make sure there is space between them.

Communication Goals without space between them are Linked Goals, described below.

A5(i)(b)(4): Linked Goals

Quill supports linking Communication Goals. This allows the user to express ideas together. For example, you may wish to talk about the number of departments in a city along with the total budget for the city. Hover your cursor over the Communication Goal to reveal the gripper icon, click and drag it above the goal you wish to link (seeFIG. 208). They will always be unlinked by revealing the gripper icon again by hovering, and moving the Communication Goal into an empty space on the Outline.

When you link the Communication Goal that expresses the number of departments and the Communication Goal that expresses the total budget for the city (seeFIG. 209), Quill will attempt to express them together with smoother language such as combining them into one sentence with a conjunction.

Some goals support related goals, or subgoals. This allows you to include supporting language without having to create separate Communication Goals for each related idea. For example, if you have a Communication Goal comparing attributes on an entity—in this case, the budget and expenses of the highest ranking department by expenses within the city—you may also wish to present the values of those attributes. Expand the Communication Goal to expose those related goals and opt into them as you like (seeFIG. 210).

A5(i)(b)(6): Styling Communication Goals

Quill allows for styling Communication Goals for better presentation in a story. Hover your cursor over a Communication Goal to reveal the “Txt” dropdown on the right side (seeFIG. 211).

Here, you can choose whether the language expressed is styled as a headline (seeFIG. 212), normal text (seeFIG. 213), or bullets (seeFIG. 214).

Charts are supported for two Communication Goals: Present the [attribute] of [a group] and Present the [attribute] of a [group of events]. For either of these goals, to get a chart, go to the Txt dropdown and select Chart (seeFIG. 215).

This will render the Communication Goal as a chart.

Present the [attribute] of [a group] (seeFIG. 216) will result in a bar chart (seeFIG. 217).

Present the [attribute] of [a group of events] (seeFIG. 218) will result in a line chart (seeFIG. 219).

A5(i)(c): Data Requirements

Once you have configured your story, Quill will ask where it can find the data to support the Entity types and Attributes you have specified in the Communication Goals. Go to the Data Requirements tab in Authoring to provide this information (seeFIG. 220).

The Data Requirements will guide you through a series of questions to fill out the necessary parameters for Narrative Analytics and Communication Goals. For each question, select the data view where that data can be found and the appropriate column in the table.

A5(i)(c)(1): Tabular Data

FIG. 221shows an example where the data is tabular data.

FIG. 222shows an example where the data is document-based data.

Where the value supplied is numerical, Quill will provide analytic options for cases where there are multiple values (seeFIG. 223). “Sum” sums values in a column like a Pivot Table in a spreadsheet. “Constant” is if the value does not change for a particular entity. For example, the quarter may always be Q4 in the data.

For each Entity type, Quill will ask for an identifier (seeFIG. 224).

This is what Quill uses to join data views. An identifier has no validation options as it doesn't actually appear in the story. (Data Validation is discussed below.)

The final question in Data Requirements will be to identify the main Entity the story is about (seeFIG. 225).

In the city budget example, Quill needs to know what city the story will be about. This can be set as a static value (e.g. Chicago) or as a Story Variable (seeFIG. 226).

A Story Variable allows you to use a set of values to trigger stories. In other words, if your data contains city budget information for multiple cities, setting the city the story is about as a Story Variable will allow you to run multiple stories against the same dataset. The location of the value for the Story Variable is defined earlier in Data Requirements where Quill asks where to find the city.

If there is a Timeframe in the Headline of the story, Quill will need you to identify this in Data Requirements as well.

As with the entity, this can be a static value or a Story Variable. It can also be set as the run date (seeFIG. 227), which will tell Quill to populate the value dynamically at the time the story is run. (See the Scheduling section for more information.)

A5(i)(d): Data Formatting

Quill allows you to set the format for certain data points to have in your data source so it can be mapped to your Outline. These formats are set based on the ontology (Entities, Attributes, etc.) being used in your Communication goals, with default styling applied to values. See the Miscellaneous section for specific styling information. As you configure the appropriate data formats present in your data view, validation rules can be applied if the types do not match for a particular story run. For example, if Quill is expecting the expenses of a city to be a currency and receives a string, the user is provided with various options of actions to take. These are specified in the Data Validation section below. To select the format of any date fields you may have, go to the Data Requirements tab in Authoring and click the checkbox icon next to a date (seeFIG. 228) to pull out the sidebar (seeFIG. 229).

