[jcvs] Problem Solving jCVS archive

[Robert Brewer <rbrewer@lava.net>]

Mahalo for that kind introduction Tim!

As Tim mentioned, I'm working on my Masters degree in ICS here at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.

My research is in the area of improving the archives of product support
mailing lists like this one. My basic thesis is that when people go to an
archive of a product support mailing list, it is usually because they are
having some sort of problem with the product and they want to find a
solution. Therefore the archive should be designed to maximize the
efficiency with which users can find solutions to their problems.

I have created a system called MCS (Mailinglist Condensation System) which 
takes existing mailing list archives and turns them into problem solving 
archives. This is done through a process called condensation which takes 
the verbose content of a mailing list and removes the messages which don't 
have long-term relevance. The condensation is done by a human editor (for 
the jCVS archive this was me) who leaves out all the messages which are 
irrelevant to problem solving. The editor annotates the messages with 
keywords, writes a one-line summary of each message, and even removes 
extraneous text from the body of messages. The result is an archive which 
is much smaller with a higher information density and four methods by which 
searches can be performed: keyword search, symptom search, 2D search, and 
full-text search.

I hope you'll take the time to try out the archive and maybe it will save 
you some time by tracking down a problem you've been having with jCVS. In 
about two weeks I will be putting up an online survey at the MCS archive to 
gauge people's reaction to the system. Feel free to send comments about the 
system using the Feedback page.

The MCS archive is located at <http://csdl.ics.hawaii.edu:8100/> and Tim 
has graciously added it to the footer of each message to the list for easy 
access. I'll be continuing to condense new messages and add them to the 
archive.

Thanks for your time, and I hope the archive can become a valuable resource 
for the list which lets us spend more time discussing new issues and less 
time answering frequently asked questions. :)