World TRIZ-related Sites Project (WTSP) (See detail in 
):
World TRIZ-related Sites Project (WTSP) was started in Dec. 2017 as an international volunteer project by Toru Nakagawa. It aims at building Catalogs of Web sites over the world in the fields of TRIZ and related methodologies for creative problem solving in general .
It is widely recognized that Internet surveys for such methodologies give us a flood of noisy data, and hence we need more reliable information sources. As units of such information source, WTSP has chosen Web sites (instead of web pages, papers, or books), because of their open/free accessibility, actively posting new information yet stable for years, etc.
We want to cover a wide range of fields where we want to work with useful methodologies in our various jobs keeping our scope wide. We should collect and select good sites (after evaluation) and should write introductions to the individual sites. Such Catalogs will provide useful and reliable information source to a huge number of people in the world as users, and will give good basis for further development and proliferation of such methodologies.
This is a big vision of WTSP, and we believe that voluntary collaboration by many specialists in the world can certainly achieve the goals.
The WTSP project has already built the Initial Edition of the World WTSP Catalogs in Oct. 2019 , and is working to enhance/improve it further as you see here its latest Jun. 2020 Edition. Beta Edition was built and publicized in Nov. 2020.
World Catalogs of (C) Around TRIZ Sites have been fully revised and extended in in 2022. In assition of the revisions of (C1) (C2) (C1P) and (C2P), the (C3) Catalog has been built newly. (Aug. 17, 2022)
Source data (See detail in )
In the case of (A) World TRIZ Sites Catalogs, source data of lists of sites and individual site descriptions are (basically but not so successfully) contributed by WTSP Teams in various countries and (partly) obtained through 2 cases of internet surveys done by Nakagawa.
In the case of (C) World Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs, all the source data (except some recent additions) were obtained by Toru Nakagawa through intensive Internet surveys as shown in the following table. Note that there are some duplications of sites among the survey cases.
Case |
Search keywords
(in the World, in English) |
Number of detected sites (2020) |
Number of selected sites (2022) |
TN3A |
Creat* Think* Method* |
◎1, ○14 □ 15, △3, － 85 |
--- |
TN3A2 |
Creative Think Method |
◎1, ○15, □ 65, △33, －56 |
◎ 8, ○ 16, □ 50 |
TN3B |
(Creative / innovative / Systematic) Problem Solve (Method / Process / Technique) |
◎ 10 , ○26, □ 64, △ 33 , －56 |
◎ 15, ○ 40, □ 50 |
TN3C |
Innovation (Process / Strategy / Method / management / Technology) |
◎ 3 , ○36 , □ 78, △ 70, －19 |
◎ 8, ○ 37 , □ 70 |
TN3D |
(Quality / Value / Cost / Productivity) (Deploy / Engineering / Management / Control / Analysis) (Method / Technique / Theory / Process / "Case Study") |
◎ 16 , ○38 , □ 86, △ 36, －41 |
◎ 13 , ○ 35 , □ 73 |
TN3E |
(Patent / IP / "Intellectual Property") (Analysis / Protect / Circumvent / Mapping / Strategy) |
◎ 5 , ○18 , □ 37, △ 15, －17 |
◎ 6, ○ 21, □ 34 |
Visiting all the sites (974 sites in total) one by one, the contents of the site are briefly written (mostly by using excerpts from top page, "About us" pages, and some more main pages) and evaluated in 5 levels (◎〇□△ー, see below） as shown in the right column. (There are a number of duplications of sites among the survey cases.) This time, all the websites detected and introduced in the Beta Edition have been revisited and the desccriptions and evaluations of individual sites are revised. (C3) World Around-TRIZ Extended Catalog has been built and publicized newly. (Jun. 3; Aug. 17, 2022)
All the source data are stored,
for each case of survey, as a pair of Index file and Site description file, where hyperlinks are made for individual sites from the Index page to the Site description page.
Scope of the fields in (C) World Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs
The keywords used in the Internet surveys show the scope of fields in (C) World Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs. Though some TRIZ sites are detected in these surverys, some more good TRIZ sites are added in the actual (C) Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs. Thus (C) covers the fields of methodologies including TRIZ and those around TRIZ. "Around-TRIZ" is a peculiar words, we know. Probably, "Creative Problem Solving Methdologies in general" is close to our intention. But we are going to use the word "Around-TRIZ" tentatively until we can find better, meaningful term.
Structure of Indexes/Catalogs (See detail in )
The data of all the survey cases are integrated in the big folder of the WTSP World Catalogs, and the set of 6 Indexes/Catalogs are prepared.
For (C1), (C2), and (C3), the World Index page is made by integrating all the individual Indexes, where individual sites in the Index page have hyperlinks to access the site description in their original Site description files.
On the other hand,
the Catalogs (C1P), (C2P), and (C3P) contain the World Indexes same as (C1), (C2) and (C3) respectively and, in addition, the Site descriptions of the sites are listed in the same page as the Indexes. The hyperlinks of individual sites access the site descriptions in the same Catalog. Thus the Catalogs are just like ordinary books having an table of contents and the body of site descriptions arranged in the same order.
