1. A method of controlling the distribution of resolution knowledge comprising: receiving a request for resolution knowledge from a service requester; identifying a plurality of patterns as candidate patterns, each candidate pattern having at least one element that characterize a corresponding problem; repeating until at least one stopping criterion is met: providing information to said service requester that identifies a select element of each remaining candidate pattern; receiving information from said service requester that enables identification of ones of said candidate patterns having its select element matched to corresponding information considered by said service requester; and removing each pattern as a candidate pattern if the problem associated with that pattern is resolved by said received information; and resolving said request after detecting that said at least one stopping criterion has been met.