I think a forum is a sub-optimal (i.e. terrible) means of delivering
technical support. At best it might be a linked list (thread) of emails
submitted by participants with a heavy dose of anecdotal evidence and
occasional contributions and responses from the vendor. Searching a
forum for a solution often only generates a list of submittals from
people with the same problem. It is possible to pose questions
(interrogate).
A working wiki on the other hand is a moderated compendium of articles
submitted by participants and generally edited by enthusiasts. As a
means of delivering technical support it beats out forums but probably
takes more energy and resources to compile, organize and moderate. It's
impossible to interrogate.
It's my understanding that CBR systems theoretically organize
information into 'working knowledge' using some form of an inference
engine to solve problems based on people's experiences. It may also
suffer from anecdotal evidence depending on how it is managed but might
be possible to interrogate.
Your link to 'here' returned ' there doesn't seem to be anything here'
(sic) from reddit and searching reddit for 'forum' generated a S/N of
zero in the first two pages. In the search results a typical article
title was 'My PC has been on the fritz for over a year.' - demonstrating
my point.
So a Siri <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri> style interface on top of
any of these bodies of knowledge would be a big improvement. Mostly
tho' I like to connect with a live technically trained human being.
Thanks,
Robert C
On 7/16/14 11:23 PM, Arlo Barnes wrote:
Well, I generally think of the improvement of forum interactions as a
community phenomenon, eased or impeded by the structure of
communication and interaction with the site infrastructure*, rather
than as a computational dilemma /per se/; but I would be interested
to hear what ways you think fora could be improved by AI.
A general forum for thinking about internet fora (or forums, depending
on your preference) is here
<http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfInternet/top/>.
-Arlo James Barnes
*For software support, it is that interaction with the site is very
limited - mostly, people are only there for the duration of the time
they need assistance, and during that time are more interested in
getting help than giving help. There is no time for the structure,
mores, and history of the site to become clear, and so communication
is weakened.
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