Answer Garden: A tool for growing organizational memory

MS Ackerman, TW Malone - ACM SIGOIS Bulletin, 1990 - dl.acm.org
ACM SIGOIS Bulletin, 1990dl.acm.org
Answer Garden allows organizations to develop databases of commonly asked questions
that grow “organically” as new questions arise and are answered. It is designed to help in
situations (such as field service organizations and customer “hot lines”) where there is a
continuing stream of questions, many of which occur over and over, but some of which the
organization has never seen before. The system includes a branching network of diagnostic
questions that helps users find the answers they want. If the answer is not present, the …
Answer Garden allows organizations to develop databases of commonly asked questions that grow “organically” as new questions arise and are answered. It is designed to help in situations (such as field service organizations and customer “hot lines”) where there is a continuing stream of questions, many of which occur over and over, but some of which the organization has never seen before. The system includes a branching network of diagnostic questions that helps users find the answers they want. If the answer is not present, the system automatically sends the question to the appropriate expert, and the answer is returned to the user as well as inserted into the branching network. Experts can also modify this network in response to users' problems.
Our initial Answer Garden database contains questions and answers about how to use the X Window System.
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