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I The WebCompendia Project:
--WebCompendia with an
ExpandingOutline-Format and
SortableTable-Metadata
--ForwardLink-Protocol
--Encryption-Against-Plagiarism
Expanding-Outline Format:
Click on the arrows or triangles on the left below. <<<--Sorry not
available in this PDF format.
II Overview of WebCompendia
1 The ExpandingOutline-Format in WebCompendia
1.1 How does information become knowledge? As shown in this
Figure, information becomes knowledge by the repeated
compacting of information until it becomes knowledge. Up to
now this process has been paper-based. How
WebCompendia can help in Knowledge-Creation is shown
in this comparison:
PAPER-BASED Page 1 WEB-BASED

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PAPER-BASED WEB-BASED
KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE
Textbooks; Text-PDFs;
Course Course PDFs
Handouts Publish on Web;
Publish on paper;
Retain on
Increasing Knowledge (more generality)
Retain in Libraries Institutional
Decreasing Information (less detail)
WebServers
Review-Articles in Outlined Knowledge in
Journals; Chapters Scientific- & Medical-
in Specialist Books WebCompendia
Publish & Retain
Publish on paper; Retain on Individual WebSites;
in Institutional Libraries Archive on
Institutional WebServers
Research Articles on Research Articles on
Paper Paper and the Web
Publish on Web; Retain
Publish on paper; Retain on Public & Institutional
in Institutional Libraries WebServers
Research Information, unpublished
Our overarching goal is to improve scientific communication
by making improvements in Web-based communications so
that they are better than paper-based methods, and hence
will enhance knowledge-creation.
1.2 A WebCompendium is a concise, yet comprehensive,
organization of a field of knowledge, together with its
evaluation.
1.2.1 Each Web-WebCompendium will be Moderated by one expert,
and will be devoted to an aspect of the thin "slice" of knowledge
that each Moderator is expert in.
1.2.2 Each Web-WebCompendium is expected to self-organize a
community of like-minded scholars interested in the same
knowledge-slice. The community will be world-wide and not
limited by the need to meet others at meetings. This in one of
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the benefits of basing this activity on the World-Wide Web.

3. 1.2.2 Each Web-WebCompendium is expected to self-organize a
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community of like-minded scholars interested in the same
knowledge-slice. The community will be world-wide and not
limited by the need to meet others at meetings. This in one of
the benefits of basing this activity on the World-Wide Web.
1.2.3 Each participant will act in their own self-interest, as
described here:
1.3 The ExpandingOutline-Format
1.3.1 An Expanding-Outline Format is the Format that you are
presently reading, namely that initially only topic-headings are
seen. By the Reader's action in choosing to expand a section,
more material can be seen. This is a powerful tool for the
Reader, in being able to see an overall structure, and then take
a path into that structure that is best for that particular Reader,
at that particular time.
Such a method of presentation is especially useful for
readers with differing levels of background knowledge. The
novice Reader, desirous of a superficial view, can avoid the
technical levels that are of interest to the expert, such as detail
of experiments and debates concerning the adequacy of
proffered evidence.
1.3.2 Each Moderator will choose the presentation that is best for
their specific field. We describe below one possible format-- a
moderated-website with three Main Sections, and two
Appendices, as follows:
1.3.2.1. The ASSERTIONS-SECTION will contain statements
considered to be "generally believed" and/or "well-
established". By clicking on a symbol in the left-hand margin
of a given Assertion, the text will expand to show the
Experimental Support (pro and con) that is related to the
Assertion. In this way, the Reader “drills down” into the
material, according to the depth of their interest at that time.
1.3.2.2. The SPECULATIONS-SECTION will contain statements
(in the form of Assertions) within the purview of the subject
matter of the Compendium. By clicks, the Reader can
expand the text to include descriptions of the observations
that support or refute the Conjectures.
1.3.2.3. The STRONG-INFERENCE-SECTION will contain
important, yet unexplained Observations. By clicks the
Reader can find Alternative Hypotheses that can explain
these Observations, and further clicks will show the
Experiment(s) needed to test a given Hypothesis.
1.3.2.4. To summarize: each of the Sections in this example of an
Expanding-Outline Format differ with respect to Starting
Point and to the (expanding) Subdivisions, as shown here:
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1.3.2.4. To summarize: each of the Sections in this example of an
Expanding-Outline Format differ with respect to Starting
Point and to the (expanding) Subdivisions, as shown here:
1.3.2.5. While the Expanding-Outline example above moved from
the General to the Specific, the Expanding-Outline
presentation can be used to communicate other conceptual
organizations, as shown here:
1.3.2.6. Appendix 1 will contain Rejected Submissions, along
with the Moderator's comments and all email
correspondence with the Author. This protects the Moderator
from unfair claims that there has been bias in the selection
of Contributions.
Appendix 2 will contain Comments from the Public,
arranged by topic, and, within topics, in inverse
chronological order. This section may help in predicting
public reactions to various research results or methods.
1.4 At the end, if we are successful, there will be tens of
thousands of individual and independent WebCompendia, Tiki-
based websites freely available on the web, using the
ForwardLink-Protocol for sentence-to-sentence "pointers"
between them (see section IV)
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5. based websites freely available on the web, using the
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ForwardLink-Protocol for sentence-to-sentence "pointers"
between them (see section IV)
1.4.1 This goal will be achieved using presently-available funds
from the National Library of Medicine that support these
efforts.
2 SortableTable-Metadata in WebCompendia
III The ForwardLink-Protocol
IV Communication and Storage
V Encryption-Against-Plagiarism
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