I've been doing some reading lately, and wanting
to keep track of the main concepts. Wiki pages
sprang to mind, given my recent train of thought. (01)
Some interesting problems (opportunities!) come to
mind... (02)
Wiki Redirects
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In history, the name one society used for something
was different than the name a different society used
for the same thing (people, places, gods, ...) When
combining information from different sources, the
different names will be used -- but they should all
link to the same page. (03)
In essence, a Wiki Word needs tha capacity for
synonyms. Linking to a single page can be achieved
in HTML systems using *redirects*. So the WikiWord
ScarFace would be redirected to the page AlCapone,
which would have as its title:
Al Capone (aka ScarFace) (04)
Then, whichever term was used, the resulting link
would get to the same page. (05)
On the interface side, the question of how to
identify additional aliases is an interesting one
to solve. The semantics certainly would not be hard
to implement, but how should the interface work? (06)
Wike Subsets
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The concept of synonyms also raises the question of
subsets. This problem is pretty difficult, even in
theory. So I wouldn't expect to see it anytime soon.
But as long as I'm here, I might as well mention it. (07)
The subset issue is nicely represented by historical
geography. Parts of France today, were parts of other
empires at various times in the past. How might those
sorts of subsets be represented in Wiki pages? Or is
there another way to solve the problem? (08)
Wike Ordering
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Then there is the notion of ordering. If there is a
Wiki page for the American Constitution, and one for
the Declaration of Independence, how might it be
possible to extract a chronological index of those
pages? (09)
Wiki Tables
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And there are partial orderings, or overlapping
ordering. If the French Revolution and the American
Revolution (or some other period in history) overlap
to some degree, then how might be possible to show
the times side by side? (010)
Wiki Outlines
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And if the American Revolution contained the Boston
Tea Party, how might the chronology of those events
be represented in an outline? (011)
Certainly the pages would be linked to each other.
But how could the notion of "containment" be expressed? (012)
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