Abstract:
A program product characterizes a set of information to determine common characteristics among subsets of the set of information. The program product includes computer instructions which obtain characteristic data that describe characteristics of an entity. For example, the characteristic data may include titles of individuals within an organization. The computer instructions also obtain a set of information associated with the entity (e.g. a set of e-mail messages, Web pages, business memoranda, etc.) The computer instructions identify key terms within the set of information and classify the set of information into at least first and second subsets. In addition, the computer instructions characterize the first subset as more important than the second subset, based on the key terms and the characteristic data. For example, a subset of documents associated with officers of a company may be characterized as more important than a subset of documents associated with temporary employees.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is related to U.S. Ser. No. 09/968.953, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING STATISTICS, filed on Oct. 1, 2001, and naming as inventors Michael Kim et al. (hereinafter “the 0114 Application). 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates in general to the field of data processing. More specifically, this invention relates to automated systems and methods for analyzing collections of documents to extract important information from the collections. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     An enormous amount of information is contained in data processing systems around the world. For example, a single large business organization typically has multiple banks of e-mail servers containing millions of e-mail messages for thousands of employees. In addition, organizations often have thousands of personnel records stored on one or more different systems, such as mini or mainframe computer systems. Additional kinds of information typically kept include marketing materials, technical reports, business memoranda, and so on, stored in various types of computer systems. 
     For instance, organizations typically use different programs to create and modify different kinds of information and typically use many different kinds of hardware, operating systems, file systems, and data formats to store the information. When stored, the information is typically organized into discrete records containing closely related data items. For example, a typical e-mail server stores each e-mail message as a separate row in a single database file, with multiple columns within the row holding the data that constitutes the message. Likewise, some personnel systems store each employee&#39;s personnel data as related records in one or more files, with multiple fields in each record containing information such as employee name, start date, etc. Similarly, a Web server may store each Web page as lines of text in a file or a group of related files. However, despite the differences in file format and such used for different types of information, each e-mail message, each Web page, each employee&#39;s personnel data, and each similar collection of information is referred to as a “document.” 
     When organization databases grow to contain thousands or millions of documents, traditional tools for retrieving data, such as search and sort functions, lose much of their practical utility. For example, when millions of e-mail messages are available, searching for a particular message or for a message relating to a particular topic is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In such a situation, the individual performing the search is faced with too much information (TMI), and the knowledge embedded within the stored information remains largely untapped. 
     In recent years, some businesses have attempted to utilize the large pools of information on their data processing systems to greater advantage by analyzing that information with techniques known generally as data mining. As defined by the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary, data mining is “the process of identifying commercially useful patterns or relationships in databases or other computer repositories through the use of advanced statistical tools” (4th ed., p. 125). 
     As one example, a cluster tool organizes documents into groups based on the contents of the documents. For instance, a business with customer complaint e-mails could identify areas of concern by using a cluster tool to group related customer complaints together. By contrast, traditional search techniques require the user to know in advance what characteristics are important. For example, with a traditional search function, an automobile manufacturer specifies a specific term, such as “engine,” to determine whether engine complaints are numerous. A cluster tool, on the other hand, groups complaints into subject areas, thereby highlighting areas of concern that the manufacturer might not otherwise think to explore. 
     However, a number of disadvantages are associated with conventional data mining systems, including shortcomings relating to the amount of time required to produce results, the pertinence of the results to the organization using those results, and the ability to analyze documents from different time periods, particularly when the analysis involves documents that have been archived. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for extracting knowledge from documents. In one embodiment, a data mining system according to the present invention includes a data retrieving component, a data integrating component, and a query manager. The data retrieving component and the data integrating component cooperate to generate intermediate data, such as marked-up documents, key term vectors, and/or data cubes, based on raw documents, such as e-mail messages, associated with an organization. The query manager uses the intermediate data to respond to queries relating to the raw documents. 
     In another embodiment, the data integrating component generates and stores the intermediate data automatically and substantially independently of the query manager. For instance, the intermediate data may be generated and stored according to a sampling period. 
     In another embodiment, the data retrieving component identifies which raw documents are pertinent to the organization, based on characteristic data for the organization (i.e., organization data), such as personnel records. In this embodiment, the data retrieving component filters the raw documents by generating marked-up documents for the raw documents identified as pertinent. For example, if processing e-mail messages, the data retrieving component may generate marked-up documents only for e-mail messages which were both sent and received by members of the organization. 
