1. A machine implemented method for content preparation or selection, comprising: receiving, as part of a content preparation or selection, by a content preparation or selection module operated by a computing system, a representation of a concept; and determining, for the content preparation or selection, by the content preparation or selection module, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy (C) to the concept; wherein the content hierarchy includes a plurality of content items, including N; and wherein determining topical relevance of N to the concept is based at least in part on interrelationships among at least some of other content items of the hierarchy other than N and its descendant content items, including interrelationships between N, an ancestor content item of N, and a sibling content item of the ancestor item of N.
1. A machine implemented method for content preparation or selection, comprising: receiving, as part of a content preparation or selection, by a content preparation or selection module operated by a computing system, a representation of a concept; and determining, for the content preparation or selection, by the content preparation or selection module, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy (C) to the concept; wherein the content hierarchy includes a plurality of content items, including N; and wherein determining topical relevance of N to the concept is based at least in part on interrelationships among at least some of other content items of the hierarchy other than N and its descendant content items, including interrelationships between N, an ancestor content item of N, and a sibling content item of the ancestor item of N. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hierarchy of content items corresponds to a document, to a sub-document, to a collection of documents, to a collection of sub-documents, to a database of records, to a database of objects, to a collection of database records, or to a collection of database objects; and wherein database records or objects are drawn from one or more databases or one or more database views.