ackerman@athena.mit.edu (Mark S. Ackerman) (06/25/91)
Send me your tired, your usual...
WANTED: COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Sure, you probably
have a pile of questions that you answer over and over again. Maybe
you wish that the FAQ list was a few thousand questions-and-answers
longer.
Please send your stashed-away answers for use in the Answer Garden.
Below is a description of Answer Garden, but basically it's a
help/documentation facility for X (or any subject). You can think of
it as the 2000 most Frequently Asked Questions with a lot of
structuring so you can find the right answer. I'm trying to collect
enough info to be generally helpful to novices and intermediate X
programmers - so they don't have to smack their head against brick
walls all the time. Answer Garden will go out on the MIT contrib
tape, and it's in beta/research release now.
I'm going to repeat this message every week for the next 2 months, so
everyone catches it. (Yes, I know this is redundant, but - if
everyone contributes to the Answer Garden, then think of all the future
traffic it will save. -)
Looking forward to lots of email...
Mark Ackerman
("Ack")
MIT/Center for Coordination Science
ackerman@athena.mit.edu
ackerman@xv.mit.edu
ack@media-lab.media.mit.edu
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FOLLOWING ARE 2 PARTS:
Commonly asked questions about Answer Garden:
- What sorts of information are you looking for?
Almost anything about X - generally asked questions, code examples
(short ones), information about particular hardware or software -
anything that people will run into over and over again. I'm looking
for the 90% coverage on common applications, on toolkits and other
programming environments, and on system administration. I want to
do this right, so if there's anything left out, let me know.
- What is required for Answer Garden?
The sample Answer Garden was written using straight Unix flat files,
Unix mail, and the Athena widget set. The sample information database
is about X. My intention is that everyone be able to use it.
- Is this just about X?
This Answer Garden information database is.
- What does it run on?
It has been tested on Suns, DECstations, microVaxen, and a few other
machines. I will be making sure it runs on System V machines. My
ports so far have been compile time, but you never know.
- How big is it?
Depends on how much info you send me....
- What if I'm wrong?
In case you're worried, all of the answers will be checked over for
accuracy (without your name on it) by experts (including Consortium
staff). In addition, you have the choice of being publicly identified
by name or by organization or being anonymous. This is your
opportunity to be famous/infamous, tho.
- I don't have anything stored up, but I'd like to help. What should I do?
If you are an expert user (you can decide on the meaning of "expert")
and you'd like to answer questions while we build the database, let me
know. I currently have a number of experts answering questions, so
the load on any one expert will be quite low. Or, if you get
questions all the time from people around you, let me know what they
are.
- I want a copy of the Answer Garden.
It's currently being used by only research sites. If you'd like to be
a research site, send me email.
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Answer Garden allows organizations to develop databases of
commonly asked questions that grow "organically" as new questions
arise and are answered. It is designed to help in situations (such as
software support organizations and customer "hot lines") where there
is a continuing stream of questions, many of which occur over and
over, but some of which the organization has never seen before. The
system includes a branching network of diagnostic questions that helps
users find the answers they want. If the answer is not present, the
system automatically sends the question to an appropriate expert, and
the answer is returned to the user as well as inserted into the
branching network. Hence, the system grows over time. The experts
can modify this network in response to users' problems as well.
Answer Garden is further described in (Ackerman and Malone, 1990).
The initial Answer Garden database contains questions and
answers about how to use the X Window System. Thus the prospective
users of the system are X programmers, administrators, and general
users. Answer Garden is currently available to research sites.