     Additional embodiments provide other technological solutions which facilitate knowledge extraction. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     A more complete understanding of the invention and its objectives and advantages may be acquired by referring to the following description and the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 presents a block diagram of an example data mining system; 
     FIG. 2 presents a flow chart of a process for generating marked-up documents from raw documents; 
     FIG. 3 is a table depicting organization data; 
     FIG. 4 is a table depicting data in an e-mail system; 
     FIG. 5 depicts a data file containing marked-up documents; 
     FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting a process for periodically generating organization-specific data from marked-up documents; 
     FIG. 7 depicts an example data cube for holding organization-specific document statistics; 
     FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting a process for processing requests from users; and 
     FIG. 9 presents a block diagram of an example data processing system. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Overview 
     Among the disadvantages associated with conventional data mining systems is the substantial amount of time required to perform each data mining analysis, particularly when analyzing millions of documents. The time consuming operations performed by conventional data mining systems include a data preprocessing step to extract data from raw documents and a statistical processing step to extract knowledge from the extracted data. A conventional data mining tool performs both of those steps for each analysis. Such a tool therefore does not produce results rapidly and ties up computing resources for significant periods of time. 
     Another disadvantage of conventional data mining systems is that when an organization performs data mining, the analysis typically does not factor in specific characteristics of that organization. Consequently, the results may not reveal the knowledge of primary importance to the organization. Although some data mining tools allow users to perform customized analyses, such customization requires additional input from the users and additional computing time for each different analysis. 
     Furthermore, conventional data mining systems typically are not well suited for analysis of information that changes over time, in that a completely new analysis is required whenever a different set of documents is to be included. Each analysis, moreover, requires substantial data processing resources, and the user 
     therefore experiences a substantial delay while awaiting the results. 
     In addition, organizations with large databases typically archive older data by moving that data from readily accessible storage mechanisms, such as hard drives, to other storage media, such as tapes or optical disks. Archiving reduces the amount of hard drive space that would otherwise be required, but archiving also substantially increases the time required to access the archived data. Consequently, in conventional data mining systems, the problem of poor response time is exacerbated when some of the information is no longer readily available, for example as a result of having been archived to tape. 
     The consumption of processing resources and response time problems mentioned above also make conventional data mining systems poorly suited for detecting trends over different time periods. These and other disadvantages limit the practical utility of conventional data mining systems. 
     A need has therefore arisen for improved systems and methods for mining data. For example, organizations would benefit from data mining systems and methods that provide results upon request more rapidly. Additional benefits would be realized from data mining systems and methods that provide results rapidly even when the raw documents forming the basis of the analysis are relatively inaccessible. Further benefits would be provided by data mining systems and methods that automatically factor in characteristics of organizations when analyzing documents for those organizations, so that an analysis automatically identifies information of particular importance to a particular organization without specific user guidance. 
     As summarized above and described in greater detail below, various embodiments of the present invention provide such technical advantages. For instance, in some embodiments that generate the intermediate data automatically and independently, the intermediate data allow queries to be processed more rapidly than is possible when resorting to raw data for each analysis. When the intermediate data include data cubes, those data cubes further expedite the processing of requests involving aggregate data along any of the data cubes&#39; multiple dimensions. Furthermore, the intermediate data allow the query manager to process queries relating to raw documents even after some of those raw documents have been archived. 
     In some embodiments that filter the raw documents based on characteristics of the organization, the resulting intermediate data allow the query manager to identify information of particular importance to the organization without specific user guidance. Filtering also further reduces the amount of time and resources required to process queries. Consequently, multiple requests relating to different time periods may be processed more easily and rapidly, relative to conventional data mining systems. Additional advantages will become apparent upon review of the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. 
     EXAMPLE EMBODIMENT(S) 
     An example embodiment is described in detail below, and various alternative embodiments are described briefly. However, the invention is not limited to those example embodiments, but is defined by the claims. 
     For instance, FIG. 1 presents a block diagram of an example embodiment of a data mining system  10  according to the present invention. Data mining system  10  is a program product that includes control logic and data constructs which reside in one or more data processing systems  12 . Among the components of data mining system  10  are a data retrieving component  20 , a data integrating component  22 , and a query manager  24 , each of which is implemented as computer instructions. The components operate relatively independently of the others. For example, each component runs within its own virtual machine and uses remote method invocation (RMI) to interact with the other components. 
