Design & Development of a
Knowledge Community System
Le Phan Huu Bang
Project Number: H022560
Advisor: Assoc Prof Poo Chiang Choon, Danny

Agenda
Introduction

 System Components
 Implementation
 Conclusion
 Demonstration
 Q&A

Introduction – Why K-Comm?
Knowledge sharing is important

◦ Vital for company to survive
◦ Many questions are repetitive
◦ Knowledge can only grow by sharing
Difficult to encourage sharing

knowledge
◦ People are reluctant to share
◦ Knowledge = Power
◦ People do not trust each other

System at a Glance

K-Comm – The Features
K-Comm is a knowledge-focused social

network
 Social Network Environment:
blogs, forums, friends, groups, file
sharing, etc.
 Knowledge-based Features:
◦ Questions & answers: seek and contribute
knowledge
◦ Get linked to people who might have the
answers
◦ Share knowledge
◦ Collaborate with like-minded people

Similar Systems

K-Comm – The Selling Points
Combination of various features

 Intuitive UI
 Not another Yahoo! Or Google
Answers
 Not another social network
 Not another blog
 Not another forum

K-Comm Comparison
Yahoo! &
Social Blogs &
Features Goggle KMS K-Comm
Networks Forums
Answers
Blogs
Forums
Friendship
Groups
Q&A
Quality
control Enhanced
Domain General Personal Specific Specific General

System Components
Core
Library
Q&A
Display
User
Profiling
Widgets
Questions
& Answers
Rating
K-Comm
System
Social
Networking
Point
System
User
Interface
Skill Level
System

User Profiling Package

Social Networking

Questions & Answers Package
Ask and answer questions

 Search for questions and answers
 Evaluate questions and answers
 Organize questions and answers

Ask and Answer Questions
Users can ask and answer questions

 System will evaluate the users, the
questions and answers according to
the activities and ratings
 Questions are categorized into
different categories and by using tags
 List of categories can be updated

Ask and Answer Questions

Search and Organize Q&As
Using the Search box

 Using the Latest and Interesting tab
 Using the widgets

Evaluation
Evaluate the questions and answers

System will analyze and evaluate the questioners

and answers

User Interface
Simple, intuitive and user friendly

 Look cool: Ajax, drag & drop
 I can find what I want to find
 Flexible, easy to use and learn

Implementation
Elgg framework as a foundamental

platform for the system
 Elgg K-Comm
◦ Social networking
◦ Plug-in  Q&As, customized look and feels
◦ Elgg Data Model  more Object-oriented
approach
◦ Metadata and annotations  users’
contributions and knowledge value estimation
◦ Widget  tools to manage and organize
Q&As

Elgg Data Model

Core Library
Question

 Answer
 Category
 Skillrecord

Core Library

Widgets
Each widget has a view and edit

interface
 Register the widget with Elgg through
the start.php in the Q&A plug-in

Widgets

User Interface
Implemented as a plug-in  extensible and

reusable
 Provide the layout for Q&A component
 Make use of jQuery plug in for effects

Skill Level System
Ratings of answers and questions can

be a good basis to evaluate the level
of knowledge that the poster
possesses
 Help the users identify the potential of
knowledge sharer
 Something missing from other similar
systems

Skill Level System – An example
John Mary
25 25
20
20
15
15 Best Answers
Best Answers
Answer Count
Answer Count
Question Count
Question Count
Answer Rating
10
Answer Rating
10
Question Rating
Question Rating
5
5
0
0
Car Computer Travel
Car Computer Travel

Skill Level System – An Example
Skill Level for John and Mary
John
Car
Computer
Travel
Mary
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Skill Level System Requirements
In scale of 10

 Calculated based on
◦ Ratings of questions and answers
◦ Total number of questions and answers
◦ Best answers
Not decrease due to inactivity


Skill Level System - Formula

Conclusion
Specifications of the system

◦ Definition
◦ Features
◦ Characteristics
Implementation approach

 Implement fundamental core features
and components
 Maintain flexibility, extensibility an
reusability

Future Features
Presentation

◦ Concept-map, mind map
◦ Tree view
Analysis of Q&As

◦ Concept extraction  Automated Q&As
◦ Information retrieval: e.g. searching based
on profile or relevant hits
Tag relationship