In the Index part of Indexes/Catalogs, the sites are sellected according to their Evaluation levels (see below) as shown in the above table. The sites are categorized and arranged according to their (main) Roles of site (see below), and further arranged in the order of the Evaluation levels.
Basic information of individula sites (See detail in )
The basic information of individual sites are shown in the Index part. They are:
Site Code: The code of site assigned in the WTSP Catalogs in the form of XX-nn, where XX stands for the WTSP Team (of individual country) or the WTSP (survey) Case (such as TN3B) while nn represents the numbering assigned arbitrarily in each Team/Case. Hyperlinks to the Site descriptions are attached to the Site Codes.
Evaluation: Five levels of grading, shown in the following marks:
◎： Most important (about top 30) in the world
○： Important (about next 100) in the world
□： Worthy of listing in the World Catalog
△： (Not worthy in the World Catalog, but) Worthy in the Country Catalogs
－： Inrelevant or not worthy even in the Country Catalogs.
These Evaluations are assigned either by the surveyor or by the site owner. Please note its tentative nature. In some cases, double marks ◎〇 are used to show uncertainly between ◎ and 〇, and categorized at the bottom of ◎ (and similarly the double marks ○□, □△, and △ー are used).
Site name: Name of the site shown in the top page. When the site uses an Acronym (or shorthand name), we show the site in the form of "Acronym (Full name)" for the purpose of clarity. Hierarchical structure of the site organization is represented in a way (Upper organization) : (Lower organization).
Site domain URL: URL of the site domain (not the top page) is shown together with the protocol https:// (or http:// if the site does not accept https://). Hyperlinks are attached for the sake of convenience for accessing.
Location: Country (or area) (of the site's main office) is shown (mostly) in the form of 2-digit country code used for the URL. Some sites do not show the location. Big sites are often operated in many different countries (in different languages), but only a representative location is shown in our WTSP Catalogs.
Language(s): The language(s) used in the site are shown (mostly) in the two-digit code. If a site mainly uses non-English language, it is shown. If a site is readable in English, it is shown in "en". Big sites often use multiple languages; they are shown but not exhaustively.
Roles of site: Roles of each site (or roles of site owner) in relation to the (TRIZ-related) methodologies are shown. Such roles are categorized hierarchically in two layers (See detail in ). Sites often play multiple Roles; in such cases multiple Roles are shown in the order of their (speculated) importance. In the present WTSP Indexes/Catalogs, the sites are arranged in the order of their (main) Roles of sites.
Single line description: Used in the Index tables. For the sake of compactness of the Index table, this is expected to be short (max 70 characters or so), but many authors apt to write longer. (In case of (C) Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs, this single line description is often left blank, because 'short description' is not an easy task. (See below).
Note, Description: Used for various purposes: e.g., Access (email) to the site owner; Note of updating; Closer description of site, especially thorough description file in free format (c) (See below); etc.
In combination with additional symbols in the Evaluation column, some expressions are used to mean as shown in the following examples (Jun. 3, 2022):
Site Code |
Evaluation |
Site name |
Note |
|
Meaning |
TN3P-03 |
○ |
Site A |
Including: TN3Q-11, TN3R-24 |
|
Representatiive Site Code of Site A; Other Site Codes are depressed. |
TN3Q-11 |
○L |
Site A |
See TN3P-03 |
|
Written only in the manuscript. See the representative Site Code Listed elsewhere. |
TN3R-24 |
○L |
Site A |
See TN3P-03 |
|
Written only in the manuscript. See the representative Site Code Listed elsewhere. |
TN3S-33 |
○ |
Site B |
Also See (sub) TN3T-44 |
|
See a subsidiary site listed in the Catalog |
TN3T-44 |
□ |
Site B : Site B1 |
Also See (super) TN3S-33 |
|
See the superior site (Site B) listed in the Catalog |
TN3U-55 |
○ |
Site C |
Also See TN3V-66 Site D |
|
Reference to a similar/relevant site |
TN3V-66 |
○ |
Site D |
Also See TN3U-55 Site C |
|
Reference to a similar/relevant site |
TN3W-77 |
○? |
Site E |
Not accessible. Security risk. |
|
Web browser refused to access. Contents/status of the site is not clear at moment. |
TN3X-88 |
○←□ |
Site F |
Evaluation changed: ○←□ |
|
Evaluation is changed in the process of revision |
TN3X-10 |
○T |
Site G |
|
|
Site G is a site in the field of TRIZ, and is evaluated as ○ in the Around-TRIZ Catalog. |
Descriptions of individual site: Following 3 (or 4) levels of descriptions are expected (See detail in ).
(0) Basic Information to be shown in the Index part (See above).
(a) Informal, free format description, typically in the length of 3 to 15 lines. Often written by site owners and surveyors. For persons other than site owners, it is hard to fill in the Standard Form (b), and hence this (a) is useful. Except the cases of much familiar sites, it is convenient to use excerpts from top pages, "About us" pages, and some more main pages of the site. This (a) is desirable to be replaced/enhanced with (b) by the site owner.
(b) WTSP Standard Form of Site description: One page in A4. In addition to the (mandatory) Basic Information (0), the Form requests (desirably) to write Application phases, Application fields, and Methods using the categorized terms. It also requests Description of Site Introduction (about 5-10 lines in a free format) and (optionally) any Further Detailed Information (mostly references to Web pages, and also the description (c)).
(c) Close Description in a free format: Desirable for the sites ◎〇, and optional for the sites □. Typically 2 to 5 pages (or longer) in A4. For big. important sites, the 5-10 lines of free format description in (b) is too short to explain the value, usefulness, uniqueness, etc. of the site contents. Thus site owners are encouraged to introduce their sites thoroughly in a free format (assuming the existence of (b)). Figures, photos, tables, etc. may be used whenever appropriate. Depending on the Roles (or types) of sites, different styles of description may be used. Site owners' manuscripts are installed in separate Web pages and made accessible from the site description in (b).
Usage of Indexes/Catalogs
All Indxes (C1)(C2)(C3) and Catalogs (C1P)(C2P)(C3P) can be used on the WTSP Web site. They are kept up to date.
All Catalogs (C1P)(C2P)(C3P) in the PDF files are downloadable from the WTSP Web site without charge/registration and may be used under the copyrights remaining at the WTSP Project. The PDF files are suitable for printing, and also useful on your PC to read them and use them actively. The hyperlinks are active in the PDF files on your PC just like in the Web pages in the WTSP site. The PDF files in the WTSP site are to be kept up to date.
Enhancing and Improving the WTSP Indexes/Catalogs further (See detail in ):
The present WTSP Indexes/Catalogs are rich, reliable, and useful and much much better than ordinary Internet surveys you can usually obtain, as you see clearly.
Nevertheless, there remain three main aspects in which we should enhance and improve them.
(1) Collecting and selecting (after evaluation) good sites in the world.
(Note: Even though the Internet surveys were done pretty intensively, they are never thorough enough. And the surveyor (Nakagawa) have limited background knowledge in such a wide range of fields, it is neccessary to collect and select more sites by the collaboration of many specialists in various fields.)
(2) Improve the description/introduction of individual sites.
(Note that most of the sites of (C) Catalogs are described at the level of (0) and (a). Level (b) is desirable for all the ◎〇□ sites and Level (c) is desirable for all the
◎〇 sites.)
(3)
Improve easy access to a group of sites in the desired categories which the user want to find/study at the time.
(Note that users want to find a specified site, a group of sites in some methods, a group of sites useful for some type/phase of application, etc.)
Please use the WTSP Indexes/Catalogs for your jobs/studies. Using is the best way to improve anything.
If you find any error in the Indexes/Catalogs/Site descriptions, please notify them to the site owners and/or Project Leader.
For improving the aspect (1), please form WTSP SIGs (in any specific topic of your interest) and list up good/useful sites in the topic.
For improving the aspect (2), please encourage site owners to describe their site descriptions. Manuscripts are usually collected and reviewed by WTSP Teams in the country or WTSP SIGs, while Manuscripts at levels (b) and (c) will also be accepted directly by the Project Leader.
For improving the aspect (3), please propose any good and practical methods to be installed in the WTSP Catalog System. For (C) Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs, we should better have good methods to find a group of sites of some type of methodology, and a group of sites showing methods and case studies of some type of job problems, etc.
Enjoy using the WTSP Catalogs ! and Let's work Together !! Connected !!!
What do you find about the WTSP Catalogs? Please feedback your impressions, comments, suggestions, etc. to the Project Leader, at nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp.
We wish to enhance the WTSP Catalogs (both of TRIZ sites and of Around-TRIZ sites) by voluntary cooperation of many people working in the wide range of fields. We sincerely hope your understanding, support, and contributions to the WTSP Project/Catalogs.
Message from Users
We are happy to be able to cite a message from Dr. Bill Fowlkes (See some more communications with him in ):
To the World TRIZ-related Sites Project (WTSP) Global Co-editors:
I welcome the work you are doing to collect, organize, describe and link to the many internet sites that are of interest to students and practitioners of innovative methods such as TRIZ.
I have created a new bookmark folder with links to the WTSP Catalogs of TRIZ sites and the WTSP Catalogs of AROUND-TRIZ sites, and I expect that I will be referring to them frequently.
The aggregation of these sites is much better than trying to find the data with a Google search, because the information is curated and brief descriptions are provided.
I encourage TRIZ providers and other content creators working in TRIZ related fields to participate in this project and make the World TRIZ-related Sites Project the best it can possibly be.
Dr. William Y. Fowlkes
Oct. 30, 2019
VP, Analytics and Workflow Solutions| IP.com |
WTSP (World TRIZ Sites Project) -- (C) World Around-TRIZ Sites Catalogs 
(Jun. 30, 2020; Aug. 17, 2022)
