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AutomaticRoadMap
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesAn AutomaticRoadMap could be a RoadMap generated depending on:
- log stats / trails
- linking stats
- whatever
This all doesn't looks useful or even possible for me. Did I mention that I have absolutely no clue of programming? I see no way to automate the process of identifying the basic or relevant facets of a topic or domain in a wiki. KI is trying this for long time now.
RoadMaps? are more than only providing an overview for the new wikizens: they are SharedArtefacts? that help outline the knowledge domain and the common knowledge in the community.
Just say no. -- CarstenSiedentopf
- Why should we say no? Even it it should be impossible to create good automatic road maps, it will surely possible to create mediocre ones and even this is useful. Are the goals realistic? Are the necessary resources available? -- HelmutLeitner
Isn't that what the http://www.everything2.com, and other Everything Engine based, sites do? -- ZbigniewLukasiak
My vision of an AutomaticRoadMap is very simple, and it follows from my newfound belief that everything should be editable on wikis, even the structured data returned from queries. We already automatically create a listing of AllPages on one hand, or BackLinks from categories (or what-have-you) on the other hand. Make the list a first class editable object so that it can be refactored like any other wiki text. That way you can build meaningful hand-written roadmaps without losing the completeness of the listing.
The way it would work is that the script would search the manually written section of the roadmap for the set of all the LinkPatterns it makes, L. If we take the set of the automatically generated list of pages, A, then we do the set difference to find the list of unreferenced links, U = A - L, and emit only U after the manually written section. Note that if there is no manually written section, U = A, and the roadmap looks the same as the normal index.
This is just like how DigestedChanges would work. For example,
Structure
Manually written section.
List of unreferenced links, U.
Plain list
- Page1
- Page2
- Page3
- Page4
- Page5
- Page6
- Page7
- ...
Partially refactored list
Page1 outlines the theory of X, which is a Page3.
When Page4 came to Washington, he shot the sheriff. This exhibits the case of Page6.
- Page2
- Page5
- Page7
- ...
-- SunirShah
I can see how the edited list concept helps the author of the roadmap (show me the pages not yet mapped). It seems like it would be useful to the wiki reader if the map is shown and not the (hundreds of) pages not in the map. Or does the final refactoring result in no unmentioned (U) pages? --DaveParker
I would hope that people would take to the AutomaticRoadMap of AllPages as a better StartingPoints. It's annoying to keep referring people to pages. If we can build a good RoadMap, we can save ourselves some time, and improve our value to other people. So, in that way, the AutomaticRoadMap can gain from the Wiki:RatchetEffect that most wiki pages enjoy--i.e. the accumulated value they have. I'm sure there will always be some unmentioned pages, but if a page is mentioned once, it will remained mentioned, and hopefully we won't grow faster than we organize. Note also that there is a natural confluence between DigestedChanges and an AutomaticRoadMap as we can copy the summary from the DigestedChanges of a spate of new pages directly into the AutomaticRoadMap, or conversely we can copy the summary from the AutomaticRoadMap into DigestedChanges when we are reworking a spate of older pages. -- SunirShah