Click on the date value to open a list of date format options and make your selection (seeFIG. 230).

A5(i)(e): Data Validation

Quill supports basic data validation. This functionality can be accessed in Data Requirements. Once you specify the location of the information in the data, a checkbox appears next to it. Click this to open the data validation sidebar (seeFIG. 231).

You will be presented with a number of options in a dropdown menu for what to do in the case of a null value (seeFIG. 232).

You can tell Quill to fail the story, drop the row with the null value, replace the null value with a value you provide in the text box below, or ignore the null value.

A6: Data Management

Quill allows for self-service data management. It provides everything you need to upload files and connect to databases and API endpoints.

A6(i): Getting Data into Quill

Quill supports data in tabular or document-based formats. Tabular data can be provided to Quill as CSV files or through table selections made against SQL connections (PostgreSQL, Mysql, and Microsoft SQL Server are supported). Document-based data can be provided by uploading a JSON file, creating cypher queries against Neo4j databases, a MongoDB connection, or through an HTTP API connection (which you can also set to elect to return a CSV).

A6(i)(a): Uploading a File

You can upload a CSV or JSON file directly to Quill in the Data Manager. In the Views tab, choose to Upload a file from the Add a Data View tile (seeFIG. 233).

Provide the name of the view and upload the file. The amount of time it will take to upload a file depends on the size of the file for a maximum file size of 50 MB, and operating against a data base connection is recommended. This automatically populates the Source Name.FIG. 234shows an example where a CSV file is uploaded.FIG. 237shows an example where a JSON file is uploaded. You can edit the Source Name, which is helpful when file names are difficult to parse and for readability when selecting the file from the Live Story dropdown when previewing your story. Quill automatically detects whether the data is in tabular or document form and samples a view of the first few rows or lines of data.FIG. 235shows an example of uploaded tabular data, andFIG. 236shows a sample view of tabular data.FIG. 238shows an example of uploaded document-based data, andFIG. 239shows a sample view of document-based data.

Quill also supports uploading multiple data sources into one Data View. This functionality can be accessed in the Data View by clicking the three dots icon (seeFIG. 240).

Here, you can upload additional files or add additional connections (seeFIG. 241). If you have multiple data sources in a Data View, you can set a source as primary, edit, or delete it. New data files or tables can be added to an existing data view, but only tabular sources can be added to tabular views and document-based sources to document-based views. To make the newly uploaded source your primary dataset, click on the three dots icon and select it as primary. This makes it the file used during runtime story generation requests or Live Story previews.

A6(i)(b): Adding a Connection

You can also provide data to Quill by connecting to a SQL database, a cypher query against a Neo4j database, a MongoDB database, or an HTTP API endpoint. You can add a connection from the Data View tab by choosing Start from Connection from the Add a Data View tile (seeFIGS. 242 and 243) or by choosing to Add a Connection from the Connections tab (seeFIG. 244).

Quill will ask for the appropriate information to set up each type of connection.FIG. 245shows an example of credentials for a SQL database connection.FIG. 246shows an example of credentials for a Neo4j database connection.FIG. 247shows an example of credentials for a MongoDB database connection.FIG. 248shows an example of credentials for an HTTP API connection.

The connection will be made, subject to network latency and the availability of the data source. Data Views from connections are made from the Views tab. Choose Start from a Connection and select the connection you created (seeFIG. 249).

Quill will prompt you to specify the table to add the data source. For neo4j connections, you will have to put in a cypher query to transform the data into tabular form (seeFIG. 250). From there, Data Requirements can be satisfied using the same experience as tabular and document-based views allowing for type validation rules to be set as needed.

A7: Reviewing Your Story

Once you have configured your story with Sections and Communication Goals, and satisfied the Data Requirements against a data source, you can review or edit its contents, understand the logic Quill used to arrive at the story, and monitor the status of stories you run.

A7(i): Live Story

Live Story is where you can see the narrative expression of the story you configured in the Outline (seeFIG. 251).

If you have set up your story to be based on Story Variables (as opposed to a static value), you can toggle between them (seeFIG. 252) and see how the narrative changes.

You can also switch between data sources (seeFIG. 253).

Click the “rewrite” button to generate a new narrative to see how any additional expressions you have added affect the Variability of the story (seeFIG. 254).

Live Story has two modes: Edit and Review.

A7(i)(a): Edit Mode

Edit mode allows you to make changes to the language in your story (seeFIG. 255).

