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30th October 2006 | Draft Generating a Million Questions from UIA Databases Problems, Strategies, Values - / - Also published in modified form in Statistics, Visualizations and Patterns (Vol 5 of the Yearbook of International Organizations, Munich, K G Saur Verlag, 6th edition, 2006/2007, as sections 10.1.1 and 10.1.2) Background The experiment described below follows from an initial interest of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), in support of the questions project of the international nonprofit organization Dropping Knowledge – as clarified during a workshop on the online databases of the Union of International Associations (Saarbrucken, 8 December 2005). Dropping Knowledge subsequently appropirated this information as the basis for establishing an online web facility to enable people worldwide to ask questions and to be exposed to answers -- thereby creating a "Living Library". The categorization of the questions was undertaken using the ontology developed by the UIA (cf Enabling a Living Library, 2006) The concern here, in contrast, is whether it was possible to generate a Questions database from three long-established UIA databases: World Problems-Issues, Global Strategies-Solutions, and Human Values. These databases are part of the online Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, originally initiated in collaboration with Mankind 2000, whose development was most recently funded by the European Commission. The databases are integrated with others on international organizations, international meetings, biographies and bibliographies (cf Yearbook of International Organizations, International Congress Calendar). The thousands of problems, strategies and values identified from the documented preoccupations of the network of international organizations (governmental and nongovernmental) provide a relatively objective focus for the generation of questions associated with those preoccupations -- or implicit in them. Clearly a particular interest in this experiment is to determine in what ways the result of generating questions could be meaningful and significant. The work builds on the possibilities of the use of such databases for simulations (cf Simulating a Global Brain: using networks of international organizations, world problems, strategies, and values, 2001). WH-questions There is an extensive literature on what are termed “WH-questions”. “WH-questions” refer to questions of the type: How? Why? Where? What. Which? When? Who? Further comments on studies in relation to such questions are noted below. The Questions database was first generated experimentally in December 2005, and then more comprehensively in October 2006. In each case by applying a template of the WH-questions to the titles of Problems, Strategies and Values.. This can be done by embedding the "seed title" (XXXX) in a suitable template phrase. For example:: How is XXXX caused? Who is responsible for YYYY? Where does XXX occur? When does XXXX occur? What is XXXX? The range of templates is illustrated by the following table Templates used experimentally to generate questions Source database Generated query (** = not finally used) . WH-query Phrase-1 Seed Phrase2 World Problems-Issues (13 templates applied) How much XXXX is there? How does XXXX happen? (**) How is XXXX caused? (**) Why does XXXX happen? Why give priority to XXXX ? Why does God allow XXXX to happen? (**) Why be concerned by XXXX ? (**) Where does XXXX occur? What is XXXX ? What causes XXXX ? What results in XXXX ? (**) Who causes XXXX ? Who is responsible for XXXX ? Who is concerned about XXXX ? When does XXXX occur? When will XXXX occur? When did XXXX arise? Which kind of XXXX ? Global Strategies-Solutions (14 templates applied) How can XXXX be enabled? Why is XXXX unsuccessful? Why give priority to XXXX ? Where is XXXX undertaken? Where is XXXX successful? What is required for XXXX ? What causes XXXX to fail? Who undertakes XXXX ? Who is responsible for XXXX ? Who is concerned about XXXX ? When is XXXX undertaken? When will be XXXX undertaken? When was XXXX undertaken? Which kind of XXXX ? Human Values (constructive or destructive -- 9 templates applied ) How is XXXX elicited? Why is XXXX valued? Why give priority to XXXX ? Where is XXXX found? What is XXXX ? Who exemplifies XXXX ? Who values XXXX ? When is XXXX evident? Which kind of XXXX ? Human Values (polarities -- 10 templates applied ) How are XXXX related? How can XXXX be reconciled? How can XXXX be transcended? Why is the XXXX relation so challenging? Where are XXXX reconciled? What transcends XXXX ? Who embodies XXXX ? Who exemplifies the XXXX ambiguity? When are XXXX transcended? Which kind of XXXX relationship? As is clear from the table above, different templates were used both according to the source database and according to the WH-Question. Since many Problems and Strategies have a number of alternative titles (notably employing synonyms), these too have been used as seeds for the generation of alternative titles for a question -- effectively constituting alternative formulations of the same question (but clustered together in the Question entry). Although they may be accessed through their keywords, they are not treated as distinctly profiled questions. Preliminary results The very preliminary results in generating these questions in December 2005 are indicated in the following table. Preliminary results (December 2005) . Seed entities WH-templates used Questions generated   Total Selected   Main WH-Variants Problems 59205 12995 13 168935 239252 Strategies 42032 12848 14 179872 167426 Values 3257 3209 9 /10 29111 16470 Totals 104494 29052 . 