The Public Comment Analysis Toolkit (PCAT) is a cloud computing platform. It enables efficient and scalable Web-based collaborative text analysis. PCAT uses automation, clustering, search, peer networks, credentials, an internal architecture for evaluation, a
nd a streamlined annotation work flow to improve human judgments about text.
As of January 2012, PCAT is being phased out and being replaced by DiscoverText and as such is no longer accepting new registrations or offering new licenses. DiscoverText offers all the same features as PCAT and more. Contact us for more information or, if you have an existing paid PCAT account, ask us how we can help you migrate your current license and data to DiscoverText.
DiscoverText expands on PCAT, which in its initial version is specifically tailored to handle many forms of public comments submitted to US federal agencies during regulatory rulemaking and related public comment-generating activities. PCAT is a customizable platform for accurate, reliable and valid classification of any digitized text collection. Single users, expert teams, and wider crowd-sourced groups can browse, search, sift, sort, annotate and report on large collections of text data.
In PCAT, the owner of the data (the person who uploads it) has complete control over who in the system can see or work with any particular archive or dataset. The same is true of every aspect of an individual user’s credentials. Each PCAT user decides whether and to what extent to be a part of PCAT’s public Directory of Peers. The goal of the directory is to create a network of expert and lay users who can collaborate to share data, findings and annotations.