     Data processing system  12  operates within a client-server network. Data processing system  12  may act as a server within that network relative to a client data processing system  232  and as a client relative to one or more external data sources, such as an e-mail server  30  and/or an Internet server  32 . Data processing system  12  may include data storage, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), one or more hard disk drives, CD-ROM drives, etc., and one or more central processing units (CPUs). Visual output may be presented primarily on displays of remote systems, such as client  232 . The different components for data storage, instruction processing, output presentation, etc., are known generally as processing resources. 
     Data mining system  10  may be implemented, for example, in the JAVA programming language using SUN&#39;s JAVA DEVELOPMENT KIT (JDK) version 1.3. In addition, the visualizations may be implemented using JAVASERVER PAGES (JSPs) and JAVA Servlet technology. Any JSP 1.1 and Servlet 2.2 compliant application server/container, such as ALLAIRE/MACROMEDIA&#39;s JRun, may be used as the application container to host the JSPs and Servlets. Open source tools such as FLEX and JCup that aid developers in creating robust and flexible parsers in JAVA may be used to write query tools that do real-time parsing of user queries. A standard SQL92 and JDBC compliant database server, such as MICROSOFT IIS Webserver 4.0 communicating with a backend MICROSOFT SQL Server 7.0 database, may be used to deploy data mining system  10 . Any available web server could be used with the preceding technology to serve web pages, provided the web server allows third party JSP/Servlet application servers to connect to it to serve the dynamic pages. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other technologies may be used to implement data mining system  10 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 2, a flowchart illustrates the processing performed by data retrieving component  20 . The illustrated processing begins at block  70  with data retrieving component  20  executing on data processing system  12 . As shown at block  72 , data retrieving component  20  then retrieves organization or entity data from one or more files or databases  25 , such as the files maintain by an organization&#39;s personnel system. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, database  25  may contain one or more personnel files  26  with the name, title, department, supervisor, etc., for each member of the organization. 
     Data retrieving component  20  then enters a processing loop which begins at block  74  with data retrieving component  20  receiving a document, such as an e-mail message or a Web page, from one or more external data sources, such as e-mail server  30  and/or Internet server  32 . 
     For example, with reference to FIG. 4, data retrieving component  20  may obtain e-mail messages from one or more e-mail files  28 . Typically, e-mail file  28  will contain messages received by members of the organization from external sources, such as the message from Doris Jones, and messages sent by members of the organization to external recipients. In addition, e-mail file  28  will generally include internal messages, such as the other three messages illustrated in FIG.  4 . An internal message is a message having a sender and a recipient who are both members of the organization. 
     In the illustrated embodiment, data retrieving component  20  includes numerous different spokes for obtaining documents from different data sources, such as an e-mail spoke  34  for monitoring e-mail messages and an Internet spoke  36  for monitoring Web sites. The documents that data retrieving component  20  obtains from external sources are raw documents. 
     As indicated at block  80 , for each raw document obtained, data retrieving component  20  automatically determines whether that raw document is pertinent to the organization. The criteria used to determine pertinence (i.e., the filter criteria) are adapted to the data source being monitored. For example, in one embodiment, e-mail spoke  34  analyzes sender and recipient fields in each e-mail message and filters out all messages except internal messages. 
     The Internet spoke can take advantage of knowledge of where different WebPages and sites are located and can filter out, for example, all pages except those that come from the corporate intranet. In another embodiment, the Internet spoke can also filter out web pages and sites that do not directly pertain to the corporation&#39;s customers (e.g., filtering based on network topology) and thus allow finer grain analysis of customer relationships as well. 
     The spoke concept can be easily extended to include other various sorts of digital resources. These include, but are not limited to, documents lying in corporate databases and documents lying in various knowledge bases, as well as individual employee contributions to knowledge from their personal collections of documents. 
     Referring again to block  80  of FIG. 2, if a raw document does not pass the filter criteria, the process returns to the top of the processing loop to receive another document, as indicated by the arrow leading back to block  74 . However, if the raw document does pass, data retrieving component  20  then generates a marked-up document from the raw document, as indicated by block  82 . 
