Real users, real data, real problems: the MiTAP system for monitoring bio events

The MiTAP (MITRE Text and Audio Processing) system [13] is a prototype for monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and other global threats. MiTAP focuses on providing timely, multi-lingual, global information access to analysts, medical experts and individuals involved in humanitarian assistance and relief work. Multiple information sources in multiple languages are automatically captured, filtered, translated, summarized, and categorized into searchable newsgroups. Critical information is automatically extracted and tagged to facilitate browsing, searching, and sorting. The demonstration highlights how different users cull different kinds of information from the MiTAP system. Some use it in order to track disease outbreak; others have been using it to monitor economic and political situations worldwide.