William M Spangler

US Patent:

6338066, Jan 8, 2002

Filed:

Sep 25, 1998

Appl. No.:

09/160828

Inventors:

David Charles Martin - San Jose CA
Hansel Joseph Miranda - San Jose CA
Mark Paul Plutowski - Santa Cruz CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA
Shivakumar Vaithyanathan - San Jose CA
Kevin Wheeler - Mountain View CA
David Hilton Wolpert - Los Gatos CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 15163

US Classification:

707 10, 707 5, 707 6, 707102, 709203, 709217, 709223

Abstract:

Given a log of previous web-surfer behavior listing the order in which each surfer downloaded specific items at the web site, and given a meaningful classification of those same items, future surfer behavior is predicted by the present invention. The algorithm utilizes a quantitative model relating items downloaded prior to some specified event to items downloaded after that same event. When the model is applied to a new surfers session prior to an analogous event, the present invention predicts the likely behavior of the surfer subsequent to that event. The predicted behavior is then further analyzed to derive a quantitative value for the utility of the expected behavior. By randomly selecting sample sessions from a web log, multiple models of surfer behavior can be generated. The multiple models can then be applied to a new surfers session to produce a predicted behavior/utility distribution and thus a confidence interval for the predicted behavior/utility.

US Patent:

6397215, May 28, 2002

Filed:

Oct 29, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/429651

Inventors:

Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707 7, 707 6

Abstract:

A system and method for automatic generation of a comparison list given two different classifications, and automatic sorting of the list in order of similarity. A first dictionary is generated including a subset of words contained in a first document set, the first document set including at least one document and having an associated first classification including at least one class, each class having a class name. A second dictionary is generated including a subset of words contained in a second document set, the second document set including at least one document and having an associated second classification including at least one class, each class having a class name. A common dictionary including words that are common to both the first dictionary and the second dictionary is generated. A count of occurrences of each word in the common dictionary within each document in each document set is generated. A centroid of each class in the space of the common dictionary is generated.

US Patent:

6424971, Jul 23, 2002

Filed:

Oct 29, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/429650

Inventors:

Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
Dharmendra Shantilal Modha - San Jose CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707 7, 707101, 707 6, 707 4

Abstract:

A system, method, and computer program product for interactively classifying and analyzing data is particularly applicable to classification and analysis of textual data. It is particularly useful in identification of helpdesk inquiry and problem categories amenable to automated fulfillment or solution. A dictionary is generated based on a frequency of occurrence of words in a document set. A count of occurrences of each word in the dictionary within each document in the document set is generated. The set of documents is partitioned into a plurality of clusters. A name, a centroid, a cohesion score, and a distinctness score are generated for each cluster and displayed in a table. The documents contained in the clusters sorted based on their similarity to other documents in the cluster. The similarity may be determined by calculating the distance of the document to the centroid of the cluster and the documents may be sorted in order of ascending or descending distance of the document to the centroid of the cluster. Editing input may be received from a user and the displayed table modified based on the received editing inputâclusters may be split or deleted.

US Patent:

6510431, Jan 21, 2003

Filed:

Jun 28, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/340380

Inventors:

Matthias Eichstaedt - San Jose CA
Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
Vikas Krishna - San Jose CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707 10, 709224

Abstract:

A system and method for routing customer requests to advisors is disclosed. The system and method comprises at least one customer server process for receiving customer requests and classifying the information to produce a classified request, the classified request comprising the original request and at least one attribute. The system further comprises at least one advisor server process for receiving the classified requests, comparing the classified requests by associated profiles from the advisors to find matching attributes with classified request, and creating a connection between the requesting customer and at least one advisor, the at least one advisor having submitted a profile with matching attributes. A routing system in accordance with the present invention reduces response time to a problem and saves advisor time. The system also provides for an automatic response to frequent problems at increased efficiency.

US Patent:

6684205, Jan 27, 2004

Filed:

Oct 18, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/690854

Inventors:

Dharmendra Shantilal Modha - San Jose CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707 3, 707 10, 7155011, 715513

Abstract:

A method and structure of searching a database containing hypertext documents comprising searching the database using a query to produce a set of hypertext documents; and geometrically clustering the set of hypertext documents into various clusters using a toric k-means similarity measure such that documents within each cluster are similar to each other, wherein the clustering has a linear-time complexity in producing the set of hypertext documents, wherein the similarity measure comprises a weighted sum of maximized individual components of the set of hypertext documents, and wherein the clustering is based upon words contained in each hypertext document, out-links from each hypertext document, and in-links to each hypertext document.

US Patent:

6804665, Oct 12, 2004

Filed:

Apr 18, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/836200

Inventors:

Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
Michael A. Lamb - New Paltz NY
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1700

US Classification:

707 3, 707104, 707 1

Abstract:

A method (and system) of determining a knowledge gap between a first database containing a set of problems records and a second database containing solutions documents, includes developing a set of clusters of the problems records of the first database, where each cluster has a centroid, developing a dictionary having entries based on the problems records in the first database, developing a vector space correlated to the solutions documents in the second database, where the vector space is based on the dictionary entries, developing a listing of distances between the cluster centroids and the vector space, and determining a knowledge gap for each cluster.

US Patent:

6804670, Oct 12, 2004

Filed:

Aug 22, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/935473

Inventors:

Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
Justin Thomas Lessler - San Jose CA
Michael Ponce Sanchez - Tustin CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

707 7, 707 3, 707 5, 707102

Abstract:

A system and method automatically identify candidate helpdesk problem categories that are most amenable to automated solutions. The system generates a dictionary wherein each word in the text data set is identified, and the number of documents containing these words is counted, and a corresponding count is generated. The documents are partitioned into clusters. For each generated cluster, the system sorts the dictionary terms in order of decreasing occurrence frequency. It then determines a search space by selecting the top dictionary terms as specified by a user defined depth of search. Next, the system chooses a set of terms from the search space as specified by a user-defined value indicating the desired level of detail. For each possible combination of frequent terms in the search space, the system finds the set of examples containing all the terms, and then determines if the frequency is sufficiently high and the overlap sufficiently low for this candidate set of examples to be a frequently asked question.

US Patent:

6829734, Dec 7, 2004

Filed:

Apr 4, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/542859

Inventors:

Jeffrey Thomas Kreulen - San Jose CA
William Scott Spangler - San Martin CA

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1100

US Classification:

714 46, 714 57, 707 7, 379 902, 379 903, 379 904

Abstract:

A method and structure for discovering problem resolution in a helpdesk data set of problem tickets is based on using an enumerated set of phrases that have been identified as indicating diagnosis, instruction, or corrective action. A count of these phrases is then obtained and used along with any accompanying structured information to score each problem ticket. The tickets are then sorted so that the most useful problem tickets appear first.