You can add Entity expressions from Live Story (in addition to the Entities tab). If you click on any Entity (highlighted in blue under the cursor) (seeFIG. 256), a sidebar will open on the right side (seeFIG. 257).

You can add Entity expressions by typing in the area next to the plus sign. You can also opt into and out of particular expressions. If you have multiple expressions associated with the Entity, Quill will alternate between them at random to add Variability to the language. Click the rewrite button to see how your story changes. As described in the Ontology Management section, you can also click, hold, and drag an expression to the top of the list and opt out of the additional expressions to set it as primary.

You can edit the expressions in any Characterizations you have set on Compare Communication Goals from Edit mode in Live Story. As with Entity expressions, Characterization expressions will be highlighted in blue when you move the cursor over them (seeFIG. 258).

Click on the expression to open a sidebar to the right where you can add additional expressions and set which expression you would like to be the primary expression (seeFIG. 259).

Quill will alternate between them at random to add Variability to the language. These additional expressions will be tied to the specific Communication Goal where you added them and will not appear for others. You can also opt into and out of particular expressions, as well as delete them using the x. However, you cannot opt out of whichever expression is set as the primary expression. See Assessment Characterizations in Ontology Management for more detail.

A7(i)(a)(3): Language Guidance

You can add set Language Preferences, such as word order choice, to your story in the Edit mode of Live Story using Language Guidance. Hover over a section (sections correspond to Sections in the Outline) of the story to reveal a Quill icon on the right side (seeFIG. 260).

Click it to isolate the section from the rest of the story (seeFIG. 261).

Click on a sentence to expose any additional expressions you can opt into (seeFIG. 262).

Quill generates expressions using language patterns appropriate to the Communication Goal, so the number of additional expressions will vary and not all sentences will have additional expressions. Quill will alternate between them at random to give your story more language variation.

A7(i)(b): Review Mode

Project Reviewers have access to this aspect of Authoring. In review mode (seeFIG. 263), you can read stories and switch datasets to see how they affect the story. You can also see if there are any errors in the story with Quill's logic trace (discussed below).

Quill allows you to see the steps it takes to express Communication Goals as a story. If you click on any sentence in the story in Live Story in Review mode, Quill will show the underlying Communication Goal or Goals (seeFIG. 264).

Expand the arrow on the left of the Goal to see the steps Quill took to retrieve data based on the Communication Goal and Data Requirements (seeFIG. 265).

In this case, it created a Timeframe and an Entity Type. Then it “shows its work” of pulling the Attribute Value of “sales” constrained by the Timeframe of “month” and associated with the Entity Type “Salesperson1.”

The Logic Trace can also be downloaded as a JSON file from the Monitoring tab in Admin (seeFIG. 266).

You can monitor the status of any stories you run, whether they were written in Live Story or generated through API requests in the Monitoring tab in Admin. Here, you can see whether stories succeeded or failed, and filter for specific stories using the available filters below (seeFIG. 267).

Use the Newer and Older buttons to scroll through the stories (seeFIG. 268), and use the arrows on the column headers to set search criteria. You can filter by story status (seeFIG. 269), when the story completed writing (seeFIG. 270), the user who requested the story (seeFIG. 271), a run type for the story (seeFIG. 272), and a version for the story (seeFIG. 273).

A8: Managing Story Versions

Quill supports creating and keeping track of changes to and versions of the stories you configure.

A8(i): Drafts and Publishing

Once you have configured your story and are satisfied with its expression in Live Story, you can Publish the draft of your story (seeFIG. 274).

Once Published, your story will go live and that version will be the one that Quill uses when stories are requested through an API connection. After a draft has been Published, any changes you wish to make to the Project should be made after creating a new draft (seeFIG. 275).

Once a new draft has been created, it can be deleted. You can also switch to the Published version if you want to abandon the changes you have made in the new draft. The drafts and publishing dropdown is also where you can save the Project as a blueprint to share with others in the Organization (seeFIG. 276). This is discussed in Sharing.

Project Administrators are the only ones with draft creation and publishing privileges. While Editors may make changes to active drafts, they cannot publish them or create new ones. Reviewers only have access to review mode in Live Story and cannot create, make changes to, or publish drafts.

A8(ii): Change Log

Quill tracks configuration changes made within a Project. Anytime a user makes a change or adds a new element to a Project, it's noted in the Change Log. The Change Log can be accessed in the Admin section of Quill (seeFIG. 277).

Here, you can see a list of all changes in the Project, the users that made the changes, the date and time the changes were made, and the version of the project the changes were made to. As with Monitoring, you can page through the list of changes by clicking on the Newer and Older buttons (seeFIG. 278).

