Method and apparatus for assigning a confidence level to a term within a user knowledge profile

Apparatus for assigning a confidence level to a term within an electronic document, the apparatus comprising:

• a term extractor to extract the term from the electronic document;
• and
• confidence logic to determine a first quantitative indicator based on a number of occurrences of the term within the electronic document;
• to determine a qualitative indicator based on a quality of the term;
• and assign a second indicator, derived from the first quantitative indicator and the qualitative indicator, to the term.

Apparatus for assigning a confidence level to a term within an electronic document, the apparatus comprising:

• term extraction means for extracting a term from the electronic document;
• and
• confidence means for determining a first quantitative indicator based on the number of occurrences of the term within the electronic document;
• for determining a characteristic indicator based on a characteristic of the term;
• and for assigning a second indicator, derived from the first quantitative indicator and the characteristic indicator, to the term.

A machine-readable medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the steps of:

• determining a first quantitative indicator based on a number of occurrences of a term within an electronic document;
• determining a qualitative indicator based on a quality of the term;
• and
• assigning a composite indicator to the term, the composite indicator being derived from the first quantitative indicator and the qualitative indicator.