[humanmarkup-comment] P & P draft 2

[cognite@zianet.com]

per request at today's phone meeting, am reposting this writeup (with quote
from Ranjeeth
included.)



JOEBRAE@aol.com	Mon, 08 Apr 2002 14:32:06 -0400

> -we need to drive home the benefits of HM efficiencies technology-wise

Selections pulled out that could do so (glue added), from Rex's Perception 
and Peace, parts 1 and 2 draft 1.  Tone moved toward the RAND article's style
and informal length.  Don't know who this is for, though!  It's more of a 
presentation than article now.  Oh, well!

===============  PEACE AND PERCEPTION (draft 2 for HumanML)

[[GLUE:  additions to establish the premise that it is misunderstanding that
has long since 
led to or contributed to disputes.  Then the premise's converse can be used,
namely 
that elimination of misunderstanding would contribute to eliminating
disputes.  And
that a good tool for elimination of misunderstanding is...Human Markup
Language.]] 

What underlies today's armed and verbal conflicts that are holding us all on a 
precarious fine line between peaceful co-existence and the unthinkable is 
misunderstanding among us.  To melt accumulations of misunderstanding we now
have
a new capacity, though.  We have new joint capacities to build ourselves tools 
for fidelity of communicating rapidly, in this technologically connected time.

[[REX, Perception and Peace part 1 para 5]]  
Most of the misunderstanding is cultural although this is disguised in
public perceptions on all sides of the conflicts by the simple fact that the
technology of public media provides the illusion of communication. In fact,
while almost no parties would admit it, or even recognize it, there is
almost no communication [[outside the communication of ->]] aside from
one body understanding
the effect of another body committing violence upon it, usually just as the
body so affected expires, after which little use is possible from that
understanding. It should be noted that body is used here in the abstract
sense extending from a single human individual to a family to a
neighborhood, a clan, a city, up to a nation or a people that define
themselves in ways transcending political boundaries.

[[GLUE: ]] If we don't together pull away from the unthinkable brink,
we won't be here.  So let us give each other credit.  Assume sincerity, 
interpretive ability, and willingness to strive for the necessary goodwill
among ourselves.  How can we build ourselves a tool for mutual 
understanding?

An endeavor conceived of in February 2001 by a psychologist and
computer whiz who has lived on both sides of the globe, R.K. Thunga,
was to build on to the more general (XML) form of the markup language 
used to lay out webpages (HTML) for communication through the
world wide web.  A group has been formed to add HUMAN CULTURE 
AND MEANING DESCRIPTOR TERMS to XML.  The group designing the
sets of terms for this XML HUMAN MARKUP LANGUAGE is working
under the auspices of the widely supported, industry-based standards body 
OASIS.  OASIS is the acronym abbreviating Organization for the Advancement 
of Structured Information Systems.  As seen from its website at
http://www.oasis-open.org, OASIS is working on XML-applications -- that
is, on conventions and vocabularies for useful markup.  The Human Markup
Language technical committee's working draft of its Requirements Document
can be seen at http:// [[fill in]]  (An extension to Requirements for
Diplomatic Communication is in the works.)  As committee leader Thunga 
says in an April 8, 2002 open letter to Owen Ambur, Co-Chair of XML Working
Group
http://xml.gov, 

"we are hoping, through our HumanMarkup
effort, to explicitly represent human characteristics through the use of
Internet standards.  These characteristics include intention, attitude,
cultural perspective, and belief.  Right now, these characteristics are both
implied by the speaker or gleaned by the listener--there is no standard
means of representing these elements as explicit, usable data.  This has
caused, and continues to cause, a great deal of misunderstanding between
people."
 
After long discussion of how to deal with the huge body of human knowledge
and expression, a modular solution was proposed.  The Requirements outline
a framework for integrating descriptions of many cultural 
contexts.  Hopefully the descriptions will very accurate due to being
contributed by [[REX part 1 para 11]] writers, speakers and thinkers of 
the respective persuasions, languages and cultures.  They will create the
very cultural modules, Human Markup Cultural Schemata, or vocabularies,
which describe their perspectives.  [[paraphrasing glue:]] Terms from these
modules will be used in markup and computing processes using it, so the 
communiques will carry the human qualities along when documents are 
transmitted and even translated, reducing misunderstandings.  This is 
an enterprise which brings peoples together.
  
The HTML markup of webpages tells about superficial appearance features like 
paragraphing and underlining, and that titles go here and pictures go there.   
Human Markup Language descriptive terms will be inserted similarly.  But their
purpose will be to tell that the speaker is joking, or persuading, bargaining, 
using a parable, or speaking to a child, for example.  The context of what is 
meant to be assumed and the perspective will be more filled in when these
descriptive terms can be used.  Intentional exaggeration and having an
imaginary, 
mythical, or cartoon referent will be marked, too.  This will aid the press and 
surfers/readers and people reporting on things to know just what is being
said or 
described, so its original meaning is not lost, the perils of guessing are
lessened, 
and so that understanding each other becomes easier, which will make the
world safer.  
The Human Markup Language component of XML is being designed to complement
other XML 
standards like those [[specify each?]] for business, government, and health,
and to be  
interoperable with them.

[[REX' part 2 paras 11, 13 plus a technology-efficiency and a theme
consolidator:]]
To Summarize: 

The Human Markup Language project may give us a very crucial standard in 
the future of computing for human purposes.

The aim of Human Markup Language is to enhance the fidelity of human 
communication.  That is what the group charter says. The critical word in this 
formulation of a goal is fidelity. This even goes beyond accuracy to include
the 
notion of faithfulness to truth which is the quality of context. It puts the
accuracy 
of empirical factuality into the larger perspective of human perception. It
develops
our new technology for communicating constructively and efficiently.  And it
holds
out a concrete way of working together for peace.



=========  PEACE AND PERCEPTION, draft 2 for HumanML =======


[[in the next-to-last paragraph, an equivocation on 'human' in 'human purposes'
uses the meaning of human as compassionate and good, antonym 'inhuman', to
clinch the argument.  hopefully.]]


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