Synthesizing structured text from logical database subsets

In the classical database world, information access has been based on a paradigm that involves structured, schema-aware, queries and tabular answers. In the current environment, however, where information prevails in most activities of society, serving people, applications, and devices in dramatically increasing numbers, this paradigm has proved to be very limited. On the query side, much work has been done on moving towards keyword queries over structured data. In our previous work, we have touched the other side as well, and have proposed a paradigm that generates entire databases in response to keyword queries. In this paper, we continue in the same direction and propose synthesizing textual answers in response to queries of any kind over structured data. In particular, we study the transformation of a dynamically-generated logical database subset into a narrative through a customizable, extensible, and templatebased process. In doing so, we exploit the structured nature of databas...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: EDBT
• Authors: Alkis Simitsis, Georgia Koutrika, Yannis Alexandrakis, Yannis E. Ioannidis
• Keywords: Database, EDBT 2008, Keyword Queries, Structured Data, Synthesizing Textual Answers