[Wikipedia-l] Software Assisted Context Resolution

Mon Mar 31 05:49:54 UTC 2003

Hi people. 
This is my first post to wikipedia-l, and its a biggun. I've
been mulling over this idea for a while now and have finally
gotten the electrons moving...

I propose a number of changes to the Wikipedia software to 
enable "software assisted context resolution", or if you 
prefer "software assisted disambiguation". The primary purpose 
of these changes is to allow users to more easily resolve 
ambiguous links at the time they are created, or if necessary, 
at some later stage. I stress that this is not "automatic" 
link resolution, although the process will be invoked 
automatically in many cases.

The process, detailed below, is invoked in two ways. The 
first would be manually and explicitly by the user. The 
secound would be automatic when an article with new or 
modified links it saved.

To enable this process to be invoked manually I propose that 
a new meta-link be added to the footer of every page that 
contains at least one link (most pages). IMHO, an appropriate 
position would be between "Edit this page" and "Discuss this 
page". It would read "Resolve links", and invoke a page titled 
"Resolving links from (real title)". This new page would look 
identical to the original except that the destination of each 
link is changed to a "context selection" page as detailed below. 
Note that it is entirely possible (and probable) that many links 
will point to UNambiguous pages. "Context selection" pages will 
still be generated for these links as the user may have found 
the first instance of ambiguity and will need to deal with it.

The "context resolution" process would also be invoked when an 
article is saved, and the article contains new or modified 
links. In this case the "context resolution" page would not be 
a mimic of the real page. Rather, a short list of new or modified 
links would be generated in the form of an alphabetized list.

The "context selection" pages are generated from the articles 
currently known as "disambiguation pages".  The bulleted list 
found in these articles is transformed into a set of radio 
buttons. In addition, a radio button is generated that basically 
means "unresolved". At the bottom of this list is a small form 
to allow new links and associated context descriptions to be 
added. Whichever option is selected from this page, the link in 
the calling page is adjusted to point to the selected destination 
article, with the original text preserved by using the pipe trick.

A by-product of these changes will be that the "context selection" 
pages will, in the main, be updated by the wiki software (as 
opposed to hand editted). This should make it possible to more 
tightly control the layout of these pages, perhaps with the 
addition of subheadings like "People", "Places", "Things". 
Further, when the "Edit this page" link is clicked on a "context 
selection" page, the normal edit page is replaced by a purpose-
built form for editing such pages.

I understand that there are probably a millions reasons why some
aspect(s) of the above will be difficult or impracticable. I hope 
that the general concept is possible and feasible.

Gary Curtis 
[[User:Gaz]] on Wiki
<wikiman.at.freemail.dot.com.dot.au> for all Wiki email

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