Hello Jimmy Wales and other Wikimedia Foundation members,
I'm writing you to propose a Wikimedia project (tentatively called "WikiSolve") no less important than Wikipedia.
We know Wikipedia can teach people knowledge (in terms of concepts), but it can't directly help people find solutions to their problems, because it's "concept-oriented" rather than "problem-oriented".
I envision a wiki that collects virtually every known problem in the world and their corresponding solutions, so that people with a problem in mind can find a solution on it.
The key problem in designing such a wiki is how such a wiki can guide the user to the problem page he wants. I believe a hypertext-based mechanism called "troubleshooting wizard" is the answer. A good example of a troubleshooting wizard is http://support.hubris.net/dialup/wizard/ . As you can see, this is a way for the user to locate his problem in a wiki without knowing keywords used to name or describe that problem, just like Wikipedia allows a user to locate a concept without knowing its name or any keywords used to describe it.
There is actually more background to this idea. I strongly recommend you read the following article that compares how AI and a wiki tackle two old problems differently: knowledge representation and problem solving:
----------
(A formatted version of the following article is at https://plus.google.com/u/0/102291835965130378165/posts/finzeoipR7A)
From formal to semi-formal: knowledge representation and problem
solving in the AI way and the wiki way
1. Failure of the formal way to represent encyclopedic knowledge Big thinkers like Leibniz, Dijkstra and John McCarthy all dreamed about an encyclopedia written in formal language and an automated reasoner that could solve a problem by reasoning on this formal knowledge base. Unfortunately attempts at this like the Cyc project still have a long way to go.
2. Success of the semi-formal way to represent encyclopedic knowledge In contrast, Wikipedia is a big success. Most stuff on Wikipedia is written in natural language, but Wikipedia does have some formal elements. Most fundamentally, each concept on Wikipedia has a unique formal name, and there are hyperlinks between related concepts, enabling the user to navigate to a target concept without initially knowing its name (which makes Wikipedia an important "global positioning system" (GPS) for concepts).
3. What would be the wiki (semi-formal) way to problem solving, then? When it comes to "problem solving", there are actually two kinds of problem solving:
3.1. Wiki-based solution sharing The first kind is when you have a problem already solved by experts, and these experts want to create a wiki as a "solved problem base" where you can easily find your problem and consequently see the corresponding solution written by these experts. Now the question is: how can such a "problem base" wiki be organized so you (the user) can find your problem easily?
What I want to say is "troubleshooting wizard". Do a Google search for [ troubleshooting wizard ], and the first result is a good example of what it is like: http://support.hubris.net/dialup/wizard/
As you see now, a troubleshooting wizard uses a series of questions to let you specify your problem's characteristics (or "symptoms"), and eventually leads you to a solution to your specific problem. You will find this immediately familiar because you probably already saw this kind of thing in Windows XP's Help System.
Now you can realize that a wiki as a hypertext system can surely implement a troubleshooting wizard that walks the user to his problem in a "problem base" wiki.
3.2. Wiki-based problem solving The second kind is when you have an open problem that doesn't have a known solution (otherwise you're supposed to find its solution in a "problem base" wiki as discussed in Section 3.1). Now if you want to attack this open problem on your own, creating a wiki may help, for the following reason.
During your problem-solving process you may need to divide the original problem into subproblems, or apply certain strategies such as "generalization", "specialization" and "analogy" to the original problem to obtain some "derived problems", whose solving may help you solve the original problem (this is what George Polya's famous book "How to Solve It" talks about). To keep track of these "subproblems", "derived problems" and other kinds of middle results, a wiki would be a great organizer.
+1.
always thought it.
_____________________ MateusNobre MetalBrasil on Wikimedia projects (+55) 85 88393509 30440865
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 20:53:54 +0800 From: yaoziyuan@gmail.com To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Foundation-l] A proposal for a Wikimedia project that helps people find solutions to their problems
Hello Jimmy Wales and other Wikimedia Foundation members,
I'm writing you to propose a Wikimedia project (tentatively called "WikiSolve") no less important than Wikipedia.
We know Wikipedia can teach people knowledge (in terms of concepts), but it can't directly help people find solutions to their problems, because it's "concept-oriented" rather than "problem-oriented".
I envision a wiki that collects virtually every known problem in the world and their corresponding solutions, so that people with a problem in mind can find a solution on it.
