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This document explores the process of opium production in Afghanistan, detailing the necessary conditions such as soil types, climate, and labor. It will provide a general overview of the cultivation areas, highlighting regions known for opium production through maps and data analysis. The report also addresses the political and economic impacts of opium on Afghanistan. Utilizing a broad-to-narrow information search strategy, insights will be drawn from various reliable sources to ensure comprehensive understanding while integrating expert opinions.
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Group 3 Opium in Afghanistan or It’s better than Excedrin!
Question reformulation(otherwise known as “bollixing it up”) • Analyst question 1: “what process is used to produce opium?” • Immediately broken down into: chemicals, seeds, soil type, climatic factors, labor, machinery, harvesting… • Researcher reformulation: “what is the process of opium production in Afghanistan?” • Strategy: try general overview first; see what is easily found • Oracle/system response: “do you want • Opium production process • Opium production in Afghanistan?” Analyst rapidly develops plan of attack, which becomes report structure Do you first ask a general Q? System needs to know what kind of A to deliver Reformulation added too much specificity A good system knows when it answers only part of the Q
Process continued • AQ2: “what areas currently produce opium?” • RR: “in what areas of Afghanistan is opium produced?” • OR: Map with drug-growing areas highlighted, and related chart • AQ 2a: “give me raw data, raster overlays of where cultivation is possible” • RR: “in what areas is growth of opium possible? [in GIS]” • OR: no response Analyst wants to specify media; system should handle Analyst knew there are people at NIMA; system should provide links to experts when they are found
text map numbers time series chart anything Input • For a new task, provide context / background • Keywords, documents, etc. • Personal expertise profile (languages spoken, etc.) • Session plan/profile evolving answer doc • Provide current goal • Early on, in long-term study prefer longer/discursive answer • Then, or for quick question prefer shorter/factoid/table answer • Ask question! • Provide additional constraints • Data type • Source: web, NIMA, etc. • Date: last 2 days, past month, past year, etc. Context: doc metadata • Subtopic 1: XXXX • Subtopic 2: YYY ZZZZ • … “By which routes does processed opium leave Afghanistan?”
Accessible to system: Can place new info properly One thought: evolving document TOPIC: Opium in Afghanistan ANALYST: Jeff DATE: 6/11/03 TOPIC DESCRIPTION: “Write a report…” • SUBTOPIC 1: production • “xxx xxxx xx xxxx xx” www.abc.com “yyy y yy yyy y” • “zzzz zz zz zzzz zz” • “pp ppp p pp p” • SUBTOPIC 2: political/economic impact • “qq qq qqqq q qq” www.xx.yy.mil • … Accessible to colleagues’ systems: can cross-reference
Some lessons • General strategy of broad-to-narrow information search for this type of task, but the sequence of decomposition/subtopics differs by goal, analyst, and organization • Both IR and QA technology are important, together with Info Management, GIS, etc. • Maps (and other media) are crucial (exploration resources as well as results) • Important metadata: source time, search time, attribution/sources, reliability, objectivity, justification, relevance, etc. • Handling perspectives/contradictory/missing/partial/etc. info • Question syntax, misspellings, etc.: systems must be smart/tolerant • Use context to focus: general task, analyst profile, analytic perspective, etc. • Integrate with other experts (internal and external) • Maintain and use working document: Game Plan final report