2006 IEEE International Conference on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics
October 8-11, 2006, Taipei, Taiwan
A Role-based Customer review Mining System
Wenqian Shang, Youli Qu, Houkuan Huang, Yongmin Lin, and Hongbin Dong
Abstract-With the development of WWW (World Wide
Web), more and more people surf on the web, more and
more web sites provide forum for people to publish their
reviews, so there are many reviews on some special topic
in many forums. Our system mainly aims at the reviews
of customer for some product. The data set comes from
forum data or emails or any other form of reviews. The
mining result can guide the company's CEO to make
science decision for company's products research and
market development and the mining result can guide the
customers to purchase more satisfying products. Our
system mainly adopts data mining technology, natural
language processing technology, web text mining
technology and so on. In the realization of our system, we
adopt role based concepts and theory, this makes the
realization more reasonable and more efficiency and this
makes the system function more perfect and more
science.
I. INTRODUCTION
WtITH the rapid development of the world-wide web,
e-commerce comes to flourish. More and more
products are sold on the web; more and more people are also
shopping online; more and more web sites offer forum for
customers to review their purchased products. Another aspect,
customers perhaps sends emails to the company to review
their purchased products. In addition, customers may review
their purchased products in the questionnaire. These reviews
may contain valuable information and provide an important
basis for making business decision. Knowing the reputations
of your own and/or your competitors' products is very
important for market development and customer relationship
management. These reviews can also guide the potential
customers to purchase more satisfying products.
Now there are some researches in this area. Such as: in
paper [1][2][3], their researches are based on mining from
Manuscript submitted March 14, 2006. This work was supported in part
by the Beijing Jiaotong University Science Foundation under the grant
2004RC008
Wenqian Shang is with School of Computer and Information Technology,
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China (phone: 010-51683602; e-mail:
shangwenqian(a hotmail.com).
Youli Qu is with School of Computer and Information Technology,
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China (e-mail:
qylgcomputer.njtu.edu.cn)
Houkuan Huang is with School of Computer and Information
Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China (e-mail:
hkhuanggcenter.njtu.edu.cn).
Yongmin Lin is with School of Computer and Information Technology,
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China (e-mail:
linyongminl 208gtom.com).
Hongbin Dong is with School of Computer and Information Technology,
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China (e-mail: donghongbing263.net).
1-4244-0100-3/06/$20.00 C2006 IEEE
open answers in questionnaire data, they mainly adopt
rule-based text classification. But they only adapt to various
types of survey data. In paper [4] [5][6], they mainly research
on the mining of customer reviews from the web. They adopt
natural language processing technology, data mining
technology, expert knowledge database etc. They only adapt
to review data of forum. In paper [7], his research adopts
Bayes algorithm based on N-gram and imports semantic idea.
But our system is very different from theirs. Our system can
not only deal with questionnaire data, but can deal with web
data from forum. It can deal with any form of text data. We
adopt fuzzy kNN classifier, Apriori algorithm, natural
language processing, information retrieval technology and
role-based idea and so on. We integrate theses technology and
idea to make the system more perfect.
This paper is structured as follows: In Section 2, we briefly
introduce the architecture and function of system; Section 3
discusses the main algorithm used in system; Section 4
describes some ideas about role and the realization of mining
system based on role; Section 5 we give the conclusion.
II. THE ARCHITECTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE SYSTEM
A. The Process Flow of the System
The process flow of system is shown in Figure 1, coded in
Visual C++ under the Window's environment.
C ~~~~TheWeb
aetsrcenIn
aget seach enine
The ral-tie
Th reltm <
The data of questionnaire,
Email, reviews of forum etc
Preprocessing of review data (transfonn any form data to the data that can be
processed by system)
Fuzzy kNN classifier
Classified review data that according to different sort of product name
Feature words Opinion words Predicting the orientations of
extraction extraction opinion words and sentence
Building of trend analysis report about review orientation
Fig. 1. The flow of system.
The system has four main parts as follows: One is to get the
review data from the web; second, according to the product
sort to classify the review data into different classes; third,
adopting different data mining technologies to mine the
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product reputation of customer review; at last, building the
trend analysis report to help the decision-maker make
decisions or help the potential customer purchase more
satisfying products.
B. The Function ofEach Component
1) Real-time agent search engine
This module realizes to gather the relevant reviews or
questionnaire data from the web automatically, saving these
data into the local server to deal with further. Moreover this
module can complete update automatically, obtaining the up
to date information.
2) Preprocessing review data
