Methods and systems for providing supplemental contextual content

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG.
1 is a block diagram of an article generation system 100.
In FIG.
1, an article generator 105 interacts with information sources 110 to publish articles to a database 115.
Sources of information for articles might include an application's application program interface ("API"), an on-line analytical processing ("OLAP") server, a private or public database, and the World-Wide Web (perhaps queried through the hypertext transfer protocol ("HTTP"), simple object access protocol ("SOAP"), or other common protocols of the Internet).
Article generator 105 may utilize various techniques for gathering and publishing information as discrete articles.
For example, article generator 105 may utilize software agents to gather appropriate information (agents are generally defined as automatons running on a scheduled basis and querying a data source for information and either producing or not producing content based in part on the result of that query).
The use of the term "article" in this context generally refers to a discrete collection of information that may include content and information about the content.
Information about the content may include high-level attributes of the article, such as its author or general subject heading (for example, sports or weather).
The information about the article also may include portions of the actual content itself used to articulate content metadata, perhaps in the form of "discussion objects.
" In general, discussion objects are considered to be conceptual or tangible objects that are mentioned (discussed) as part of an article.
This may include words, phrases, graphics, sequence of notes in an audio file, or some other aspect of the content of the article.
Similarly, "discussion classes" are the types, or categories, of discussion objects.
For example, an article about a discussion class of "computer manufacturers" may mention discussion objects "Intel" many times, while only mentioning "Dell" infrequently.
Discussion objects and/or discussion classes may be categorized within a particular article as, for example, primary or secondary with respect to that article