Visualizing technology mining results on life cycle axes: A text data mining study of publication trends in server virtualization from scientific research to business process improvement

Text data mining of research abstract databases provides insight into the relationships between researchers and research topics. Text data mining tools like VantagePoint provide insights into the progress of a technology discipline showing the projection of research trends for strategic analysis and displaying the interconnections between researchers and research topics. Research in a technology typically flows from works in the underlying science where theoretical concepts are proposed and tested to a more focused and technical research on devices that apply these theories. Our study tracks the spread of ideas throughout the technology life cycle with an emphasis on technology trends rather than research clusters. The premise is that the manager seeking a strategic view of the technology, and its development over time, needs to be presented a visualization of these trends in a manner that supports effective decision-making. Since there are three dimensions in the development of technology, basic science, technology development, and business process focus, this research presents the results of the text data mining of research abstracts projected in a three-dimensional visualization.