Affiliations: Graduate School of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hino, Tokyo, Japan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Yasufumi Takama, Graduate School of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 6-6 Asahigaoka, Hino, Tokyo 191-0065, Japan. Tel./Fax: +81 42 585 8629; E-mail:ytakama@tmu.ac.jp
Abstract: This paper proposes an interactive visualization system that supports tasks
of monitoring multiple BBS threads. A BBS is one of important resources
about the latest information and wide range of opinions about various
topics. However, we must spend much time on reading large number of posts in
several threads to recognize discussed topics. Furthermore, a monitoring
support system should be designed considering characteristics specific to
monitoring task. That is, it should be done during breaks of our primary
jobs. The proposed system employs keyword-based visualization, and a user
can track various topics by selecting keywords of interest. In order to
provide users with keywords reflecting topics and those giving details about
topics, two types of keywords are extracted. Those are tracking candidates
and detailed keywords, which are extracted with different measures.
Furthermore, the system employs multiple views for displaying topics about
multiple threads and focused thread at the same time. Experiments are
conducted with test participants, of which the results show the system can
provide various keywords with different granularities. It is also shown that
participants checked topics of interest by using the provided information as
a clue for selecting keywords.
Keywords: Information visualization, monitoring support, text stream data, BBS
