WebChoir Announces ConceptChoir, Reprogrammed and Upgraded TermChoir for the 21^st Century

Benefiting from five years of suggestions, comments, and requests from clients, WebChoir will introduce ConceptChoir in August 2006.

ConceptChoir is restructured to provide a completely Web-based architecture incorporating J2EE, XML, and Web Services. Complete multi-lingual support is included via UNICODE standards. Multiple features enhance editing including user-definable data entry and editing. A host of new capabilities improve all aspects of viewing, browsing and searching including Boolean, wide card, and exact searches. For the first time, user-definable reports are supported. New control features provide user-defined security and permission. Flexible integration with external Web-based applications is facilitated via standard APIs such as Web Services and Javascripts. And, all of these and all other enhancements are completely documented in a new comprehensively accessible Help system.

Selected New Features of ConceptChoir:

• New and Improved Architecture, Technology, and Design

• Completely Web-based, utilizing J2EE, XML, and Web Services.

• Support MySQL, DB2, and other popular databases, in addition to Oracle and SQL-Server.

• Allow user to create concept-based vocabularies, enabling concepts to be used as the building blocks for the creation of business-driven terminology structures (taxonomies, thesauri, etc.).

• Enable user to work on two or more vocabularies at the same time establishing relationships among concepts within or across vocabularies. 

• Handle very large vocabularies that can be both hierarchies and alphabetical listings.

• Support micro-thesauri.

• New and Improved Multi-lingual Support

• Incorporate complete multi-lingual support via UNICODE enabling the storage and handling of vocabulary data in any language.  Allow users to compare two or more vocabularies in different languages simultaneously.  As a result, corporations can create a thesaurus in multiple languages and then regional branches can use the thesaurus in a language appropriate to them by simply selecting the desired language. 

• Complete and sophisticated localization support, allowing the user to customize the user interface in any language, including screen labels and text, system messages, and context-sensitive tips.

• New and Improved Editing

• User-definable data entry and editing with two editing templates supported, current tabbed format and one page format with collapsible sections and suppressible data elements. 

• Enable two or more vocabularies to be merged.  Two or more descriptors can also be merged. 

• Create custom rules for editing, validations and other actions.

• Move descriptors/branches using drag and drop.

• Values such as Term Source can be added to multiple descriptors after first selecting multiple descriptors. 

• Enable references and relationships not just at the concept level but also at term level.

• Allow associative relationships (RT) to have different type labels depending on the direction.

• New and Improved Viewing, Browsing and Searching

• User-generation of a special display to be placed in Tree Display Area such as UF display, Descriptors with RTs (Categories, Translations, URLs, etc.) to make it easy for the editor to manage and edit descriptors. 

• Improved view of descriptor details with options for emailing, saving, and printing.

• Hyperlink to broader terms up to the top of the hierarchy in the Node Detail Area (NDA).

• Support Long labels for user-defined notes and relations

• Allow the user to order individual user-defined notes and relations, along with pre-defined data elements.

• Allow the user to define a group that may contain user notes and user relations.

• Comprehensive search that allows the user to search just about anything.  An option is provided for the user to specify searchable fields, including user notes and user relations. 

• Support Boolean, wide card, and exact searches.

• New and Improved  Report, Import, and Export

• User-definable reporter is now included in addition to pre-defined standard and custom reports.

• User-definable importer and exporter in addition to pre-defined import templates and wizards.

• Improved Web Thesaurus Navigator now supports two templates for vocabulary publishing and browsing on the Web.

• New and Improved Security and Work Flow

• Include user-defined security and permissions. 

• Keep track of the complete transaction process from adding a descriptor to approval.

• Improved transaction log viewer. 

• Automatic Generation of Vocabulary Candidate Terms

• Create a temporary thesaurus or taxonomy by scanning or scrawling information sources such as database records, HTML/XML pages, MS Office documents, etc.  ConceptChoir can refine the vocabulary and establish term relationships automatically if relevant standard and specialized dictionaries and thesauri are available.

• If desired, users can manually refine vocabularies using ConceptChoir editing capabilities. ConceptChoir provides a variety of editing capabilities for refining vocabularies created automatically.

• New and Improved Integration

• New, tighter integration with other WebChoir products such as LinkChoir and MetaChoir via standard APIs such as Web Services and Javascripts is incorporated. 

• Also, Flexible integration with external Web-based applications via standard APIs such as Web Services and Javascripts is now available. 

• New and Improved Documentation and Online Help

• Online help now includes an index and full text search capability so that the user can quickly find information about a topic like Delete Hierarchy or Import ASCII.

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WebChoir Establishes Office in Beijing, China to market its products in Asia

WebChoir is responding to Asia by opening offices in Beijing, China with others to follow in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Asia represents an exciting and expanding frontier for products capable of serving varied and complex information organization and retrieval needs of countries communicating in their native languages as well as English and other European languages. 

