Jack Park wrote:
> ... Gil uses the term "rigidify." That works for me, but there
> are other points of view as well. At issue is the fact that we
> all categorize the world in our own way. Production-line education
> tends to enforce standardization in that arena, but we are still
> individuals with our own non-linearities and so forth.
>
Ah... Now I understand the point that Gil was trying to make.
Yes, this is a system usage issue. The larger the system gets,
the more rigid the categories become -- to the degree that they
become standards. To the degree they don't, similar and redundant
categories are continually added to the system.
On the other hand, categories with various "shades of meaning"
might even be useful. If someone develops a formulation for
defining near-equivalences, of the form:
"hyper" = 90% match with "intense"
= 80% match with "over the top"
= xx% match with conceptX
....
Then some interesting fuzzy search capabilities begin to be
possible. I don't intend to work on that layer of the system,
but it is interesting that the foundation we are building may
just enable it.
--As you point out, there is still the proble of mapping from
*my* concepts to some "shared" conceptual framework out there.
> The fundamental architecture being espoused within the meeting
> was that of an engine that mutates original documents by adding
> links to them. The fundamental approach taken in the architecture
> I present here is one in which absolutely no modifications are
> ever performed on original documents. All linkages are formed
> "above" the permanent record of human discourse and experience.
> I strongly believe that the extra effort required to avoid
> building a system that simply plays with original documents will
> prove to be of enormous value in the larger picture.
>
This idea deserves careful consideration. I have a suspicion you
may be right about that. Our talks about how to use Wiki effectively
have really centered on how we control modifications to underlying
documents. I haven't come at things from the perspective you
suggest. It's time to take a detailed look at that approach, I think.
Also: I'm delighted that we're not going for a full ontology in
version 1. Yay! But I am equally delighted that system we seem to
be zeroing in on may help provide a basis for that work. Life should
be interesting.
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