This module realizes to transfer any form review data (such
as questionnaire data, review data in the forum, email etc.) to
text data that system can deal with.
3) Classifying review data
According to the product type, the system can classify
review data into different types, such as: Mp3 player, DVD
player, Digital camera, Cellular phone and so on. If the
review data has been classified, it does not need to classify
again, it can go into next step----mining the review data. Here
we adopt fuzzy kNN classifier to classify the review data.
4) Mining the review data
After classifying the review data, we can mine the
reputation of customer towards products for every type of
products. The process of mining can be divided into several
steps as follows:
Step 1: part-of-speech tagging
This step finishes the tagging of part of speech for
identifying part of speech of words, such as noun, verb,
adjective etc, such as:
<S><NG><W C-'PRP' L='SS' T='W'
S='Y'>I</W></NG><VG><W C 'VBP'>am</W><W
C 'RB'>deeply</W></VG><W C='IN'>in</W><NG><W
C-'NN'>Iove</W></NG><W C 'IN'>of</W><NG><W
C='DT'>this</W><W C-'NN'>MP3</W></NG><W
C='.'>.
Here we adopt the NL Processor linguistic parser [8] to
analysis each review to split text into sentences and tag the
part of speech of each word.
Step 2: Feature words extraction
What are feature words? We can use an example to explain,
such as:
"The sound of this mp3 is very clear."
"The appearance of this digital camera is very awful."
Here, "sound" and "appearance" are feature words. In the
system, we adopt Apriori algorithm to extract feature words.
Step 3: Opinion words extraction
What are opinion words? Here opinion words are words
that customer evaluates products. In the example above,
"clear" and "awful" are opinion words. Opinion words are
often adjective words. So we base on the feature words, to
think that the adjective words near to feature words are
opinion words.
Step 4: Semantic orientation identification of opinion
words
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What is the semantic orientation of opinion words? In the
above example, "clear" is positive orientation; this word
expresses the favor of customer towards the product; "awful"
is negative orientation; this word expresses the dislike of
customer towards the product. Here we adopt the PMI-IR
algorithm to identify the semantic orientation of opinion
words. If there are no negative words in a sentence, we think
that the semantic orientation of opinion words is the semantic
orientation of sentence. If there are negative words in a
sentence, we think that the semantic orientation of sentence is
contrary with the semantic orientation of words.
5) Building of the trend analysis report
Through the above four steps, we can get the statistic of
positive and negative review, then build the trend analysis
report to be available for decision-maker and potential
customers to analyze.
III. MAIN ALGORITHM USED IN SYSTEM
In this section, we mainly present the algorithms used in
system. They can be described as follows:
A. Fuzzy kNN Classifier
In recent years, the kNN algorithm is regarded by many
researchers. The kNN algorithm shows better categorization
performance in text categorization. At present, there are two
main decision rules in kNN algorithm, that is, the discrete
value rule DVF (Discrete-Valued Function) and the weighted
similarity rule SWF (Similarity-Weighted Function). The
most widely used is the SWF rule. This paper mainly focuses
on this rule. The kNN algorithm based on SWF rule can be
described as follows:
The system searches k documents (called neighbors) that
have the maximal similarity (cosine similarity) in training
sets. According to what classes these neighbors are affiliated
with, it grades the test document's candidate classes. The
similarity between the neighbor document and the test
document is taken as the class weight of neighbor documents.
The decision function can be defined as follows:
k
pi (X) = Zi=1 pi (Xi)sim(X, Xi) (1)
Where uj(Xi)(e {O,1} shows whether Xi belongs to
C0j ( lj (Xi) =1 is True) or not (,Uj (Xi ) = 0 is False);
where Oj is the sort of document class;
sim(X, Xi) denotes the similarity between training
document and test document. Then the decision rule is:
If,uj (X) = max 1i (X), then Xe (Os.
In the classical kNN algorithm, there is an obvious
problem: when the density of training data is uneven it may
decrease the precision of classification if we only consider the
sequence of first k nearest neighbors but do not consider the
differences of distances. To solve this problem, we adopt the
theory of fuzzy sets by constructing a new membership
function based on document similarities as follows: Return Ck
k XIiX procedure has_infrequent_subset(c:candidate k-itemset;
fli( l)i) x XI)
,Uj (X)
=l
k
)(-siw4x
(I
1
xi))"1(,-') Lk- 1: frequent(k- 1)-itemset)
//use prior knowledge
For each (k-l)-subset s of c
i=l (1-sim(X,Xi))2/(b-1) If sO LkI then
return TRUE;
Where j=1, 2, c, ,Uj(Xi)sim(X,Xi) is the
...,
return FALSE;
membership of known sample X to class j. If sample X Where D is review data set, min sup is the minimum
belongs to class j then the value is 1, otherwise 0. From this support threshold, L is feature word set.
formula, we can see that in reality the membership is using C. PMI-IR Algorithm
the different distance of every neighbor to the candidate
classifying sample to weigh its effect. Parameter b is used to In this paper, we use the PMI-IR Algorithm to identify the
adjust the degree of a distance weight. In this paper b take the semantic orientation of opinion words. The algorithm can be
value 2. Then fuzzy k-nearest neighbors' decision rule is: described as follows [ 1][ 12] [13]:
PMI-IR uses Pointwise Mutual Information (PMI) and
If uj (X) = maxp(X), then X 1J But why we
e .