The key problem in designing such a wiki is how such a wiki can guide the user to the problem page he wants. I believe a hypertext-based mechanism called "troubleshooting wizard" is the answer. A good example of a troubleshooting wizard is http://support.hubris.net/dialup/wizard/ . As you can see, this is a way for the user to locate his problem in a wiki without knowing keywords used to name or describe that problem, just like Wikipedia allows a user to locate a concept without knowing its name or any keywords used to describe it.
There is actually more background to this idea. I strongly recommend you read the following article that compares how AI and a wiki tackle two old problems differently: knowledge representation and problem solving:
(A formatted version of the following article is at https://plus.google.com/u/0/102291835965130378165/posts/finzeoipR7A)
From formal to semi-formal: knowledge representation and problem solving in the AI way and the wiki way
- Failure of the formal way to represent encyclopedic knowledge
Big thinkers like Leibniz, Dijkstra and John McCarthy all dreamed about an encyclopedia written in formal language and an automated reasoner that could solve a problem by reasoning on this formal knowledge base. Unfortunately attempts at this like the Cyc project still have a long way to go.
- Success of the semi-formal way to represent encyclopedic knowledge
In contrast, Wikipedia is a big success. Most stuff on Wikipedia is written in natural language, but Wikipedia does have some formal elements. Most fundamentally, each concept on Wikipedia has a unique formal name, and there are hyperlinks between related concepts, enabling the user to navigate to a target concept without initially knowing its name (which makes Wikipedia an important "global positioning system" (GPS) for concepts).
- What would be the wiki (semi-formal) way to problem solving, then?
When it comes to "problem solving", there are actually two kinds of problem solving:
3.1. Wiki-based solution sharing The first kind is when you have a problem already solved by experts, and these experts want to create a wiki as a "solved problem base" where you can easily find your problem and consequently see the corresponding solution written by these experts. Now the question is: how can such a "problem base" wiki be organized so you (the user) can find your problem easily?
What I want to say is "troubleshooting wizard". Do a Google search for [ troubleshooting wizard ], and the first result is a good example of what it is like: http://support.hubris.net/dialup/wizard/
As you see now, a troubleshooting wizard uses a series of questions to let you specify your problem's characteristics (or "symptoms"), and eventually leads you to a solution to your specific problem. You will find this immediately familiar because you probably already saw this kind of thing in Windows XP's Help System.
Now you can realize that a wiki as a hypertext system can surely implement a troubleshooting wizard that walks the user to his problem in a "problem base" wiki.
3.2. Wiki-based problem solving The second kind is when you have an open problem that doesn't have a known solution (otherwise you're supposed to find its solution in a "problem base" wiki as discussed in Section 3.1). Now if you want to attack this open problem on your own, creating a wiki may help, for the following reason.
During your problem-solving process you may need to divide the original problem into subproblems, or apply certain strategies such as "generalization", "specialization" and "analogy" to the original problem to obtain some "derived problems", whose solving may help you solve the original problem (this is what George Polya's famous book "How to Solve It" talks about). To keep track of these "subproblems", "derived problems" and other kinds of middle results, a wiki would be a great organizer.
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2011/11/19 Mateus Nobre mateus.nobre@live.co.uk:
+1.
always thought it.
There is actually such a wiki-project called "WikiHow":
On 19 November 2011 18:05, Tomasz Ganicz polimerek@gmail.com wrote:
2011/11/19 Mateus Nobre mateus.nobre@live.co.uk:
+1. always thought it.
There is actually such a wiki-project called "WikiHow": http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
It is, however, CC by-nc-sa - not actually free content. So there's a niche here.
- d.
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 2:05 AM, Tomasz Ganicz polimerek@gmail.com wrote:
2011/11/19 Mateus Nobre mateus.nobre@live.co.uk:
+1.
always thought it.
There is actually such a wiki-project called "WikiHow":
The difference between my proposal and other existing wiki-based problem bases (WikiHow, WikiAnswers, fedorasolved.org, etc.) is how to locate your specific problem in a wiki:
1. First, you may want to use a few keywords to do a quick search within the wiki and see if you're lucky enough to see your problem in the first page of search results.
2. If a quick search doesn't work, all problem bases (Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers, etc.) provide "broad categories" that can usually narrow your search by three levels, e.g. Computers > Software > Photo Editors, but after going down such three levels, the topic can still be very broad. Wiki-based problem bases such as WikiAnswers allow you to create subcategories infinitely deep, and this is a very good advantage, as with a wiki we can implement infinitely sophisticated categorization that organizes all known problems in the world. But I think categorization alone can still be insufficient, which leads to the third approach below.