377918 423148  . . . . . 801066   Indication of distribution of seed entities by type .  Problems-Issues Strategies-Solutions . Profiles Links Profiles Links . 1996 2000 % 1996 2000 % 1996 2000 % 1996 2000 % A 0 196 n.a. 0 3,507 n.a. 0 1,518 n.a. 0 16,767 n.a. B 170 187 10% 5,300 7,090 34% 158 154 -3% 3,697 4,253 15% C 575 722 26% 13,816 19,347 40% 1,100 1,089 -1% 17,096 25,206 47% D 2,162 2,740 27% 30,613 52,451 71% 3,315 3,452 4% 19,374 43,329 124% E 3,857 5,378 39% 29,626 52,587 78% 3,008 5,298 76% 11,092 50,677 357% F 3,072 3,917 28% 38,625 61,604 59% 1,382 1,972 43% 7,015 19,580 179% G 2,153 30,279 1306% 5,979 47,112 688% 7,685 13,107 71% 3,604 69,059 1,816% Other 214 12,716 5,842% 905 26,255 2,801% 12,850 6,105 -52% 61,129 34,070 -44% Total 12,203 56,135 360% 124,864 269,953 116% 29,498 32,695 11% 123,007 262,941 114%   Indication of seed entity relationships  .. Hierarchical links Functional links .   .. Broader Narrower Related Aggravating Aggravated  by Reducing Reduced by . Problems 26403 35500 14264 31024 31105 1507 1529 Strategies 27134 32541 3010 3302 2902 17826 16911 . Values . 11392 . . . . . . Totals . . . . . . . The subsequent generation of the Questions in October 2006 gave the following results: Final results of question generation (October 2005) . Problems Strategies Values Value-Polarities Totals . Main WH- Variants Main WH- Variants Main WH- Variants Main WH-Variants Main WH-Variants All Seed entities 45892 31055 2978 229 80154 WH-templates 7 6 7 7 7 2 7 3 28 18 46 Main 321244 - 217385 - 20846 - 1603 - 561078 - 561078 (Alternative titles) 133917 114786 107422 107422 9807 2802 - - - - - WH-Variants - 275352 - 217385 - 5956 - 687 - 499380 499380 Total questions 321244 275352 217385 217385 20846 5956 1603 687 561078 499380 1060458 Broader 433244 371352 370174 370174 79765 22790 0 687 883183 765003 1648186 Narrower 346577 297066 284396 284396 0 0 79744 34176 710717 615638 1326355 Related 113302 97116 33768 33768 0 0 0 34863 147070 165747 312817 Total hierarchical 893123 765534 688338 688338 79765 22790 79744 69726 1740970 926888 2667858 Aggravates 235347 201726 42196 42196 77 22 0 0 277620 243944 521564 Aggravated by 233989 200562 42637 42637 0 0 0 0 276626 243199 519825 Reduces 11298 9684 174125 174125 0 0 0 0 185423 183809 369232 Reduced by 11340 9720 175469 175469 0 0 0 0 186809 185189 371998 Total functional 491974 421692 434427 434427 77 22 0 0 926478 856141 1782619 Strategies 163289 139962 0 0 336966 96276 182 78 500437 236316 736753 Problems 0 0 163205 163205 256585 73310 20090 8610 439880 245125 685005 Values 223293 191394 337134 337134 0 0 0 0 560427 528528 1088955 Total cross-database 386582 331356 500339 500339 593551 169586 20272 8688 1500744 1009969 2510713 Total relationships 1771679 1518582 1623104 1623104 673393 192398 100016 78414 4168192 3412498 7580690 Remarks The above results are of course extremely preliminary. Some clarifications regarding the above table are appropriate: the application of a single WH-template of each of the 7 types (Who, Where, etc) to each seed entity (Problem, Stategy, or Value) gives rise to the column labelled "main". a distinction is in the table made between "values" (constructive and destructive) and "value-polarities", corresponding to the exploration of the use of the latter as a significant device for clustering values the application of any additional WH-templates (6 in the case of Problems) to each seed entity gives rise to the column labelles "WH-variants" the results for "main" and "WH-variants" may be the same (as in the case of Strategies) because the number of templates applicable is the same the "alternative titles" do not give rise to separate question entries for statistical purposes the labelling of the functional relationships is in practice different in the case of Problems and Strategies although in each case the systemic notion of facilitating or constraining is the same The results could be substantively affected by: Increasing or reducing the number of original entities selected for application of the WH-templates Increasing or reducing the number of WH-question templates themselves Culling questions after generation Integration into UIA set of databases The Questions database, with its 1,060,458 Questions, was integrated into the UIA set of online databases by Tomáš J. Fülöpp in October 2006. It is freely accessible over the web. This integration has the advantage of using the common search and visualization interfaces developed for the other databases (including World Problems, Global Strategies, Human Values, International Organizations, Intermentaion Meetings, etc). The format of a displayed question record is as follows. Infomation on various types of relationships between questions clearly depends on the presence of such information in the seed entry in the source database. Output / Displayed Record Source database: The questions have been generated from the titles of entries in three different databases: World Problems-Issues (P), Global Strategies-Solutions (S), or Human Values (V) Seed title: Questions have been generated by taking each of the (possibly several alternative) titles of a Problem, a Strategy or a Value. The title associated with this entry is indicated here Type code: In the source database (Problems, Strategies, Values), each entry is allocated a type code. Typically, in the case of Problems or Strategies, the lowest letters of the alphabet indicate the most generic entries where the higher leters in the alphabet indicate more specific entries. In the case of the Values database, entries of Type C are associated with Constructive Values, those of Type D with Destructive Values and those of Type P with Value Polarities WH-Question type: The following classical types of generic "WH-questions" are used to generated the Questions in this database: 1=When? 2=Where? 3=Which? 4=How? 5=What? 6=Who? or 7=Why? The relevant one for this Question entry is indicated here. Question variant: To distinguish between the (possibly several) alternative titles, each is given a single digit number. The first (1) is that which is presented as the principal title of the entry in the source data base. Questions of different types (What? Where? etc) are applied to each such title which maintains that single digit number. WH-Question family: These are the titles of all the Questions generated from a single title of the Problem, Stategy or Value entry from which the Question derived. They therefore all share the same "Question variant" (1-9) but are all associated with a different WH-Question type (Who? Where? When? Which? How? Who? Why?) ---- Relationships ---- Broader questions: These are Questions that are more general, or more contextual, than that of the entry. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any broader Problem, Strategy or Value in the corresponding databases. Narrower questions: These are Questions that are more specific than that of the entry. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any narrower Problem, Strategy or Value in the corresponding databases. Related questions: These are Questions that are associated in some non-specific way with the Question of this entry. They correspond to related entities in the seed entry in the source database whether a Problem or a Strategy. Aggravates (P) / Constrains (S): These are Questions that may impose constraints on those of the same type with which they are linked in this way. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any equivalent Problem or Strategy in the corresponding databases. Aggravated by (P) / Constrained by (S): These are Questions that may be constrained in some way by those of the same type with which they are linked in this way. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any equivalent Problem or Strategy in the corresponding databases. Reduces (P) / Facilitates(S): These are Questions that may reduce or facilitate those of the same type with which they are linked in this way. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any equivalent Problem or Strategy in the corresponding databases. Reduced by (P) / Facilitated by (S): These are Questions that may be facilitate in some way by those of the same type with which they are linked in this way. They correspond to Questions that have been generated, as appropriate, from any equivalent Problem or Strategy in the corresponding databases. Strategy questions: These are Questions generated from any Strategy entry associated with the Problem entry from which this Question was generated in the Problems source database. This field is not relevant in the case of Questions generated from the Strategies database. Problem questions: These are Questions generated from any Strategies entry associated with the Strategy entry from which this Question was generated in the Strategies source database. This field is not relevant in the case of Questions generated from the Problems database. Value questions: These are Questions generated from any Values entry associated with the Problem or Strategy entry from which this Question was generated. It is not relevant in the case of entries from the Values database. Comments Fundamental to this exploration are the following issues: Problems as themselves constituting a form of "question" calling for some form of "answer" -- although, as "questions", they may themselves merit questioning, thus clarifying a challenging problem by asking more searching questions Strategies as themselves constituting a form of "answer" -- although, as "answers" that may themselves merit questioning -- by "putting them to the question" Values motivating both acknowledgement of any "question" or sensitivity to the need for an "answer" -- but whose underlying concern may also be fruitfully questioned The original datasets of Problems, Strategies and Values -- as developed since 1972 -- have large numbers of relationships between records within and between those databases. These relationships have been the subject of extensive "hyperlink editing", most recently by Nadia McLaren, enabling extensive analysis (cf Anthony Judge and Nadia McLaren, Feedback Loop Analysis in the Encyclopedia Project, Extract from the final report on Information Context for Biodiversity Conservation, 2000). From the above, given that this pattern has been preserved, it can be seen that these are based on various types of relationship: Hierarchical Systemic or functional Cross-database The generated Questions database is therefore an overlay of the above network of links in terms of: The 7 WH-questions The variants (max. 3) of some of those WH-questions The generated questions are linked back to the entity from which they were generated, whether a problem, a strategy or a value -- thus providing another point of access to these datasets. This integration of the other datbases through specially framed questions may prove to be particularly valuable. The question templates are necessarily different between databases and between variants. The simplistic nature of the templates may not necessarily result in question titles that are grammatically totally correct at this stage -- but sufficiently so for the purpose of this experiment. Visualization of patterns of questions The visualization possibilities for networks of interrelated Questions were first envisaged as a contribution to the media project associated with the launch of the Living Library by Dropping Knowledge (see Complementary Knowledge Analysis / Mapping Process, April 2006), notably with respect to the use of Netmap. The visualization facilities implemented by Tomáš J. Fülöpp for online exploration of the Questions database form part of the set of options developed for exploration of the wider set of databases: Problems, Strategies, Values, Organizations, etc. (Information visualization and sonorification: displaying complexes of problems, strategies, values and organizations). The facilities include: Circular metaphor: Representation of questions as nodes on the circumference of a circle, with relationships expressed as lines linking across the circle. Question titles are presented radially from each node, outside the circle (and may be clickable to offer access to the question entry). This representation takes several forms: PNG (Portable Network Graphics), namely a bitmap image that is quickly generated and not subject to any patent restrictions SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), namely an XML markup language enabling descripton of two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and animated. This is an open standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium. It has the considerable advantage of being susceptible to being editing as a text file. As its name implies this format has the advantage of allowing the image to be scaled to any size without loss of resolution. As implemented it allows the image to be used as an index to individual questions. SWF (Small Web Format or Shockwave Flash), is a widely used proprietary format for displaying animated vector graphics on the web. Hierarchical metaphor: Hyperbolic metaphor: Representation of the network of relationships between questions (as nodes) on a a hypergraph, namely projected onto a hypersphere using the open source HyperGraph application. This is a java applet that offers a means to visualize hyperbolic geometry, to handle graphs and to layout hyperbolic trees. It is especially useful for exploring large volumes of data that have a degree of hierarchical structure. FreeMind: This is a mind mapping application written in java, typically providing extensive export capabilities. FreeMind has numerous features, especially the ability to unfold and fold branches of deep hierarchical structures, allowing for links between different branches Spring map metaphor: Representation of the questions (as nodes) linked by "springs" whose length adjusts to represent the network of relationships in an optimal manner -- effectively in three dimensions. This is done in a java applet devloped by Gerald de Jong. Any such spring map is inherently dynamic in its constant search for a better equilibrium. The position of its elements can be adjusted and fixed by the user for greatest clarity. Scatter graph metaphor: Representation of questions and links using a more common scatter plot technique, whether in PNG, SVG or SWF formats (as described above) All of these options allow the user to apply them to particular topic searches and to adjust the complexity of the visualization. Various facilities are also enabled to allow the user to colour features of the image. Experiments have also been made with the online use of virtual reality (VRML) displays in three dimensions for these datasets (Using VRML for an Overview of World Problems), but these have not been yet been enabled for the Questions data. Experiments have been made with the online export of such data into third party packages such as Decision Explorer -- a proven tool for managing "soft" issues, namely the qualitative information that surrounds complex or uncertain situations. Again this has not yet been enabled for Questions data, for which it could be very appropriate. As suggested above, however, some offline experiments with the proprietary Netmap package have been successfully used in a preliminary exploration and