Information Retrieval (IR) to measure the similarity of pairs

improve the classical kNN to this form? The particular reason of words or phrases. More specifically, the semantic
can consult [9]. Here we don't present in detail. orientation of a given words or phrase is calculated by
probability value. The probability value is calculated by
B. Apriori Algorithm taking the mutual information between the given words or
Here, we adopt the Apriori algorithm to extract feature phrase and the word "excellent" and subtracting the mutual
words. The description of the algorithm can be described as information between the given words or phrase and the word
follows [I0]: "poor". The strength of the semantic orientation is based on
L,= find frequent 1 -itemsets(D); the magnitude of the probability value. The PMI between two
for (k = 2; Lk ; k++) { words, word, and word2 is defined as follows [14]:
Ck= aproiri_gen(Lk I, min sup);
for each transaction tED {/scan D for counts PMI (word l word2 ) = log 2p(wordl & word2)] (3)
-p(word l) p(word 2 )
,

Ct= subset (Ck, t); //get the subsets of t that

are candidates
for each candidate cG9t Where, p(word, & word2) is the probability that
c.count++; word, and word2 co-occur. If the words are statistically
independent, then the probability that they co-occur is given
Lk {cECk c. count >min sup) by the product p(word1)p(word2). The Semantic Orientation
of a word/phrase, word/phrase, is calculated as follows:
Return L = U kLk
So (word / phrase ) = PM! (word / phrase ,"excellent ")

procedure apriori_gen(Lk- 1; frequent(k-1)-itemsets;

- PMI (word / phrase, " poor )
min-sup: minimum support threshold) (4)
for each itemset lIELkI
for each itemset 12 Lk-
IV. REALIZATION OF THE MINING SYSTEM BASED ON ROLE
if (11[1]= 12[1]) A (112] 12][2) A..A In the process of system realization, we adopt the method
(l[k-2] l[k-2]) A (iLk -1] 12 [k-1])
of role-based collaborative software development. The
detailed presentation can be described as follows [15]:
then {
c 1 l 12; //join step:generate A. Basic Role Concept
candidates Role idea has been widely used in behavior science, social
if has_infrequent_subset(c, Lk -) then science and psychology for many years and widely used in
delete c;//prune step:remove different area as an important idea [16][17]. Here we use this
idea in data mining area. Role is defined as a window that
unfruitful candidate
team members see collaborative development platform.
else add c to Ck; When he plays some role, he possesses a special view that

