An Infrastructure, Tools and Methodology for Evaluation of Multicultural Name Matching Systems

Keith J. Miller, Mark Arehart, Catherine Ball, John Polk, Alan Rubenstein, Kenneth Samuel, Elizabeth Schroeder, Eva Vecchi, Chris Wolf


Abstract
This paper describes a Name Matching Evaluation Laboratory that is a joint effort across multiple projects. The lab houses our evaluation infrastructure as well as multiple name matching engines and customized analytical tools. Included is an explanation of the methodology used by the lab to carry out evaluations. This methodology is based on standard information retrieval evaluation, which requires a carefully-constructed test data set. The paper describes how we created that test data set, including the “ground truth” used to score the systems’ performance. Descriptions and snapshots of the lab’s various tools are provided, as well as information on how the different tools are used throughout the evaluation process. By using this evaluation process, the lab has been able to identify strengths and weaknesses of different name matching engines. These findings have led the lab to an ongoing investigation into various techniques for combining results from multiple name matching engines to achieve optimal results, as well as into research on the more general problem of identity management and resolution.
Anthology ID:
L08-1393
Volume:
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'08)
Month:
May
Year:
2008
Address:
Marrakech, Morocco
Editors:
Nicoletta Calzolari, Khalid Choukri, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Jan Odijk, Stelios Piperidis, Daniel Tapias
Venue:
LREC
SIG:
Publisher:
European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Note:
Pages:
Language:
URL:
http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2008/pdf/805_paper.pdf
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Keith J. Miller, Mark Arehart, Catherine Ball, John Polk, Alan Rubenstein, Kenneth Samuel, Elizabeth Schroeder, Eva Vecchi, and Chris Wolf. 2008. An Infrastructure, Tools and Methodology for Evaluation of Multicultural Name Matching Systems. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'08), Marrakech, Morocco. European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Cite (Informal):
An Infrastructure, Tools and Methodology for Evaluation of Multicultural Name Matching Systems (Miller et al., LREC 2008)
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PDF:
http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2008/pdf/805_paper.pdf