The Time, User, and Version information can be used to filter the list by using the drop-downs next to the column headers.FIG. 279shows an example dropdown to filter by time.

FIG. 280shows an example dropdown to filter by user.FIG. 281shows an example dropdown to filter by version.

You can also download the changes made as a CSV (seeFIG. 282) in order to plot the Project activity or aggregate it for purposes of visualization or archiving.

A9: Writing Stories in Production

Quill supports on-demand story generation by connecting to an API. The documentation can be accessed from Admin.

API request samples are available in the API Documentation tab of the Admin section of Authoring (seeFIG. 283). These samples are based on the project Outline configuration and available data source connections. Parameters and output formatting can be set here so that stories can be requested to meet specific data requirements from an outside application.

The Request Builder allows the user to select the dataset, set the format (Plain Text, HTML, JSON, or Word) of the output, and choose the syntax of the request sample (seeFIG. 284).

An external application can use the sample to post requests to the API to generate stories from Quill once the text in red has been replaced with its specific variables (seeFIG. 285).

Each Quill user will be able to request a certificate and key from their system administrator.

Stories can also be run on a schedule (seeFIG. 286).

Once Scheduling is enabled (seeFIG. 287), stories can be run at scheduled intervals (seeFIG. 288) beginning at a specific date and time. The run can be ended at a specific time or continue indefinitely. Additionally, you can set the format of the story to Plain Text, HTML, or JSON (seeFIG. 289), which can then be retrieved for viewing from the Monitoring page. Published Project schedules are un-editable at this time. To edit the schedule, create a new draft and update as needed.

A10: Sharing and Reuse

Projects can be shared with other users. The Draft dropdown menu includes an option to Save as Blueprint (seeFIG. 290).

Here, you can give the shared version of the Project a name and description (seeFIG. 291).

You can also specify how much of the Project you make available for sharing. You can include the Outline, Ontology (Entities), and Data Sources, the Outline and Ontology, or just the Outline (seeFIG. 292).

Projects that have been saved as blueprints can be accessed when choosing a blueprint. Quill defaults to including all shared projects, but you can filter blueprints based on what elements they include (Outline, Ontology, Data Sources) (seeFIG. 293).

The following provides a glossary for various terms used in connection with describing the example embodiment of Appendix A.

An Organization is a collection of Projects managed by an Administrator. Members of an Organization have access to those Projects within it that they have permissions for. Outlines are collections of building blocks that define an overall Story.

Communication Goals provide a bridge between analysis of data and the production of concepts expressed as text.

Narrative Analytics generate the information needed by Communication Goals to generate stories.

Projects are where stories are configured. A Project includes Authoring, the Data Manager, and Admin.

Project Blueprints are templates comprised of an Outline, specific story sections, and collections of Communication Goals.

An Ontology is a collection of Entity Types and Attributes, along with their expressions, that powers how Quill expresses your story.

An Entity Type is any primary “object” which has particular Attributes. An example is that a Sales Person (entity) has Sales (attribute). Relationships provide context for entities within a story.

Every Entity Type has a Base Entity Type that identifies to Quill whether it is a Person, Place, Thing, or Event.

Computed Values are a way of reducing a list of values into a representative value. The currently available aggregations are count, maximum, mean, median, minimum, and total, and the currently available function is contribution.

Characterizations are editorial judgments based on thresholds that determine the language used in communication goals when certain conditions are met.

Expressions are the various words Quill uses to express a particular concept generated by the combination of executing Narrative Analytics and Story Elements.

A Timeframe is a unit of time used as a parameter to constrain the values included in the expression of a Communication Goal or story.

Variability is variation in the language of a story. Variability is provided through having multiple Entity and Characterization expressions as well as option into additional sentence expressions through Language Guidance.

Authoring includes the Outline, Data Requirements, and Live Story. This is where you configure Communication Goals, map Entity Types and Attributes to values in the data, and review generated stories.

Data Requirements are how a user tells Quill the method by which we will satisfy a Communication Goal's data requirements. These are what a Narrative Analytic and Communication Goal need to be able to express a concept. These are satisfied either directly by configuration of the data requirements or through the execution of Narrative Analytics.

A Story Variable is the focus of a story supplied at runtime as a value from a data source (as opposed to a static value).

A Draft is an editable version of the story in a Project. Project Administrators and Editors have the ability to make changes to Drafts. Project Administrators can publish Drafts and create new ones.

