Help-Exchange: an arbitrated system for a help network

Abstract

The problem of obtaining help over the Internet continues to be a perplexing challenge, especially as the Internet grows. Most existing systems do not scale well as the number of users increase. The Help-Exchange system has been developed in an attempt to facilitate person-to-person connections, especially across disciplines in a way that improves as the number of users increases. The system is based on a taxonomy of disciplines and arbitrates a dialogue between users by matching questions to experts. Early testing of the system demonstrates that it scales favourably as the number of users increase.