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Group 3

Group 3. Opium in Afghanistan or It’s better than Excedrin!. Question reformulation (otherwise known as “bollixing it up”). Analyst question 1 : “what process is used to produce opium?”

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Group 3

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  1. Group 3 Opium in Afghanistan or It’s better than Excedrin!

  2. Question reformulation(otherwise known as “bollixing it up”) • Analyst question 1: “what process is used to produce opium?” • Immediately broken down into: chemicals, seeds, soil type, climatic factors, labor, machinery, harvesting… • Researcher reformulation: “what is the process of opium production in Afghanistan?” • Strategy: try general overview first; see what is easily found • Oracle/system response: “do you want • Opium production process • Opium production in Afghanistan?” Analyst rapidly develops plan of attack, which becomes report structure Do you first ask a general Q? System needs to know what kind of A to deliver Reformulation added too much specificity A good system knows when it answers only part of the Q

  3. Process continued • AQ2: “what areas currently produce opium?” • RR: “in what areas of Afghanistan is opium produced?” • OR: Map with drug-growing areas highlighted, and related chart • AQ 2a: “give me raw data, raster overlays of where cultivation is possible” • RR: “in what areas is growth of opium possible? [in GIS]” • OR: no response Analyst wants to specify media; system should handle Analyst knew there are people at NIMA; system should provide links to experts when they are found

  4. text map numbers time series chart anything Input • For a new task, provide context / background • Keywords, documents, etc. • Personal expertise profile (languages spoken, etc.) • Session plan/profile  evolving answer doc • Provide current goal • Early on, in long-term study  prefer longer/discursive answer • Then, or for quick question  prefer shorter/factoid/table answer • Ask question! • Provide additional constraints • Data type • Source: web, NIMA, etc. • Date: last 2 days, past month, past year, etc. Context: doc metadata • Subtopic 1: XXXX • Subtopic 2: YYY ZZZZ • … “By which routes does processed opium leave Afghanistan?”

  5. Output

  6. Accessible to system: Can place new info properly One thought: evolving document TOPIC: Opium in Afghanistan ANALYST: Jeff DATE: 6/11/03 TOPIC DESCRIPTION: “Write a report…” • SUBTOPIC 1: production • “xxx xxxx xx xxxx xx” www.abc.com “yyy y yy yyy y” • “zzzz zz zz zzzz zz” • “pp ppp p pp p” • SUBTOPIC 2: political/economic impact • “qq qq qqqq q qq” www.xx.yy.mil • … Accessible to colleagues’ systems: can cross-reference

  7. Some lessons • General strategy of broad-to-narrow information search for this type of task, but the sequence of decomposition/subtopics differs by goal, analyst, and organization • Both IR and QA technology are important, together with Info Management, GIS, etc. • Maps (and other media) are crucial (exploration resources as well as results) • Important metadata: source time, search time, attribution/sources, reliability, objectivity, justification, relevance, etc. • Handling perspectives/contradictory/missing/partial/etc. info • Question syntax, misspellings, etc.: systems must be smart/tolerant • Use context to focus: general task, analyst profile, analytic perspective, etc. • Integrate with other experts (internal and external) • Maintain and use working document: Game Plan  final report

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