Patent Document ID: 6115718
Application ID: 09053616
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for predicting document access within a collection of linked documents comprising the steps of: a) gathering usage data for said collection of linked documents; b) generating initial activation information, said initial activation information indicating a set of focus documents in said collection of linked documents; c) generating page to page transition information from said usage data, said page to page transition information indicating a strength of association between documents in said collection of linked documents; d) generating link probability information from said usage data, said link probability information indicating a distribution of the number of documents a user will access in said collection of linked documents; e) performing a spreading activation operation based on said initial activation information, page to page transition information and said probability information based on a network representation of said collection of linked documents; and f) extracting said document access information resulting from said spreading activation step when a stable pattern of activation across all nodes of said network representation of said collection of linked documents is reached.