The Data Manager is the part of the Project where Data Views and Data Sources backing the story are managed. This is where files are uploaded and database connections are added.

A Data View is a used by Quill to map the Outline's information needs against Data Sources. A Project can be backed by multiple Data Views that are mapped using Identifiers in the schemas.

A Data Source is a file or table in a database used to support the Narrative Analytics and generation of a story.

Admin allows you to manage all aspects of story generation other than language and data. This is where Monitoring, the Change Log, API Documentation, Project Settings, and Scheduling are located.

A12: Communication Goal Families

The example embodiment of Appendix A supports three communication goal families: Present, Callout, and Compare.

Present

The Present goal family is used to express an attribute of a particular entity or group of entities.

Most Present goal statements have the form “Present the attribute (or computed value) of the specified entity/group.” For example:Present the price of the car.Present the price of the highest ranked by reviews item.Present the average value of the deals made by the salesperson.

The two exceptions to this form are when the Count or Contribution computed values are used, in which case the statements look like this:Present the count of the group.E.g. Present the count of the franchises in the region.Present the attribute contribution of the entity to the parent entity.E.g. Present the point contribution of the player to the team.

The Callout goal family is used to identify the entity or group of entities that has some editorially-interesting position, role, or characteristics. E.g. the highest ranked salesperson, franchises with more than $1 k in daily sales, players on the winning team, etc. Every Callout goal statement has the same structure: “Callout the specified entity/group.” For example:Callout the highest ranked by sales salesperson.Callout the franchises with more than 1,000 in daily sales.Callout the players on the winning team.

Compare

The Compare goal is used to compare the values of two attributes on the same entity. Every Compare goal has the same structure: Compare the first attribute of the specified entity to the second attribute. For example:Compare the sales of the salesperson to the benchmark.Compare the final value of the deal to the expected value.Compare the revenue of the business to the expenses.

Quill is able to express certain configured goals as Charts, such as Bar and Line. These have default styling and colors and are guided by the Communication Goal's Narrative Analytics. Charts are supported in each available output format.

A13(ii): Supported Document Structures

Generally, Quill supports documents that are homogenous (uniformly structured) with stable keys. Example permutations of supported structures are described below.

A13(ii)(a): Single Document

In this example, as long as all documents contain the same keys (in this case, “a”, “b”, and “c”) Quill can use this data structure.

A13(ii)(b): Nested Documents

Documents with other documents nested within them are supported, though the nested documents must be homogenous with stable keys across documents.

A first example is:

A second example is:

The example embodiment of Appendix A does not support heterogeneous documents (non-uniform) or documents where values are used as keys.

A13(iii): Styling Rules

Oxford Commas

Quill does not use Oxford commas. So it writes like “Mary spoke with Tom, Dick and Harry” and not like “Mary spoke with Tom, Dick, and Harry.”

Spaces Between Sentences

Quill puts one space between sentences.

Dates

Year: Datetimes that are just years are expressed numerically.

Month and Year: Datetimes that are just months and years have written out months and numeric years.

Day, Month, and Year: Datetimes that are full dates are written out months with numeric days and years.

Percents are rounded to two places, trailing zeros are removed, and a “%” is appended.

Ordinals are written with numerical contractions.

Decimals

Decimals are written out with decimal parts and commas inserted.

Currencies

Currencies are currently assumed to be USD. In the future, they can be locale-specific (e.g. Euros). They're styled differently based on how big they are.

Less than One Thousand

Rounds to two decimal places. There are always two decimal places.

Less than Ten Thousand

Rounds to an integer.

Less than One Million

Rounds to thousands with zero decimal places, appends a “K”

Less than One Billion

Rounds to millions with one decimal place if necessary, appends an “M”

Less than One Trillion

Rounds to billions with two decimal places if necessary, appends an “M”

Supported Datetime Formats

The following datetime formats are supported in Quill.

A13(iv): Using Multiple Data Views

Users can satisfy their outline's data requirements using multiple data views. While it may often be more straightforward to create a de-normalized view in the source database, the following use cases are supported. These apply to both tabular and document-based data sources.

Single Entity Type, Attribute Lookup by Entity ID

Quill can return the Gender from Data View 2 associated with the Sales Person's ID in Data View 1 using the Sales Person ID.

Data View 2Sales Person IDGender123Male456Female

Two Entity Types

Quill can match the Transactions in Data View 2 to the Sales People in Data View 1 by Sales Person ID.

A13(v): Permission Structure