Point of view gists and generic gists in a document browsing system

A method for presenting information about a document in a document browsing system comprising the steps of:

• receiving input from a user to specify a topic of interest;
• accessing a repository of documents, wherein a document comprises a plurality of themes that define a plurality of subject matter areas covered by the document;
• storing a plurality of point of view gists for the repository of documents, wherein a point of view gist comprises at least one paragraph from the document most relevant to a theme for the document;
• and
• displaying, in response to user request, a point of view gist for a document that includes one theme related to the topic of interest.

A method for generating a generic gist from a document comprising the steps of:

• receiving at least one document comprising a plurality of paragraphs;
• generating a thematic profile for a document that includes an identification of a plurality of document themes, wherein the document themes define a plurality of subject matter areas covered by the document;
• analyzing said document to identify a plurality of paragraphs from the document most relevant to a plurality of themes in the thematic profile for the document;
• and
• generating at least one generic gist for the document by selecting the paragraphs identified, wherein the generic gist includes a plurality of paragraphs from the document that include content relating to at least two document themes.

A computer readable medium having a set of instructions stored therein, which when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of:

• receiving at least one document comprising a plurality of paragraphs;
• generating a thematic profile for the document that includes an identification of a plurality of document themes, wherein the document themes define a plurality of subject matter areas covered by the document;
• analyzing said document to identify one or more paragraphs from the document most relevant to a theme in the thematic profile for the document;
• and
• generating at least one point of view gist for the document with a slant toward the theme by selecting at least one of the paragraphs identified.

A computer readable medium having a set of instructions stored therein, which when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of:

• receiving input from a user to specify a topic of interest;
• accessing a repository of documents, wherein a document comprises a plurality of themes that define a plurality of subject matter areas covered by the document;
• storing a plurality of point of view gists for the repository of documents, wherein a point of view gist comprises at least one paragraph from the document most relevant to a theme for the document, and
• displaying, in response to user request, a point of view gist for a document that includes one theme related to the topic of interest.

A document browsing system comprising:

• memory for storing a repository of documents, wherein a document comprises a plurality of themes that define a plurality of subject matter areas covered by the document and for storing at least one point of view gist for the document, wherein a point of view gist comprises at least one paragraph from the document most relevant to a theme for the document;
• an input control device for receiving input from a user to specify a topic of interest;
• an output display for displaying information about documents;
• and
• a processing unit, coupled to said input control device and said output display for displaying, in response to user input from said input control device, a point of view gist for a document that includes one theme related to the topic of interest.