Information distance from a question to an answer

Xian Zhang, Yu Hao, Xiaoyan Zhu, Ming Li, David R. Cheriton

Abstract: We provide three key missing pieces of a general theory of information distance [3, 23, 24]. We take bold steps in formulating a revised theory to avoid some pitfalls in practical applications. The new theory is then used to construct a question answering system. Extensive experiments are conducted to justify the new theory.