     For instance, referring again to FIG. 4, in the illustrated embodiment, data retrieving component  20  receives e-mail messages that contain attributes (e.g., data fields) identifying a sender, a recipient, a subject, a body, and a time for each message. Data retrieving component  20  then generates corresponding marked-up documents with corresponding tags, such as “subject” tags, “time” tags, etc. 
     Referring now to FIG. 5, in the example embodiment, data retrieving component  20  stores all marked-up documents in one or more files  88 , with the content of each document encoded according to standard extensible markup language (XML). In FIG. 5, for instance, the set of lines indicated by bracket  38  includes one marked-up document, and the set of lines indicated by bracket  40  includes another marked-up document. Also, although data retrieving component  20  uses multiple spokes to obtain documents with different formats from different external sources, in the example embodiment the spokes give all of the resulting marked-up documents the same basic file format. Furthermore, data retrieving component  20  may use the same tags to identify similar or identical parts, such as time and subject attributes, of different types of raw documents. Consequently, the other components of data mining system  10  need not handle multiple file formats for data to be analyzed. 
     Then, as indicated by block  84 , data retrieving component  20  stores the marked-up document, for example in a database  86 , for use by other components of data mining system  10 . The process then returns to the top of the processing loop to receive another document, as indicated by the arrow leading back to block  74 . 
     In one implementation, the above process is used upon initial installation of data mining system  10  to extract and reformat pertinent data from one or more existing sets of information, such as an e-mail database. Further, once initialization is complete, the process is used on an ongoing basis, for example with data retrieving component  20  monitoring data sources, such as e-mail server  30 , and generating marked-up documents in real time, thereby ensuring that the marked-up documents include the most current information available. 
     With reference now to FIG. 6, there is depicted a flowchart of the process performed by data integrating component  22 . The illustrated process begins at block  90  with data integrating component  20  executing on data processing system  12 . As shown at block  92 , data integrating component  22  then retrieves organization data from one or more files or databases  25 , such as personnel file  26  of FIG.  3 . 
     At block  94 , data integrating component  22  determines whether it is time to process a new batch of marked-up documents. The process does not proceed further until the proper time for the next run has been reached, as indicated by the arrow returning to block  94 . For example, in one implementation, data integrating component  22  is configured to process marked-up documents according to a predetermined schedule or predetermined intervals, such as hourly, daily, weekly, etc. In other implementations, different intervals are used to reach a desired balance between consumption of computing resources and needs for the most current information. For example, shorter intervals are typically used when the data being analyzed change frequently. 
     If the time to process marked-up documents has been reached, data integrating component  22  proceeds to determine whether there are any marked-up documents to process, as shown at block  96 . If no new marked-up documents have been stored by data retrieving component  20  since data integrating component  22  performed its last processing run, the process returns to block  94  to await the time for the next scheduled execution. 
     However, if one or more new marked-up documents have been stored, data integrating component  22  reads one of those documents, filters out filler words, and extracts key terms from that document, as indicated at block  98 . Conventional text analysis tools may be used to extract the key terms. As shown at block  100 , the key terms are then stored for use by query manager  24 . Specifically, in the example embodiment, the key terms from each document are stored as a key term vector in a database  130 . In addition to identifying a documents&#39; key terms, a key term vector specifies a frequency count for each key term in the document. 
     As indicated at block  110 , in the example embodiment, data integrating component  22  uses both the data in the marked-up document and the organization data to generate many different kinds of summary statistics. As explained below, query manager  24  uses those summary statistics to rapidly perform many different kinds of analyses. 
     In the example embodiment, the processing depicted at step  110  includes an initial stage in which data integrating component  22  determines which “units” of the organization are associated with each document. That is, data integrating component  22  treats the organization as a collection of units. For instance, each person within the organization is considered a unit, and people are grouped into other units, such as departments. 
     For example, with reference to FIG. 3, when processing data from an e-mail message, data integrating component  22  determines who the sender and recipient were, thus identifying two of the units associated with that document. Also, data integrating component  22  cross references the sender and recipient with the organization data (e.g., the personnel records, the files defining the organization&#39;s e-mail distribution lists, etc.) to identify additional units associated with the message. For instance, in one embodiment, data integrating component  22  cross references to the name, title, and supervisor fields depicted in FIG.  3 . Thus, data integrating component  22  may determine, for example, that a message is also associated with two different departments, such as marketing and software development, and two different vertical sections of the organization, such as one section focused on serving the telecommunications industry and another section focused on serving the automotive industry. In such a manner, data integrating component  22  may determine that many different units of the organization are involved with each document. For example, the units involved in the above example would be the following: at one level—the individuals identified as sender and recipient; at a different level—the departments of each of those individuals; and at yet another level, the vertical sections of those individuals. 