WebChoir has extensive product lines with complete multi-lingual capabilities – thus, an auto manufacturer in Japan may need to create a thesaurus of its parts in Japanese with corresponding part names in English, Chinese, Korean, French, etc.  Such a multi-lingual thesaurus can be effectively constructed and managed with key terms generated by the home office and translations contributed by field offices around the world.  Links to terms can be associated with database records and/or Internet resources to enhance the availability of standardized parts information across multiple languages.  Within a language, the same part installed across many model lines and identified with unique part numbers or descriptions in each is tracked with ease.  As a result, sophisticated searches exploiting hierarchically-organized parts components are both comprehensive and precise. 

Of course, this example shows a limited set of the extensive capabilities and features that WebChoir products offer to the multinational corporate world.  Whether for use in scientific enquiry, medical research, defense or a myriad of other uses – WebChoir products support unbounded avenues of information organization and access.

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TCS-10 - Major New Release – Free Upgrade for Maintenance Subscribers

On February 1, 2006, WebChoir announces the release of TCS-10. Current Maintenance subscribers will be provided TCS-10 at no cost. Customers purchasing TCS-9 with maintenance through January 2, 2005 will automatically receive a free upgrade to the release of TCS-10 equivalent to their TCS-9 purchase.  Maintenance subscription pricing remains $99 for the single-user and $395 for the multi-user. 

Among the many new features and enhancements, look for:

1. User-definable data entry and editing.   Two editing templates are now supported: current tabbed format and one page format with collapsible sections and suppressible data elements.

2. Improved view of descriptor details with options for saving and printing.

3. Enhanced import and export, with the addition of predefined templates and wizards.

4. Improved reporting, allowing more customizations.

5. Improved large hierarchy handling.

6. Ability to move descriptor/branch using drag and drop.

7. Capability to order individual user-defined notes and relations along with other data elements.

8. Use of long labels for user-defined notes and relations.

9. Improved Web Thesaurus Navigator, now supporting two templates for the vocabulary publishing and browsing on the Web.

10. Ability to use different colors for approved descriptors and descriptors that have not been approved.  And the user can specify the color.

11. New statistics to the Hierarchy Property page, such as total number of descriptors, synonyms, node labels, related terms, top terms, scope notes, etc.

12. Improved log viewer with detailed transaction information and more filtering options.

13. Expanded online help, with full text search capability so that the user can quickly find information about a topic like Delete Hierarchy or Import ASCII.

The price for the single user TCS-10 will be $399 and for the multi-user release will be $1495. Click here for TCS-10 product and pricing information.

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WAND's Taxonomies Now Available for Use with WebChoir's iVocab Tools

In a July 2005 Press Release, WAND and WebChoir announced the availability of more than 25 WAND taxonomies for use with the full suite of four iVocab tools.  WAND vertical industry taxonomies cover:

The WAND taxonomies combined with WebChoir's state-of the-art Web-based tools (iBuild, iBrowse, iIndex, iSeek) provide a powerful platform for corporate and governmental use.  Build and expand custom controlled vocabularies for sophisticated organization and control of information resources.  Construct complex searches of information stores from in-house data resources or from the Internet.  A world of opportunity awaits organizations needing fast, efficient, and inexpensive technologies for bringing organization to the storage and retrieval of information resources.  The Press Release is available at:

http://www.wandinc.com/releases/webchoirpressrelease07-18-2005.pdf

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WebChoir Chosen to Integrate LinkChoir with Documentum Solution

A major university has purchased the WebChoir TermChoir product to manage its licensed vocabularies and LinkChoir to associate the terminology with records stored in its Documentum solution. WebChoir consultants are preparing a customized integration bridge between the WebChoir and Documentum systems.

WebChoir Tools for the Getty Vocabularies

The Getty and WebChoir have collaborated to provide well-researched vocabularies (Art & Architecture Thesaurus^®, Union List of Artist Names^®, and the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names^®) combined with WebChoir's state-of the-art Web-based tools (iBuild, iBrowse, iIndex, iSeek).  These are available at deeply discounted special pricing for the benefit of museums and other non-profits throughout the world. Additional licensing schemes are available for commercial users. 

For more information about the WebChoir Tools for the Getty vocabularies, click here.
 

WebChoir Partners to Customize Its Tools for Commercially Available Vocabularies

WebChoir has developed an advanced set of tools (iBuild, iBrowse, iIndex, iSeek) customized for use with controlled vocabularies produced by commercial and non-for-profit organizations.  The news release above, WebChoir Tools for Getty Vocabularies, describes the first such collaboration. 

WebChoir is actively working with other producers of taxonomies, classification schemes, subject headings, and controlled vocabularies to produce custom versions of its iBuild, iBrowse, iIndex, iSeek products for integration with these resources within advanced knowledge management environments.

The WebChoir tools open important new audiences for the combined products. Many corporations, research centers, and other organizations have a desire to utilize off-the-shelf subject-specific controlled vocabularies to index their collections, aid end-users in searching in-house resources, and facilitate in-depth and/or comprehensive searches of the Internet.  WebChoir iProducts incorporate specialized vocabularies that easily can be linked to in-house resources to provide this long-sought solution.

For more information about the WebChoir Partners program, click here.

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