(A1) Policies of WTSP (World TRIZ-related Sites Project) (New) + |
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Editor: Toru Nakagawa (WTSP Project Leader, Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Dec. 21, 2017; Update: Jun. 30, 2020; Latest Update: Aug. 16, 2021 | |
Original version: Posted: Dec. 23, 2017; Last updated: Nov. 11, 2017; New version: Posted Apr. 4; Jun. 30, 2020; |
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Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Apr. 1, 2020)
This page has been renewed. See the Old page in the Archive (Old A)
Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Aug. 16, 2021)
After recent discussions inside the Global Co-editors, "Mission and Philosophy of the WTSP Project" has been written down in full length on the basis of our activities and results for these nearly 4 years. See below
and in PDF
.
Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Mar. 27, 2020; Aug. 16, 2021)
This page shows the Policies of WTSP (World TRIZ-related Sites Project) in its up-to-date form.
Aims of WTSP
, Working Plan
, Documentation process
,
Organizing the Project Team, Outline of Time Schedule
Mission and Philosophy of WTSP (Aug. 2021)
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(Aug. 16, 2021)
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(Aug. 18, 2021)
Time Schedule | Mission & Philosophy (Aug. 2021) |
WTSP Index page |
(A1) Policies of WTSP
Aims of WTSP
・ To build Catalogs of TRIZ-related Sites
- of each country (in their own language, and then in English) and
- of the whole world (in English, and then in many languages)
- with appropriate (brief but close) introduction of individual sites
- with appropriate selection of (useful and important) sites
- for various people (unfamiliar, beginners, users, and experts in TRIZ)
- in the field of TRIZ and relevant methodologies
- as reliable sources of information (on theories, applications, activities, etc.)
・ To keep the Catalogs up-to-date
- accepting new and revised information regularly
- revising all the Catalogs every two years
・ For promoting TRIZ and relevant methodologies further in the world
・ By voluntary collaboration of many TRIZ colleagues in the world
Note (Jun. 30, 2020): We have established 2 pillars of World WTSP Catalogs (in oru Beta Edition), i.e., World TRIZ Sites Catalogs and World Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs.
Working Plan
The basic, orthodox way of building the WTSP Catalogs are as follows
1. In every country, to get voluntary members and form a WTSP team with a Country Editor.
2. To list up recommendable TRIZ-related sites, do Internet surveys, and describe introductions of those sites on by one.
3. To compile a WTSP Catalog of TRIZ-related Sites in each country.
First in their own language. ==> Useful for people in the country.
Then in English (translation) of selected sites. ==> For the people in the world.4. To edit the World WTSP Catalogs by integrating WTSP Catalogs of various countries.
Many sites in the world are introduced in various ways of categorization, selection, arrangement, and descriptions. Multiple sets of World WTSP Catalogs will be made.
5. To publicize the completed WTSP Catalogs for open, public use. (in many countries)
World Catalogs (in English) and Catalogs of individual countries (in English and other).
6. To translate the World WTSP Catalogs into languages of various countries,
and to publicize them in each country (to see the world in their own languages).The 2019 Oct. version (and 2020 Jun. (Beta) version) of the World WTSP Catalogs has achieved all the steps 1 through 5. It illustrated well the ways to build the WTSP Catalogs and the skeletal, sample contents of the WTSP Catalogs. But the sites shown in the Catalogs are limited to those in small number of countries and those obtained in rough internet surveys.
Thus we plan to improve the current WTSP Catalogs much more in the following two aspects.a. To include many important/useful Web sites in all the countries in the world.
For this purpose, the orthdox ways shown above should be carried out step by step.b. To make the descriptions of individual sites attractive and useful.
For this purpose, important sites in the World WTSP Catalogs should be introduced closely by the site owners (or key persons). Examples of good desciptions are to be made.
Documentation process
Initially in this (Archived) page, I wrote various processes for handling and reviewing drafts/manuscripts/posting documents. At present, since we already have good examples of descriptions of individual sites and WTSP Catalogs, you are simply advised to follow such examples in building (your parts of) WTSP Catalogs.
1. Prepare your drafts/manuscripts of your sites (and your parts of WTSP Catalogs) for yourselves (either personally or as a WTSP Team). Please follow the Guidelines (A4)
.
2. Submit your manuscripts (desirably after reviewing in your team) to the WTSP Project Leader for posting (and integrating) as a new/revised part of the WTSP Catalogs.
Organizing the Project Team
The WTSP Project is an organization of voluntary Members who want to work together for the stated aims on a not-for-profit basis.
