Method and apparatus to visually present discussions for data mining purposes

1. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein the documented communication may be one or more of the following: a document, an email, an instant message (IM), a facsimile, a voicemail, a phone call, a wire transfer, a fund transfer, or an electronically traceable package; and

wherein a thickness of the line indicates a number of communications between the actors.

2. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications; and

said method further comprising time-of-day icons which denote the time of day at which the communication was created, wherein the time-of-day icons are color based.

3. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein the visualization comprises an activity graph that visualizes a level of activity over time related to large volumes of discussions, or individual messages; and

wherein a rainbow view uses a color spectrum to help users to discern small shifts in the communication activity of a large population of actors, and to pinpoint the amount of communication on specific topics.

4. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications.

wherein the documented communication may be one or more of the following: a document, an email, an instant message (IM), a facsimile, a voicemail, a phone call, a wire transfer, a fund transfer, or an electronically traceable package; and

wherein a number at a first end of a line represents a number of communications sent by a first actor to a second actor, and a number at a second end of the line represents the number of communications sent by the second actor to the first actor.

5. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein the documented communication may be one or more of the following: a document, an email, an instant message (IM), a facsimile, a voicemail, a phone call, a wire transfer, a fund transfer, or an electronically traceable package; and

wherein a color of a communication line between two actors shows a communication density.

6. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein the visualization is a discussion timeline in which sets of adjoining rectangles, linked by lines and coded by actor represent the communications within a discussion.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising displaying a legend identifying each actor code.

8. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein a transcript view is a linear presentation of the causally related communication events that make up a discussion; and

wherein quoted text within a document is color coded for an originating actor.

9. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications;

wherein a transcript view is a linear presentation of the causally related communication events that make up a discussion; and

wherein items which are suspected to be missing from a discussion are flagged visually.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

determining if a deleted document is suspicious, and if so, flagging the deleted document indication in the transcript.

11. A method of visualizing information comprising:

providing a visualization of actor communications in the context of one or more discussions, a discussion including at least one actor and at least two causally related documented communications; and

providing a query tool to construct queries for related documents;

wherein colored rectangles with a fixed size represent a relative importance of each property of the discussion.