EAGER: A Knowledge Aggregator for the Social Sciences

该项目将开发一套完整的基于网络的工具，用于推进有关人类个体和社会行为的理论，称为Wikitheoria。主要目标是通过利用成功的知识聚合条件，促进更好、更有用的理论的发展。这些好处至少有两个方面。信息技术各个领域开发的工具将通过使理论建设过程系统化，为社会科学服务。由此产生的理论模块将反过来加强对网络人类系统和其他领域的研究，在这些领域中，关于人类和群体行为的假设并不总是在先前的理论和研究中得到很好的基础。一般来说，即使很少参与维基理论的用户，也可能会对更加仔细地关注他们的理论的逻辑和术语所带来的好处有所了解。假设最终超过了参与的门槛，该项目甚至可能改变社会科学理论的产生和评估方式，以及社会科学理论在网络-人类系统和其他地方的应用方式。吸取的经验教训也应适用于通过激励制度促进互联网社区形成的项目的开发，特别是知识聚集社区。该软件将以源代码和托管服务的形式免费提供，供研究使用。先前的NSF拨款支持了原型的构建，在其他元素中，原型包括介绍演示、说明、向图书馆提交“模块化理论”的工具，以及几个关键的管理子系统。这项创新的新工作将开发一个完整的在线系统，它超越了原型的基本功能，实现了一系列强大的服务和基础设施。这些包括自动逻辑和语义分析、推荐系统、词典的广泛超链接、分析、教学和教学材料以及讨论板。该系统将支持提交材料的集体评价和累积增强、用户奖励制度、学科之间的相互促进、可整合模块的确定、支持性研究的评价、理论上知情的应用以及对社会科学以外的学生和应用研究人员的支持。Wikitheoria将为那些寻求知识进步的人提供工具，为那些寻求应用这些知识的人提供资源。该网站的互动性允许任何级别的用户对内容提出问题，指出模棱两可的术语和陈述，并以一种标准出版模式无法实现的方式成为理论发展过程的一部分。因此，Wikitheoria可以成为从事以人为中心项目的计算机和信息科学家和工程师的宝贵标准资源，他们需要提高他们的理论思想，了解已有的类似理论框架，并将他们的创新置于更广泛的认知和社会背景中。

This project will develop an integrated set of web-based tools for advancing theories about human individual and social behavior, called Wikitheoria. The primary goal is to facilitate the evolution of better and more useful theories by capitalizing on conditions for successful knowledge aggregation. The benefits cut at least two ways. Tools developed in various areas of information technology will be serving the social sciences by systematizing the theory-building process. The theory modules thus produced will, in turn, enhance research in cyber-human systems and other fields where assumptions that are made about human and group behavior are not always well-grounded in prior theory and research. In general, users that participate even minimally in Wikitheoria are likely to gain an appreciation for the benefits of more careful attention to the logic and terms of their theories. Assuming a threshold of participation is eventually surpassed, the project may even transform the way theory is produced and evaluated in the social sciences, and the way that social science theories are utilized in cyber-human systems and elsewhere. The lessons learned should also be applicable to the development of programs that facilitate Internet community formation through incentive systems, especially knowledge aggregation communities. The software will be made freely available, both as source code and as a hosted service for research use.A previous NSF grant supported the construction of a prototype that included, among other elements, introductory presentations, instructions, tools to submit "modular theories" to a library, and several crucial administrative subsystems. This innovative new work will develop a completed online system that generalizes beyond the prototype's basic functions, implementing a range of powerful services and infrastructure. These include automated logical and semantic analyses, recommender systems, extensive hyperlinking of the lexicon, analytics, instructional and pedagogical materials, and discussion boards. The system will support collective evaluation and cumulative enhancement of submitted materials, user incentive systems, cross-fertilization between disciplines, identification of integratable modules, evaluations of supporting research, theoretically informed applications, and support for students and applied researchers outside of the social sciences. Wikitheoria will provide tools for those seeking to advance knowledge, and resources for those seeking to apply that knowledge. The interactive nature of the site permits users at any level to ask questions about content, point out ambiguous terms and statements, and in general become part of the theory-development process in a way that is not possible with standard publication models. Thus Wikitheoria can become a valuable standard resource for computer and information scientists and engineers working on human-centered projects, who need to sharpen their theoretical ideas, learn what similar theoretical frameworks are already available, and situate their innovations in a wider cognitive and social context.