The WTSP Project is open for any leaders and colleagues in TRIZ and relevant methodologies, without limiting by countries, languages, methodologies, interests, etc.
Any person who wants to join the WTSP Project must fill in the Membership Application Form and send it to the Project Leader via email. He/she are expected to work voluntarily and cooperatively for achieving the goals together.
The WTSP Project is going to assign Country Editors, SIG (Special Interest Group) Editors, Regional Editors, Global Co-editors, and Project Leader, among the Members on a voluntary basis. Toru Nakagawa, who proposed to initiate this Project, serves as the Project Leader.
Outline of Time Schedule
(Scheduled due date) / Achieved date
Items
Remarks
/ Dec. 2017
Start of the WTSP project
/ Jun. 2018
Official Appeal by the Global Co-editors
/ Oct. 2018
Paper presentation at ETRIA TFC2018: Plan of the WTSP project and report of Japan catalog
/ Oct. 2019
Paper presentation at ETRIA TFC2019: Report of preliminary version of World WTSP Catalogs of TRIZ sites and Around-TRIZ sites
/ Jun. 2020 Beta Edition of World WTSP Catalogs of TRIZ sites and Around-TRIZ sites
Improving the World WTSP Catalogs (revising every 3 months)
(Sept. - Oct. 2020)
Paper presentations at ETRIA TFC2020, TRIZCON2020, and MATRIZ Online Forum 2020: Report of much enhanced version of World WTSP Catalogs of TRIZ sites and Around-TRIZ sites
Mission and Philosophy of the WTSP Project (Aug. 2021) (PDF
) (Aug. 16, 2021)
(Aug. 18, 2021)
Mission and Philosophy of the WTSP Project (Aug. 2021)
Aug. 16, 2021 Toru Nakagawa (WTSP Project Leader, Osaka Gakuin University)
http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/eWTSP/eWTSP-A1-Mission&Philosophy-2108.pdf
(1) Mission of WTSP and the Nature of World WTSP Catalogs
We want to respond the universal needs for good methodologies and practices for solving various difficult problems in the world. People want to learn and apply such methodologies and practices, and hence want to get reliable information on them. We, developers/practitioners/promotors of such methodologies/practices, especially in the fields related to TRIZ, can supply and want to supply such information.
We know that various people are working in the relevant fields in various countries, in various application fields, in various methodical/practical approaches, in various forms of activities, in various organizations, etc. And we know such diversities are necessary for practical reasons and are valuable for the progress of not only our methodologies/practices but also human culture in general.
Thus for responding people's needs mentioned above, we should deliver reliable information of these wide varieties of activities of our methodologies/practices. For this purpose, as the unit of information resources, we have chosen the websites in the Internet operated/publicized freely and widely in the world.
We believe such information should be delivered in a fair and truthful manner, independent of commercial or sectional influences as much as possible.
Thus we started the WTSP project as a volunteer-based, non-commercial project in the TRIZ community under the support of many TRIZ colleagues in the world. Getting support and contributions from many TRIZ colleagues and users in every country in the world is crucial for the success in the WTSP project.
We set our aims to build "Catalogs of TRIZ-related Websites in the World".
Catalogs, in general, should meet 3 basic requirements.
(a) Collect good items (i.e. websites in our case) widely, select them with evaluation, and show them in categories.
(b) Individual items should be introduced in a proper/fair manner briefly or closely so as to guide the readers/users to the items.
(c) It should be easy for users to find one/many items which match their current interest/needs inside the Catalog.
(2) Collection and Evaluation of Websites to be included in the WTSP Catalogs.
Collection of good websites in the world is the first basic task for building the WTSP Catalogs. In various countries, there are many sites written in their own (non-English) languages and having unique approaches worthy to be shown in the world. Internet surveys are useful but give a flood of messy information of webpages (not websites) and yet missing information of some of important websites.
Evaluation of websites is hard but indispensable. Evaluation should be done from the early stage even tentatively, for the purpose of effectiveness of the WTSP work, and should be refined later in brushing up the WTSP Catalogs.
For our Catalogs, Evaluation Criteria of websites are set in multiple aspects, such as quality, attractiveness, accessibility, scope, etc., so as to reflect the diversity of websites in their roles, approaches, etc. We often notice there are small but unique, interesting websites in various countries.
We grade the websites in 5 evaluation levels (with corresponding symbol marks):
◎ Most important (about top 30) in World Catalogs,
○ Important (about top 100) in World Catalogs,
□ Worthy in World Catalogs,
△ Worthy in Country Catalogs, and
- Insignificant/irrelevant.We know that our evaluation of websites can never be exact and unanimous, just like the cases of refereeing papers, voting award-winning novels, voting best restaurants, etc. We should evaluate various websites 'favorably' in respect to the multiple criteria mentioned above and respecting the diversity of websites in the Catalogs.
