[Sigia-l] 20questions--a little bit OT, but not entirely

[Samantha Bailey]

Sorry I wasn't clearer--what I saw as fascinating was the kinds of items 
that were appearing in the "other" and "unknown" category when I used the 
online version (whereas the items in the animal, vegetable and mineral 
categories were more predictable). I was thinking "trophy" and the app 
wasn't able to get it in 20 questions (although it did get it in 28 
questions)--in the grouping of items categorized with trophies, it included 
disco balls and that struck me as a very kind of "Women, Fire &  Dangerous 
Things" kind of classification. But it would appear that the categories they 
have developed are working pretty well, as the app is quite impressively at 
"guessing" the object. There are definitely core IA or at least 
classification issues at the heart of this--and the fact that it's a hot 
Christmas toy makes it a lot more exciting to me than, say, Tickle Me Elmo.


Samantha Bailey | samantha at baileysorts.com
http://www.baileysorts.com





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Boniface Lau" <boniface_lau at compuserve.com>
To: "'sigia l'" <sigia-l at mail.asis.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2004 9:09 PM
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] 20questions--a little bit OT, but not entirely


>
>> From: Samantha Bailey
>>
>> Has anyone come across this new toy that is currently popular?
>
> Saw that in news about how hot a toy it was. Stores could not keep it
> on shelf.
>
>
>> It's called 20q and it's an AI handheld that guesses the object
>> you're thinking of in 20 questions.
>
> Basically, it asks users to classify various facets of what they have
> in mind. Which facets get mentioned depends on the answers to
> preceding questions.
>
>
>> What I found most interesting is that on the results page it lists
>> *similar* objects
>
> They are objects with the same classification in the mentioned facets
> (questions). If the 20q site was a medical diagnostic expert system,
> it would have mentioned other illnesses sharing the same set of
> symptoms, i.e. questions asked.
>
>
>> --which leads to fascinating categorization (esp in the "other" and
>> "unknown" groupings (as opposed to animal, vegetable, mineral).
>
> Not sure of what you see as fascinating. "Other" is for things
> classified in a category other than animal, vegetable, or mineral.
> "Unknown" is for things users don't know how to classify.
>
>
> Boniface
>
> ------------
> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
>
> Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> ________________________________________
> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l