3. Symptom-based problem isolation: After the wiki's category system walks you down to a "problem type" that is still to broad for your specific problem, the wiki can further isolate your problem by branching out by "symptoms", which is the "troubleshooting wizard" concept I mentioned in my original message. Let's see a concrete example:
Step 1: Initially, the wiki's category system takes you to a broad problem type "My air conditioner doesn't work". Step 2: On that page, the wiki will say: "Check if the air conditioner is plugged in. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 3: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to a further page that says: "Check if there is too much dust in the air conditioner. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 4: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to yet another page that says: "Check if the air conditioner is out of refrigerant. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 5: If the user still clicks [No], the user will be taken to another page that says: "Contact maintenance personnel."
As you can see, such a wiki-based troubleshooting process gradually isolates the user's problem by letting him choose symptoms, leading to increasingly specific problem pages.
So my conclusion is: keyword-based search + categorization + symptom-based troubleshooting can make the world's most comprehensive problem base (PB), just like Wikipedia has been the world's most comprehensive knowledge base (KB).
A "problem" is actually a set of "symptoms". A "symptom" is actually a "characteristic" of a problem.
"20Q" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20Q) is an interesting example that uses the same characteristic-based approach to retrieve an object.
-- Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/ http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz
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On 20 November 2011 06:22, Yao Ziyuan yaoziyuan@gmail.com wrote:
Step 1: Initially, the wiki's category system takes you to a broad problem type "My air conditioner doesn't work". Step 2: On that page, the wiki will say: "Check if the air conditioner is plugged in. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 3: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to a further page that says: "Check if there is too much dust in the air conditioner. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 4: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to yet another page that says: "Check if the air conditioner is out of refrigerant. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 5: If the user still clicks [No], the user will be taken to another page that says: "Contact maintenance personnel."
As you can see, such a wiki-based troubleshooting process gradually isolates the user's problem by letting him choose symptoms, leading to increasingly specific problem pages.
That doesn't sound much like a wiki to me...
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:56 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 20 November 2011 06:22, Yao Ziyuan yaoziyuan@gmail.com wrote:
Step 1: Initially, the wiki's category system takes you to a broad problem type "My air conditioner doesn't work". Step 2: On that page, the wiki will say: "Check if the air conditioner is plugged in. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 3: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to a further page that says: "Check if there is too much dust in the air conditioner. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 4: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to yet another page that says: "Check if the air conditioner is out of refrigerant. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 5: If the user still clicks [No], the user will be taken to another page that says: "Contact maintenance personnel."
As you can see, such a wiki-based troubleshooting process gradually isolates the user's problem by letting him choose symptoms, leading to increasingly specific problem pages.
That doesn't sound much like a wiki to me...
Well, that's an exaggerated example to demonstrate what "symptom-based problem isolation" is. In practice we may not need to create a new wiki page for each "step"; we may as well compress the above steps into a single page. But you know, when a problem gets too complex develops into several variants or subproblems, we may need new "main pages" for these derived problems, just like a Wikipedia article may branch into new articles to describe a detail in depth (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#History leads to a new main article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia ).
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How best to lead the user to his specific problem can be learned from practice. It could be "branching out by category", or "branching out by symptom", or a combination of both.
Above all, the point is, it will be so natural for a Wikipedia article like "Air conditioner" to include a "box" that says "Troubleshoot your air conditioner problems at WikiSolve"! It will sound so natural to have such a sister project.
On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 7:02 AM, Yao Ziyuan yaoziyuan@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:56 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
On 20 November 2011 06:22, Yao Ziyuan yaoziyuan@gmail.com wrote:
Step 1: Initially, the wiki's category system takes you to a broad problem type "My air conditioner doesn't work". Step 2: On that page, the wiki will say: "Check if the air conditioner is plugged in. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 3: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to a further page that says: "Check if there is too much dust in the air conditioner. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 4: If the user clicks [No], the user will be taken to yet another page that says: "Check if the air conditioner is out of refrigerant. Does this solve your problem? [Yes] [No]" Step 5: If the user still clicks [No], the user will be taken to another page that says: "Contact maintenance personnel."
As you can see, such a wiki-based troubleshooting process gradually isolates the user's problem by letting him choose symptoms, leading to increasingly specific problem pages.
That doesn't sound much like a wiki to me...
Well, that's an exaggerated example to demonstrate what "symptom-based problem isolation" is. In practice we may not need to create a new wiki page for each "step"; we may as well compress the above steps into a single page. But you know, when a problem gets too complex develops into several variants or subproblems, we may need new "main pages" for these derived problems, just like a Wikipedia article may branch into new articles to describe a detail in depth (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#History leads to a new main article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia ).
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