[humanmarkup-comment] RE: Economics Conference Example and TonfoniAnnotation System

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

Thanks,Susan,

I just got back from two days of meetings in Monterey at the Naval 
Postgraduate School reviewing the proposed architecture for the next 
version of VRML, now named X3D due to its employment of the xml 
framework for componentizing the ISO specification in close 
consultation with the W3C. Along with the first face-to-face meetings 
of the newly established OASIS Web Services for Interactive 
Applications, this makes three different but related conferences, 
including the regular monthly meeting of the HumanMarkup TC last 
week, in which I have participated.

I mention this because: 1. I have a lot to digest right at the 
moment; and, 2. a common set of occurences has reinforced the thrust 
of your Economics Conference Example, which is the obvious, though 
largely unrecognized, need for a systematic, structured application 
which could use HumanMarkup either as an operational component, or as 
a guiding principle (a paradigm in the way that term is now 
overwhelmingly used, as opposed to its technically accurate 
dictionary definition) for gathering and presenting realtime feedback 
and a means for immediate codification of consensus, or lack thereof.

I will read and digest this latest set of thoughts about this 
scenario, with an eye toward developing it further as the basis for 
developing a fully realized, or as fully realized as possible now, 
use case for deriving requirements for our basic schema, extended 
schemata, and for illustrating a valid, real world, problem area we 
are addressing.

Thanks so much, and I will respond more completely as I am able.