Evaluation of websites are tentatively done by surveyors (working in the country or else globally) and should be refined later by the WTSP Country Editor(s) usually under the communication with the site owners. When posting websites in the WTSP Catalogs, the evaluation of websites may be checked by WTSP Global Co-editors (including the WTSP Project Leader), and later publicly reviewed and possibly refined through communications between (open) reviewers, site owners, Country Editors and WTSP Global Co-editors.
Since our Catalogs list many websites in the public domain, open public reviews will work gradually to revise the 5-level evaluation for all the (significant) websites in future editions.
(3) Description of Introductions of Individual Websites
Describing introductions of individual websites is the second (b) of the three basic requirements of Catalogs in general. We need to think/set up the guidelines about 'at what stage, who should write what kinds of information, how closely and in what format, etc.' Such guidelines are already set and shown in our WTSP site inside "TRIZ Home Page in Japan".
At the initial stage, either a (Internet) surveyor, a recommender (in or around WTSP Team in the country), or a site owner him/herself, should name (or list up) a website to recommend by using
Site name, Site domain URL, Access point, and Brief introduction of the website.
Such description may be rough at first, and should be refined later. Even at this stage, tentative evaluation of the website is desirable, for the sake of processing. If the evaluation is uncertain, double grading symbols (e.g., □△) may be used to mean uncertain between the two grades (i.e., □ or △).At the next stage, basic information of the website to be used in the Index part of the Catalogs should be described (not as a draft but) for publicizing. The information should include:
Site name, Site domain URL, Site location (country), Site language,
Roles of site, Evaluation (in 5 grades), Single line description,
Name and email address of the site owner (or key person), and Name of the describer.
Since some of these information (especially, Roles of site and Evaluation) needs delicate decision, involvement by the site owner is necessary. Note that in the WTSP Catalogs all the websites are categorized and arranged with the Roles of site and with Evaluation, and hence some websites missing these two pieces of information need to be waiting in the draft Catalogs without listed in the publicized WTSP Catalogs.Next is the Standard/Mandatory stage of describing the website introductions. We have a WTSP Standard Form of Individual Website Description and we ask site owners of every website in the World WTSP Catalogs to write it. The Form is one page in A4 (extendable slightly) and requests the information (in addition to the ones mentioned above):
Application phase, Application fields, Methods,
Description of introduction (in about 5-10 lines in free format),
Link to the optional further description, and Name of the describer.
The first 3 items mentioned here should be described by selecting the (hierarchically structured) alternatives allowing multiple choices with priority order specified. Site owners can write these information because they know (or can decide) them; but surveyors (or any WTSP member not involved in the site) can not (because difficult to find the information and not authorized to decide/select some points).The final stage is optional but desirable for the sites at the grades of ◎○. In the Standard Form mentioned above, free-format description of site is allowed in the space of only about 5-10 lines (slightly extendable). Thus site owners themselves want to describe their websites more closely using figures and tables, and users of Catalogs also want to read such introductions. Thus we allow an option for the site owners to submit a separate file for introducing the website more closely in free format, using figures, photos, tables, etc. in the length 2-5 pages (or more). Various styles of site descriptions should be chosen depending on the nature of the websites. Such files are accessible from the Standard Form with a hyperlink.
Since all the site owners operate their websites for publicly promoting their methods/activities etc., posting their site introductions in the WTSP Catalogs is of much help for them. Faithful/clear/attractive introductions of good websites must attract and guide many users to the websites. Thus site owners will have much merits in posting their websites with close introductions in the WTSP Catalogs, we believe.
(4) Finding Websites of Interest in the WTSP Catalogs
The third (c) of the three basic requirements as Catalogs in general is the easy capability for the users to find in the WTSP Catalogs one or many websites of current interests. For this purpose we have set and prepared several mechanisms.
All the items of information specified to describe in the WTSP Standard Form of Site Description are the keys to match various users' interests. If a user is interested in a site, knowing the site name for example, he/she can find it in the Catalog and learn its introduction and URL, and then easily get access to the website by clicking the URL.
Evaluation (◎○□△)and Roles of site (such as (a) Information sending sites, (b) Promotor organizations, (d) Academia, (e) Developer organizations, (f) Publishing organizations, etc.) are regarded most important.
