It's the 9th of May, and we have received a lot of question-asking, “what exactly do we do?” Well, to start off with, we “exactly” are creating an information platform that takes the standard Q&A platforms on the web and evolves them exponentially. Essentially, or “exactly”, we are creating Q&A V2.0.
What is Q&A
Q&A is a platform where people ask questions and others answer them (unlike an FAQ, where the site owners provide questions and Answers)
As of today, there are three types of Q&A’s on the web; these are Professional, Academic and General.
Professional Q&A’s
The professional Q&A’s, such as those found on focused sites like StackOverflow and many professional chat boards, are all focused on a specific range of questions within a professional category grouping. The people asking questions are being answered by a professional or by someone with experience in answering that question. For example, in StackOverflow or in GitHub, the responders are usually developers, like the questioner, who have experience in the subject matter but seek guidance in a specific area or issue.
Professional — Medical Q&A’s
The most constrained Q&A sites are those found in medical forums. The responder is usually a physician or a group of pre-selected physicians who have the necessary academic background and professional experience to respond. These are usually in a specific specialty area.
Academic Q&A’s
The Academic Q&A’s focus on academic and theoretical issues and are abundant with people from the world of academia. The Q&A’s here are fully focused on teaching and research.
General Q&A’s
The General Q&A sites, such as Quora, are unfiltered sites where anyone can ask a question about anything. Anyone can answer whether they have the ability, knowledge, or understanding to back up their response.
Other Q&A Models
In addition to the above three Q&A models, there are two more models, these are chat boards such as Reddit, Facebook and other styled sites where people can Q&A via the articles and responses, but these are not focused on Q&A models. The responders can be, just as in Quora, anyone.
The Fuzzy.One Q&A V2.0
The difference between the above Q&A’s and the Fuzzy.One model is that Fuzzy.One presets the validity of the responder by limiting the responders to specific categories of experience. This means that when someone wishes to answer a question in Fuzzy.One, they must first register to the site (free) and, during the registration process, select their location (we will explain more about this further down), and then select only three of their combined academic and professional experience from pull-down selection lists and then they can begin to answer questions. However, they will be limited to only being able to answer questions within their own preset categories.
The Fuzzy.One model determines that Questions have four category layers, these are:
Location: There are three locational question types: City/town level, National level, and Global. A question can be focused on requiring an answer that is based within the locale of the requestor, or it could be to do with a national level requirement, and finally, it could be a categorical question that is global (is equal anywhere in the world)
For example: Who is the cheapest freight forwarder in Mumbai? This is a locational question that is relevant only in Mumbai. Where can I find the fastest source of raw copper in India? This is a national question, and finally, What is the best way to link cells in an excel spreadsheet for an ERP system? This is a global question.
Question Type: There are 6 types of questions, these are: What, where, who, When, Why and How. These are the determinators for the answer, and these words are key to assuring that a search result provides the correct responses to meet the question.
Context: This is what the asker is seeking, it is the meat of the question, for example “[Who] provides the [best Ferry Service between Cebu and Manila?]. The context is the “best ferry service”, the type is “Who” and the location is Cebu and Manila. Note that “best” is perceptual, and the answers could provide more than one service provider.
Urgency: This is how fast the requestor requires a response. We set our time frames to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours, not urgent.
The Fuzzy.One Difference (Q&A V2.0)
Fuzzy.One provides many new features to the standard Q&A practice, and these include:
- We break down the language barrier; you can ask and answer every question in your own language. Whatever language you work with, we will always provide an English translation. This way, everyone gets to ask questions without having to translate and receive answers that are easy for them to understand (in their own language). The reason we translate them to English is to maintain the main English database as well as provide an easy to access English version for anyone seeking the same question, but not asking it in the original requestors or responders language.
- We provide focus; many times, people find it hard to articulate a question. One of the biggest issues is knowing how to ask. Our system breaks down this issue by using internal fuzzy logic and focusing on helping people on how to ask. We start by providing the first layer of the question: What is the location? The requestor can select “Global”, “National”, or “Local” if it is a National question, then a list of countries is provided for selection. If it is a local one, then a list of Cities and Towns is provided. The requestor begins to type in the location, and the selection menu narrows it down to the final locale. The next level of focus is the type of question; we provide the requestor with a list of 6 types: Is this a What, Who, Where, Why, When or How question? Once the requestor selects the question type, they can go forward and enter the context.
- We provide urgency; sometimes, people want immediate answers. In other cases, they don't. We provide an urgency selector, where the requestor selects how fast they want the response.
- We pay for the Answers; anyone can ask a question; it's free. The system will first lookup the question and provide a list of possible answers if they exist in the system. If, however, the question does not exist, the question will be placed, and the moment it is placed, it will “ping” the responders. (pretty much the same as ordering an Uber or Grab (rideshare)) The faster the responders answer the question, the higher their bonus. Every answer gets paid a base rate. Urgent questions create a bonus. We accept up to ten answers per question, and answers are rated by the requestors. The higher the rating, the higher up the answer appears in the list of answers.
- No more advertising! Companies that wish to advertise no longer need to create banners in a limited landscape. Instead, advertisers answer questions at a basic cost. Advertisers may also “Ask and Answer,” which will fill up the database of questions and answers helping requestors reach the solution to their issues much faster. Obviously, we don't pay advertisers; they pay us. However, we have converted the stream of annoying adverts into productive solutions that attract the end-user to contacting teh advertiser via the answer (yes, advertisers can input links to their sites in their answers)