Ciao,
Rex

At 12:55 PM -0500 1/30/02, susan.turnbull@gsa.gov wrote:
>Hi Rex,Ranjeeth, and others,
>
>Greetings! Here's some more preliminary thoughts and suggestions as I work
>to understand the perspectives and interests represented by you and this
>community:
>
>
>1. I just read Ranjeeth's article which is now available at:
>http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/content/pubs_content.jsp?contentOID=120147&contentType=1008&PMGZ=1
>
>I concur with the need.  I would like to see the evolution take place among
>a variety of peer stakeholders rather than an expert-customer approach.
>Peers could have a better built-in check on exploitative use.  I wrote an
>article for this newsletter also.  It's in Federal News section "Extending
>Digital Dividends: Public Goods and Services that Work for All.
>
>2. See the progress Stanford has made below on a computerized transcription
>service available to students during lectures.  It could be useful in the
>setting I mentioned (WTO type negotiations) where a real-time transcript
>could move discussions forward to more interesting levels - rather than
>getting stuck early due to limited shared language capacity.
>
>3. Per my question on a potential role of human markup language in
>augmenting the efficiency of our evolution to a more participatory process
>to regulations, there's an interesting meeting in DC in March focusing on
>how to make large documents like government rules usable by web and paper.
>The speaker is from Washington State Dept. of Labor.  She spent three years
>collaborating with attorneys, safety and health professionals, etc.
>rewriting a huge, old, ungainly rule to something smaller,innovative and in
>plain language. The rule is about Workplace safety and health rules - a
>useful place to inject greater sensitivity to cultural differences among
>workers through humanmarkup language.  I was quite intrigued by Graziella
>Tonfoni's work referenced in the message from "psp" at
>www.ontologystream.com/area3/gtonfoni. The notation system proposed to
>support advanced qualitative reasoning as a potential check on closed,
>authority rules, gatekeeping.  The author's "Concept of verbal document
>resulting from accurate transport of conversational interactions into
>textual format" should certainly be explored.  We need new forms for the
>new functions made possible by our tools.  Could a system like this have
>increased the efficiency/effectiveness of the three year process in the
>state of Washington?  Maybe committees write dense
>bureacratic/non-transparent phrases because unlike open source developers'
>output (source code) they don't have a common core competence along with
>the time and will needed to be cohesive and clear.  This is very costly to
>society and individuals.
>Would you like the email with details to this March meeting?
>
>Another interesting person to follow up with is Terry Janssen.  He's at
>Tjanssen@gmu.edu,  now I think. Look at the problem he's been tackling
>(bolded below)  When last we talked, he was moving to XML, I believe.  How
>about augmenting his Toulmin logic approach with the notation sytem of
>Tonfoni as an early human markup framing?  We need a smoother
>collaborative, collective learning approach that enables some of the
>semblence of coherence in output that open source developers achieve - At a
>minimum, it would provide better records of what was understood by a group
>at certain points in time - and how that understanding matured.  It would
>provide similar benefits to what accrues to professions benefiting from the
>forms in which they communicate and self-regulate.  For starters, it could
>benefit cross-boundary professionals/scientists as Terry's application
>requires.  (USDA needed a way for diverse disciplines to study
>cross-boundary interaction effects among pesticides, crops, etc. - see
>below). We need a better methodology - that when refined could be
>introduced broadly.  Brown's Rules of Order raised by an order of magnitude
>of three (or more) dimensions to accommodate the scale, openness, and speed
>of people's growing expectations to participate and contribute to progress.
>
>
>"Dr. Terry Janssen from Argonne National Laboratory, Department of Energy.
>His work focuses on the challenge of using risk assessment in the policy
>development arena where there may be poor communication and understanding
>stemming from the lack of structure of the evidence, information and
>reasoning. As a demonstration of his approach, he is currently working with
>USDA's Cooperative, State, Research, Education, and Extension Service to
>help organize information related to pest management alternatives.
>
>
>The title of Dr. Janssen's presentation was "Structuring of Evidence for
>Science Assessment: A Pest Management Example." He began with a review of
>the definitions that he uses in this specialized field. The basic
>definitions focused on policy decision making: selecting from a set of
>policy options; and science assessment; the process which supports policy
>decision making by answering policy questions in the context of "sound,
>objective" science. This directly leads to what he calls the inscrutability
>problem where, in the context of science, often there is too much research
>and it is organized in a way that is difficult for a policy maker to
>understand in relation to the policy question.
>
>
>Dr. Janssen then presented a demonstration of his Interactive Decision
>Support System which includes Toulmin Logic Structures. Professor Stephen
>Toulmin was a philosopher of argumentation and reasoning who developed a
>framework for making decisions by breaking down the decisions into more
>manageable parts and then structuring the information to facilitate a
>decision. Janssen has developed a software program which captures this
>structure and also allows for input from experts and scientists through the
>Internet. This flexibility allows for reiteration of an issue even when the
>parties involved may be separated by time or location. "
>
>"TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2002
>
>   Stanford to Test a Computerized Transcription System
>
>*****************************************************
>Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association
>whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting
>the intelligent use of information technology.
>*****************************************************
>
>STANFORD TO TEST A COMPUTERIZED TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM
>Stanford University is taking part in a pilot program to test
>a system that improves the odds of students with learning
>disabilities performing well in college. Test results of
>students who participated in the Liberated Learning Project
>(LLP) found that they no longer had to take notes at lectures
>where LLP was used. LLP uses voice-activated software, which
>immediately translates the instructor's words into print that
>flashes onto a large screen. Students with or without learning
>disabilities can get a copy of the lecture online, as can
>visually impaired students, who can have the notes translated
>into Braille. Hearing impaired students especially stand to
>benefit from the system. LLP has been tested at colleges and
>universities in Canada, Britain, and Australia.
>(Chronicle of Higher Education Online, 24 January 2002)"
>
>4.  I'm going to explore  the event chemistry URLs - Looks interesting.
>
>Regards,
>Susan
>
>Susan B. Turnbull
>Senior Program Advisor
>Next Generation Strategies
>Office of Governmentwide Policy
>US General Services Administration
>p 202.501.6214
>f  202.219.1533
>susan.turnbull@gsa.gov


-- 
Rex Brooks
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
W3Address: http://www.starbourne.com
Email: rexb@starbourne.com
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