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understands surroundings. Roles specify not only what the
system may request the user, but also what the user may ask
for the system. It includes two aspects of content:
responsibility and right. Role is a key factor that development
platform communicates with team member and team member
communicates with team member. Role can express some
features of team member, on the one hand, it offers messages
to team member for serving other people; on the other hand, it
defines team members demand messages. Based on these
concepts, we can define the basic role ideas as follows:
RI: A role does not depend on people;
R2: A role can be set up, changed, and deleted;
R3: A role should consider both responsibility (service
interface) and right (requirement interface), defining a role
means defining its responsibility and right;
R4: A role does not concretely finish tasks that are
prescribed in its responsibility. The team members who are
playing this role finish the tasks;
R5: As a service interface, role is a filter that sends
messages to the agents who are playing it;
R6: As a requirement interface, role restricts the rights of
the users to access the system;
R7: Role is a medium that development platform
communicates with team members and team members
communicate with team members.
Based on these concepts, a collaborative development
platform X can be described as a 9 meta
group ::= C,O A, M, R, E, G, So, , H>.
Where, C is a set of classes; 0 is a set of objects; A is a set
of agents; M is a set of messages; R is a set of roles; E is a set
of surroundings; G is a set of workgroup; S( is the initial state
of collaborative system; H is a set of team members.
So is used to express the initial value of all components C,
0, A, M, R and E, such as primitive classes, initial objects,
initial agents, primitive roles, primitive messages, and
primitive environments etc. With the participation of member
H, after team members login collaborative platform £,
access the object 0 of the platform, then send messages
through roles, thereby form a roup G in a special environment
E.
B. Assistant Support Tool
In the collaborative software development campaign, team
members use initial roles to communicate with other team
members who play some roles. In order to help team members
communicate in the development activities, we need to set up
a set of convenient and flexible assistant tools. It can be
described as Fig. 2:
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Fig. 2. Assistant support tool
The function of every component in Fig. 2 can be described
as follows:
1) Class, object management tool
Class management tool permits members to set up, delete,
modify class, or distribute message to class. The up to date
change ofclass should be reloaded into development platform
dynamically.
Object management tool permits members to set up, delete,
modify object. The function is the same as class management
tool.
2) Task management tool
We know that task decomposition, role distribution and
activity performance are three basic steps in implementing
collaborative software development activities. But task
decomposition is the precondition of the whole collaborative
activity performance. In collaborative activity, a task is
always decomposed to some sub task and the sub task can be
decomposed smaller cell task further. Every cell task is
charged by corresponding role [18]. At the same time in
object-orientation idea, a cell task can be mapped into a
message. Task performance can be seen as the processing of
role towards message. So the whole task can be seen as
message set that has definite performance list. They connect
through role as ball and chain. From the analysis of task
above, we can express a task as t ::= <r, Mi, Mo>.
Where, r expresses the number of roles executing this task,
<r<n (n is the maximum number of task decomposition); Mi
expresses input message of task, when t - tl, Mi is empty
(where, t1 is initial task, initial task has no input message); Mo
expresses output message of task, when t = t, Mo is empty
(where, tn is end task, end task has no output message).
We use t to express a cell task, use T to express a collective
task. In order to make the collaborative activity perform with
high efficiency, trace the task and improve the management
of task, it is needed to offer a convenient and flexible task
management tool. Team members can only use graphical user
interfaces to realize decomposition and management of tasks.
3) Agent management tool
Agent management tool mainly realizes the function of
addition, deletion, modification, activation and prohibition
about agents. Here, agent activation and prohibition are to
control agents' behavior and activities.
4) Role definition tool
Role definition tool mainly realizes the function of role
definition, activation and prohibition. Role is defined as the
set of message. So when defining a role, members only need
to release requirement message from class, object, agent, role,
group and surrounding lists.
5) Role negotiation tool
This tool mainly supports communication between
members and role manager. If member wants to play a role,
he must offer his agent class and realize all input message of
this role. At the same time, he can require the addition of
some message.
6) Surroundings management tool
Surroundings management tool mainly realize the function
of foundation and deletion, and manage the role number in
surroundings.
7) Group management tool
This tool mainly finishes the function of foundation,
deletion and modification, and offers the distribution function
of group news.
Notice: In idiographic collaborative activity, this group of
assistant tool does not exist isolated, but contact with each
other, closely collaborate to finish the same task.
C. The Realization of Customer Review Mining System
Based on Role
Through analysis and discuss above, using class, object,
role, agent, group and surroundings etc and a group of
assistant tool set, we can conveniently set up role-based
collaborative software development platform. Through this
platform, we can realize the role-based customer review
mining system; the process of realization can be described as
follows:
(1) Firstly, the task management tool decomposes the
whole task into single cell task;
(2) The role definition tool defines project manager, system
analyzer, module designer, code programmer and tester roles
according to the project tasks to form the development team;
(3) The project manager uses the defined manager role to
login the development platform. The platform offers him
corresponding User Interfaces and information according to
the roles he/she plays. With the help of them, the project
manager finishes his/her management work about the project
cost and time. He/She does not need to consider concreate
realization details;
(4) The system analyzer uses analyzer role to login the
development platform. He/She finishes the work of project
requirement document and requirement report according to
specific interface that platform offers him;
(5) The module designer designs project function modules
according to the requirement documents that the system
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analyzer offers, such as class definition, class inheritance and
function definition. He/She does not care for the code
realization of class and function;
(6) The code programmer finishes the code of class and
function that module designer designs;
(7) The tester mainly finishes the test of cell module and
the test of whole system. After finishing the test, submit the
test report;
(8) After the code programmer finishes the code, submit
the code to project group;
(9) The designer connects the submitted code into cell
module and submits;
(10) At last, system analyzer integrates all modules into a
system, checks the test result, decides whether to modify or
not, then submits the system to customer;
(11) After the user accepts the submitted system, runs the
system, finds the error of system and find the new
requirement.
Thus, the whole development of system is finished. The
project manager finishes the control of cost and time during
the whole process of project development. At the same time,
he cooperates with system analyzer and module designer to
submit the project on schedule during the scope of cost
budget.
In this paper, we use this concepts and idea to guide our
system realization. At last it shows that the whole process of
project is shortened greatly than anticipation. This shows that
our methods are feasible and effective.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we design a novel role-based customer
review mining system. We synthetically apply natural
language processing technology, information retrieval
technology, data mining technology and text mining
technology etc. At the same time, we introduce the role idea
into the system. This improves the efficiency of system
development greatly. In the future, we need to improve the
system precision and efficiency further, expand the functions
of the system, and improve the algorithms in the system
further.
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