     Similar techniques are used to identify units associated with other types of documents. Since the summary statistics are generated by integrating the documents with the organization data, the summary statistics are also known as organization-specific or entity-specific summary statistics. 
     As indicated at block  112 , after determining which units of the organization are associated with the current document, data integrating component  22  uses those findings to update a tally summarizing the findings from all of the documents in the processing run. Specifically, data integrating component  22  stores those results in a data cube. That data construct allows query manager  24  to compute responses to queries more rapidly than is possible with conventional data mining systems. 
     Referring now also to FIG. 7, a data cube is a data construct with three or more logical dimensions containing at least (a) a set of core cells  200  encoding specific data points, (b) a grand total point  202 , (c) a subtotal line  204  for each pair of dimensions, and (d) a subtotal plane  206  for each pair of dimensions. In particular, FIG. 7 depicts an example data cube representing a logical data structure for holding the results of the above analysis. The data cube in FIG. 7 has three dimensions: Industry, Department, and Direction. As shown, the Industry dimension includes two values (i.e., Automotive and Telecom), the Direction dimension includes two values (i.e., Send and Receive), and the Business Unit dimension includes three values (i.e., Sales, Development, and Consulting). Consequently, subtotal line  204   a , for example, contains values indicating how many total e-mail messages were sent and received by the sales department, how many were sent and received by the development department, and how many were sent and received by the consulting department. 
     The number of values for each dimension also results in core cells  200  forming a two-by-two-by-three cube of cells. Each cell contains the data for one particular combination of the values for each dimension. For example, the sender and recipient of a particular message may both belong to the consulting department. The sender and recipient may both also belong to the industry vertical section associated with the telecom industry (i.e., the Telecom vertical). Therefore, when processing such a message, data integrating component  22  increments the values in core cells  200   a  and  200   b . As a result, grand total point  202 , subtotal lines  204  and  204   a , and subtotal planes  206  would also reflect those incremented values. Each cell therefore contains summary data for one particular subset of documents. 
     In alternative embodiments, data cubes have more than three dimensions. For example, a data cube that contains organization-specific document statistics derived from e-mail messages include all of the dimensions described above, as well as dimensions for counting e-mail messages between each pair of units within the organization. 
     As illustrated in FIG. 6 by the arrow returning to block  96  from block  112 , after each document has been analyzed and the results of that analysis stored, data integrating component  22  determines whether any more documents remain to be processed. If any documents remain, each is processed in the manner described above. After all documents have been processed, the flow returns to block  94  to await the proper time for the next execution. 
     In the example embodiment, data integrating component  22  creates a new data cube to hold the results of each periodic execution. For example, if data integrating component  22  runs once per day, a new data cube is created every day, encoding the results of that day&#39;s analysis. The period for each consecutive execution of the above process is known as a sampling period. Also, a collection of data cubes containing data from consecutive sampling periods is known as a hyper data cube  220 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 8, there is depicted a flowchart of the processing performed by query manager  24 . The illustrated processing begins at block  120  with query manager  24  executing on data processing system  12 . As shown at block  122 , query manager  24  then receives a request or query relating generally to the raw documents that were processed by data retrieving component  20  and data integrating component  22 . In the example embodiment, query manager  24  receives requests from a presentation component  230  of data mining system  10 , and presentation component  230  typically generates the requests based on user input received from Web browsing software running in one or more client data processing systems  232 . 
     After receiving a query, query manger  24  processes the query, as shown at block  124 . At this point in time, data retrieving component  20  and data integrating component  22  will have already processed the raw data by steps such as filtering the documents, saving the content from the pertinent documents in a standardized format, and summarizing the relationships between each document and the business&#39;s organizational units, as described above. Query manager  24  uses the intermediate data that were saved by data retrieving component  20  and data integrating component  22  to compute responses to a wide variety of requests more rapidly than would be possible if query manager were required to resort to the raw documents. 