visualization of portions of the Questions dataset. Possibilities from this approach This work was inspired at an early stage by that of Stafford Beer, Syd Howell, Alan Mossman, and Gordon Pask who developed a set of techniques on the occasion of a conference on Improving the Human Condition: Quality and Stability in Social Systems (Silver Anniversary International Meeting, London, 1979) of the Society for General Systems Research (SGSR). The resulting documents, tables and maps were presented in Metaconferencing possibilities: Discovering people / viewpoint networks in conferences (1980). Of particular relevance is their early use of a question-statement refinement technique and mapping of the results as applied to an international conference involving people well-disposed towards such techniques A particular exploration touching on WH-questions was made in various interrelated papers prior to this experiment: Functional Complementarity of Higher Order Questions: psycho-social sustainability modelled by coordinated movement (2005) Engaging with Questions of Higher Order: cognitive vigilance required for higher degrees of twistedness (2005) Question Avoidance, Evasion, Aversion and Phobia: why we are unable to escape from traps (2006) Conformality of 7 WH-questions to 7 Elementary Catastrophes (2006) Cognitive Feel for Cognitive Catastrophes: Question Conformality (2006) Some interesting work could be done to refine the WH-question templates and to explore their functional relationships (as suggested in the above papers) The hierarchical linkages between questions would provide a very interesting technique for moving to more generic questions or "drilling" down to more specific questions The functional links offer an interesting possibility for exploring learning pathways based on questions. In this context the detection and exploration of loops of questions (using network analysis techniques) raise many points of interest (cf the work of Ron Atkin on simplicial complexes) Additional features might include: A facility for users to impose their own preferred template on the seed entities It is possible that it would be relatively easy to apply automatic translation techniques to such questions to obtain linguistic variants -- raising issues of the the correspondence to WH-questions in other languages and the possibility of other forms of question not envisaged in this excperiment. Once the formatting is clarified, the issue is whether the database in its entirety lends itself to interesting analysis, notably with the visualization and other tools (already offered as options to the online presentation of search results). Some thoughts are: Since we are dealing with questions, does the network of linkages make sense as a learning pathway anyway (Broader, Narrower, etc)? Can the questions be clustered in interesting ways, given that both the Problems and Strategies were analyzed to discover interesting loops? Are the links between questions from different databases meaningful? What would it take to move beyond, or filter out, those questions that could be identified as more contrived or artificial? How does this kind of experiment help to focus attention on "better" questions? To what extent does the pattern of questions (with the templates used) usefully covers the forms of interrogation with regard to XXXX? Given the artificial templates used to generate the questions, is any meaning mainly to be derived at more abstract levels of analysis? Given the recurring significance to contemporary challenges of governance of "problems", "strategies" and "values" -- from which the "questions" were generated -- is there further significance to be obtained from any explicit links to the "organizations" and "meetings" where their understanding and importance are clarified? Are "questions" then to be usefully considered as the underlying focus of "organizations", but especially of "meetings"? Is there a case for recognizing that it is not new "answers" to old "problems" which is the fundamental challenge, but rather new "questions" with respect to those old "problems"? Question of significance? The key question with any visualization of a pattern of information, such as that enabled by this experiment, is whether it offers any new insight. Clearly unusual patterns of information can be generated, but do they lead to unusual insights? The visualization metaphors used have the advantage of holding disparate questions in relationship to one another in a manner which suggests the possibility of a more integrative perspective. Interacting with the various visualization options may enhance that possibility. At issue are the conditions under which such a perspective might emerge as more than an artifice of the design metaphor. More fundamental is the issue of what forms of visualization enable new insight and how they may compare with those explored with respect to these patterns of relationship between questions. Of particular interest is the extent to which the patterns of questions may be compared with those characteristic of stages in learning pathways and individuation processes (cf George Siemens, Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation, 2005).

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