Customer Service
9 January 2006
Web's Most Comprehensive Benjamin Franklin Portal Honors Tercentenary
Civic, Research and Educational Resource Developed by Vivisimo Celebrates Franklin's 300th Birthday
Pittsburgh, PA—Vivisimo (vivisimo.com), the creator of innovative software to access and cluster the world's information for better search and discovery, today introduced the Ben Franklin Web portal in honor of Franklin's 300th birthday. The Tercentenary provides a rare opportunity to showcase Franklin's place in American history as arguably one of the nation's most influential citizens. Located at ben.clusty.com, the new tool is a comprehensive one-stop site for searching Franklin's own writings and a selectively curated collection of tens of thousands of Web pages related solely to him. Befitting Franklin's leadership in establishing the country's first public library, the site is free and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
Supported by the National Science Foundation, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Libraries, the Carnegie Science Center and Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, the Ben Franklin Web portal is designed to help teachers, students, journalists, researchers, historians and the general public navigate information related to Benjamin Franklin. Ben.clusty.com is powered by Vivisimo's award-winning search and clustering technology.
"The Ben Franklin Web portal is a significant educational and historical resource that offers visitors a comprehensive collection of the knowledge and writings of Benjamin Franklin," said Sara B. Nerlove, Office of Industrial Innovation, National Science Foundation. "Developed by Vivisimo as a public service, this accomplishment represents a quintessential integration of research and education."
An example of the powerful search experience provided at ben.clusty.com is a simple Web search of "Liberty." Clustered search results pulled from both literary sources about Franklin as well as his own writings appear on the left. These folders, on topics such as "Philadelphia," "Liberty Bell" and "Autobiography," help visitors focus on areas of interest and can be expanded to view additional subtopics. Franklin's writings, including his autobiography, letters and pamphlets, can also be searched separately using the portal's "Writings" tab.
The portals offer a comprehensive collection of Franklin's proverbs and writings that are available on the Web in addition to a unique "Educator Resources" tab, which offers a hand-selected group of resources designed to help teachers plan science, history and civic lessons for students at every grade level.
"Vivisimo got its start thanks to taxpayer research funding through the National Science Foundation and Pennsylvania's own Ben Franklin economic development initiative. We have a duty to give back," said Raul Valdes-Perez, CEO and co-founder of Vivisimo. "Ben Franklin's Tercentenary provides a perfect chance for Vivisimo to show how modern search technologies enable the creation of a powerful portal site with tremendous value above and beyond what a regular Web search brings. We hope that ben.clusty.com serves as a terrific resource for civic, educational and research purposes and that its value will last far beyond the Franklin Tercentenary."
About Vivisimo
Vivisimo does search right by combining the simplicity and innovation of consumer search with the flexibility and control of enterprise software. The company works with customers to understand their goals and quickly deploy solutions that maximize the business value of information—with an interface users love. Vivisimo serves its global client base through headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA, and Paris, France, and partners throughout the world. Please visit vivisimo.com to learn more about us and visit our Search Done Right blog to learn more about enterprise search.
About the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.47 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly. Please visit www.nsf.gov to learn more.