     For example, if the query requests a list of the topics that were discussed most frequently for a particular period of time, query manager  24  uses the key term vectors in database  130  to quickly identify which terms occurred most often. In one embodiment, query manager  24  identifies those terms using the measure of association known as “simple matching coefficient” (i.e., query manager  24  uses “simple coefficient vector matching”). 
     Query manager  24  also uses the key term vectors to process queries relating to message flow within the organization, such as a request for a summary of how many messages were sent from one or more specified departments to one or more specified departments. 
     If a query requests a summary of how many messages were sent and received for a particular time period, query manager  24  uses the appropriate data cubes within hyper data cube  220  to quickly respond with that summary. For example, query manager  24  can use data cubes to handle a request for a grand total of messages for a single time period by department, by direction, by industry vertical, or by any combination of those dimensions. Similarly, query manager  24  can use data cubes to handle a request for message count subtotals at predetermined intervals within a single time period. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, the data cubes and key term vectors support numerous additional types of requests as well. 
     In one embodiment, query manager  24  uses an intermediate component, such as a classification engine  234 , to help generate responses to some or all types of queries. Further, classification engine  234  recognizes that fields such as title, department, and supervisor from the organization data reflect the organization&#39;s chain of command, and classification engine  234  therefore interprets such fields as importance attributes. Moreover, for certain types of queries, such as a query requesting a list of the most important topics discussed via e-mail in the organization, classification engine  234  analyzes the extracted data from the marked-up documents in light of those importance attributes, giving greater weight to documents associated with higher-level employees, such as the CEO. 
     The basis of classification based on organizational structure is that most charts of organizational units lend themselves well to tree like structures. Data mining system  10  takes this thinking into account and presents the notion of “drilling down” and “drilling up” along the org chart. Then, at each level within the organizational structure, data mining system  10  recognizes is a separate focus and group of relevant documents. The organization chart is initially provided by the organization but may evolve throughout the lifetime of data mining system  10  based on usage patterns and levels of importance given to certain levels of the organization. 
     After computing the requested information, query manager  24  returns the results, as indicated at block  126  of FIG. 8, and the flow of the process returns to block  122 . Query manager  24  may then repeat the steps described above for each subsequent query that is received. 
     Data mining system  10  thus cross references the organization data with the intermediate data during querying time, which enables data mining system  10  to process many different kinds of user queries. For example, if a user submits a query to see the amount of communication going on between users in the development group and users in the Computer vertical, an embodiment of the data mining system  10  rapidly garners the requested information by first getting all communications from one group to another and then paring down based on known organization data. 
     CONCLUSION 
     Although one or more example embodiments or implementations of the present invention have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes and substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, FIG. 1 depicts data mining system  10  as residing within a single data processing system  12 , with input data, such as raw documents and user input, obtained from external data processing systems. 
     With reference to FIG. 9, the processing resources within data processing system  12  may include data storage, such as read only memory (ROM)  300 , random access memory (RAM)  302 , one or more hard disk drives  304 , CD-ROM drives, etc., and one or more central processing units (CPUs)  306 . The processing resources may also include input devices  310 , such as a keyboard and a pointing device, as well as one or more network interfaces  312 , such as Ethernet ports. A display  322  may also be provided, along with a display adapter  324  for driving display  322 . One or more buses  320  may be used to interconnect the various processing resources. The control logic and data constructs of data mining system  10  may be stored in nonvolatile data storage, such as in the one or more hard disk drives  304 , with some or all of data mining system  10  then loaded into RAM  300  to facilitate execution on the one or more CPUs  306 . 
     However, it should be understood that the present invention may also be implemented in numerous other hardware environments. Data processing systems incorporating the invention may include, without limitation, personal computers, mini computers, mainframe computers, and distributed computing systems. Furthermore, all of the components of the data mining system need not reside on the same data processing system. Moreover, some or all of the external systems, such as the e-mail server and/or the client Web browser, could reside on the same data processing system as the data mining system. 
     In addition, alternative embodiments of the invention include computer-usable media encoding logic such as computer instructions for performing the operations of the invention. Such computer-usable media may include, without limitation, storage media such as floppy disks, hard disks, CD-ROMs, read-only memory, and random access memory; as well as communications media such wires, optical fibers, microwaves, radio waves, and other electromagnetic and/or optical carriers. 
     The scope of the invention is therefore not limited to the particulars of the illustrated embodiments or implementations but is defined by the appended claims.