World Catalogs are prepared in 3 levels:
Top Catalogs list only ◎ websites (about 30),
Basic Catalogs ◎○ websites (about 100), and
Full Catalogs ◎○□ websites (probably about 500), respectively.In each World Catalog, all the websites are arranged in the (hierarchical) categories of Roles of site: In a way:
(a) Information sending sites: (a1) Dedicated for information sending, (a2) Public websites;
(b) Promotor organizations: (b1) Dedicated association, (b2) Dedicated academic societies, (b3) international conferences; etc.
In each subcategory, corresponding websites are arranged in groups of ◎, ○, and □. This kind of arrangement is chosen because of so much variety of types (especially Roles) of websites, and many users are primarily interested in some specific types of websites.Basic information of websites are shown in the Index part of Catalogs, and some more information are shown in the Standard Form of individual websites in a standardized tabular format. It may not be so difficult to take a quick look at some specific items for picking up websites of interest.
For a more powerful search mechanism, we are planning to install the customized Google search inside the folder of World WTSP Catalogs. Specifying any keyword, the search engine will be able to output a number of websites containing the keyword.
(5) Some More Issues for Discussions
Basic Choice of Philosophy: 'Commercial' or 'Altruistic':
It is definitive that WTSP does not intend to be 'Commercial'. We should not be influenced by the temptation of commercial benefit by applying commercial consideration in the evaluation of websites. We believe website owners can find merits of posting and introducing their sites in the WTSP Catalogs, without our providing them with any commercial incentives. And the cost for building the WTSP Catalogs on the volunteer basis is not so large for the WTSP members and for the WTSP Project Leader (TN) thanks to the support by Osaka Gakuin University for the Web server.
We do not think WTSP 'Altruistic'. We want WTSP to serve for general public, many people in the world. Users first of all, site owners next, and we WTSP members, and finally the Project Leader. WTSP will be one of TN's life work for further 5, 10 years at least if his health and fate allow it.
Competition, Rivalry, 'Capitalistic market', and 'Competition & Cooperation':
We agree that World WTSP Catalogs will induce some competition among various websites, especially among similar and yet different websites. Such kind of competition exists everywhere, when we submit/publish our academic papers, when we publish books, when we advertise seminars, etc. Sometimes competitions are direct and explicit, many other times indirect and implicit.
But the competition in the WTSP Catalogs is not 'Capitalistic market' competition, we think, because money is not directly involved in the Catalogs. Websites are (supposed to be) introduced/described on the fact basis. Users mostly evaluate the websites with their own criteria, whether the method/practice seems for them to be understandable, applicable, effective, popular, authorized, having proven records, etc.
There may be a tendency that small and unique (thus not on the main stream) websites may have a disadvantage against large and main-stream websites. This tendency should be re-adjusted to some degree with our WTSP Evaluation Criteria by putting more weight on the uniqueness/novelty/originality. This should be a general attitude for us to be creative and to develop/evolve new methodologies/practices. In a sense, this kind of disadvantage is a trigger for making breakthroughs.
Our WTSP Catalogs want to be a place for 'Democratic Competition & Cooperation'. We want the websites (or the site-owner groups) to try to make themselves better (in Competition) and also to promote their (more or less common) methods/processes wider in the globe (in Cooperation). We know many small but unique/excellent websites in Japan, for example, being unknown in the world so far due to language barriers. There must be many more websites in similar situations in various countries in the world.
Everybody who wants can learn a lot from various websites in the World WTSP Catalogs and can improve their own methods/processes/applications. This is the natural form of Competition & Cooperation among people, which can occur also in the cases of conferences, journals of papers, book publications, etc. 'Catalogs' may serve as the place of 'Competition & Cooperation' more clearly because many good items are gathered and displayed together with categorization, introduction (especially by the site owners themselves), and evaluation (by the Editors of the Catalogs).
Inactive attitudes of many website owners toward posting in the WTSP Catalogs:
This issue is the core of our current problems of the WTSP Project. We believe that when the WTSP Catalogs are built with many good websites introduced properly, most website owners in the TRIZ-related community understand the merits of posting their websites in the Catalogs and the influential power of the Catalogs. So we now suppose that the main reasons for the inactive attitudes of many site owners are their very few chances to read the World WTSP Catalogs and rather few examples of good site introductions in the Catalogs at moment.
On the basis of this understanding we are now preparing for displaying the World WTSP Catalogs in multiple websites, especially those operated by our Global Co-editors, and we are trying to get pioneering examples of full introductions of good websites, from a number of key persons including our Global Co-editors.
References:
Time Schedule | Mission & Philosophy (Aug. 2021) |
WTSP Index page |
Last updated on Mar. 22, 2023. Access point: Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp