Curriculum descant: AI topics: organizing online knowledge sources about AI for the lay public

be to go through our mailbag and look for general themes that could be addressed en masse by creating a series of FAQs. Although there is real value in FAQs, we recognized that they are based on the premise that the authors are able to anticipate the types of questions that will typically be asked with accuracy. Moreover, once written, they require continued updating to retain their currency. In addition , we came to feel that a site built around FAQs had the potential to convey a closed-end, pigeonhole attitude as opposed to the open-ended sense of excitement that we wanted to permeate the site. Another thing we realized during our initial benchmarking forays online was that not only were people already posting FAQs addressing various AI subjects, but people were making available an amazing array of material and resources. Given the free access to online material that covered the spectrum from classic articles of the 1950s to the latest interactive demos and virtual museums, it was decided that rather than reinvent the proverbial wheel, the AI Topics site would assume the role of an intermediary poised between these resources and the non-professional information seeker. Since this vast pool of information can be both overwhelming (just as it often is for professionals too) and susceptible to considerable redundancy and misin-formation, we believed that there would be real value in mediating this relationship in at least four ways: 1. identifying readable overview articles that 1 curriculum descant T he challenge: Design a Web site to respond to the lay public's undifferenti-ated interest in artificial intelligence, their need for relevant, accurate resources and their quest for " the answer. " Our solution: Build an online library with several doorways to basic, understandable information selected for a target audience and presented in an environment that celebrates the vibrancy of AI and encourages further exploration. The AI Topics Web site was born of necessity. The year was 1998 and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) needed an effective and efficient means of responding to the questions beginning to flow in from students, journalists and others outside of AI. 3 The tenor of these inquiries typically ran along the lines of: ✱ I'm doing a story on intelligent agents. Can you tell me what they are and who is working on them? Oh, by the way, my deadline is tomorrow. ✱ I have a …