Monitoring a Corpus for Changes to Previously Provided Answers to Questions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017004204-A1
Application number	US-201514790121-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Jul 2, 2015
Publication date	Jan 5, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for identifying changes, within a corpus of information, to answers to questions provided within the corpus of information. A mapping of a question and a previously provided answer to the question in a question/answer data structure is generated. A transaction referencing the previously provided answer, and having an update to the previously provided answer, is received and correlated with the question/answer data structure, which is updated based on the transaction. A determination is made as to whether the strength of the mapping of the first question to the previously provided answer based on the update to the question/answer data structure has fallen equal to or below a predetermined threshold. In response to this being the case, a change to the previously provided answer is propagated throughout the corpus of information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, for identifying changes, within a corpus of information, to answers to questions provided within the corpus of information, the method comprising:
registering, by the data processing system, a mapping of a first question and a previously provided answer to the first question in a question/answer data structure; receiving, by the data processing system, a transaction referencing the previously provided answer and having an update to the previously provided answer; correlating, by the data processing system, the transaction with the question/answer data structure and updating the question/answer data structure based on the transaction; determining, by the data processing system, whether a strength of the mapping of the first question to the previously provided answer based on the update to the question/answer data structure has fallen equal to or below a predetermined threshold; and propagating, by the data processing system, a change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information in response to the strength of the mapping of the first question falling equal to or below the predetermined threshold.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first question and the previously provided answer to the first question are part of the corpus of information itself, and wherein the update to the previously provided answer is an update that is added to the corpus of information and is part of the corpus of information.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the corpus of information comprises content of at least one electronic online community hosted by one or more computing devices.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the update to the previously provided answer comprises a user input of a vote to either support or refute the previously provided answer being a correct answer for the first question.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein propagating the change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information comprises:
maintaining, for each transaction referencing the previously provided answer, a tracking record in a tracking data structure to track utilization of the previously provided answer; traversing the tracking data structure to identify transactions that utilized the previously provided answer; and propagating the change based on the identified transactions in the tracking data structure.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein propagating the change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information further comprises sending a notification to one or more computing devices associated with users that viewed the previously provided answer, wherein the notification informs the users of the change to the previously provided answer.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the transaction referencing the previously provided answer and having an update to the previously provided answer comprises receiving a transaction report message, from an agent deployed in a computing device of an information source, which identifies the transaction as referencing the previously provided answer, the previously provided answer being associated with a previous transaction identifier.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the transaction referencing the previously provided answer comprises receiving a transaction referencing a second question that has similar features to that of the first question, and wherein the update is a different answer from that of the previously provided answer being provided as an answer to the second question.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether a strength of the mapping of the first question to the previously provided answer based on the update to the question/answer data structure has fallen equal to or below a predetermined threshold comprises calculating the strength of the mapping of the first question to the previously provided answer as a weighted numerical calculation comprising quantified factors corresponding to one or more of:
numerical counts of positive/negative votes associated with the previously provided answer, analysis of natural language comments for indications of positive/negative reinforcement of the previously provided answer, differences or similarities in one or more answers for one or more similar other questions in different portions of the corpus of information, and temporal characteristics of transactions referencing the previously provided answer.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data processing system implements a question and answer (QA) system, and wherein the mapping of the question to the previously provided answer is generated by the QA system.

11 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:
register a mapping of a first question and a previously provided answer to the first question in a question/answer data structure; receive a transaction referencing the previously provided answer and having an update to the previously provided answer; correlate the transaction with the question/answer data structure and updating the question/answer data structure based on the transaction; determine whether a strength of the mapping of the first question to the previously provided answer based on the update to the question/answer data structure has fallen equal to or below a predetermined threshold; and propagate a change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information in response to the strength of the mapping of the first question falling equal to or below the predetermined threshold.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the first question and the previously provided answer to the first question are part of the corpus of information itself, and wherein the update to the previously provided answer is an update that is added to the corpus of information and is part of the corpus of information.

13 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the corpus of information comprises content of at least one electronic online community hosted by one or more computing devices.

14 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the update to the previously provided answer comprises a user input of a vote to either support or refute the previously provided answer being a correct answer for the first question.

15 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to propagate the change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information at least by:
maintaining, for each transaction referencing the previously provided answer, a tracking record in a tracking data structure to track utilization of the previously provided answer; traversing the tracking data structure to identify transactions that utilized the previously provided answer; and propagating the change based on the identified transactions in the tracking data structure.

16 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to propagate the change to the previously provided answer throughout the corpus of information further at least by sending a notification to one or more computing devices associated with users that viewed the previously provided answer, wherein the notification informs the users o

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bastide Paul R
• Cohen Aaron M

Classifications

• G06F16/3329 Primary

  Natural language query formulation · CPC title

• G06F17/30654

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30368

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30867

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30377

  Physics · mapped topic