Re: [humanmarkup-comment] P & P draft 2

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

Thanks Sylvia,

I have to wonder why it is that the first prospective client in a 
month manages to send me mail on the day my mail client crashes and 
takes part of my hard drive with it, or vice versa actually since it 
happened as a result of a system freeze which a hasty punch of the 
reset button turned into apparently permanent damage to that area of 
the hard drive where that application was running at the time. One 
gets so accustomed to apparently perpetual functionality that it 
never occurs that even hard drives of gigabyte capacities do get 
filled up.

Then when the aforementioned prospective new client actually calls, 
my physical voice box decides it is time to develop laryngitis. So 
now I have a new chapter for my book titled, "How NOT to Make a First 
Impression."

We need an emoticon for bewilderment. And why IS Murphy picking on me 
all of a sudden?

This is a good set of points from which to base what might be called 
Sociological (as opposed to a Technological) White Paper. We still 
need to do that, and doing both would be better than the 
editorial/technical division we haven't gotten around to finishing

I think that rather than settle for gluing together a pastiche, I 
would like to encourage you to recast this in that form. I would be 
happy to contribute. One of the reasons why I started down the path 
of writing what amounts to an answer to various critics who have 
levelled some well-deserved commentary at us over the last year was 
to try to attract that kind of attention again. So I have to admit to 
a somewhat ulterior Public Relations motive in the tone and focus of 
my series of opinion pieces disguised as expository answers to our 
critics.

That said, if we have a White Paper of this caliber, when 
restructured in a more formal White Paper approach, it would be very 
much a coordinated effort, where I go out and stimulate some 
additional media attention, while back on the TC Website (with 
Humanmarkup.org and the archival Yahoo sites and material to back it 
up) we start building informational, expository resources for the 
press and newly interested individuals to dive into once their 
appetites are sufficiently whetted, (if my/our attempts to generate 
that interest are successful).

This brings up the obvious point that I would like, now that 
Humanmarkup.org can function, to solicit more participation in the 
appetite-whetting department.

Ranjeeth will be doing some of that next month with his in-person 
contact activities, so any suggestions of how we can do this, perhaps 
in academic/industry journals, etc. would be appreciated.

We've been on the map before, so getting back on it shouldn't be that 
hard, but this time we want to mold Public Perception 
Intentionally--and we should be upfront about doing that.

Ciao,
Rex

At 2:19 PM -0600 4/10/02, cognite@zianet.com wrote:
>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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-- 
Rex Brooks
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
W3Address: http://www.starbourne.com
Email: rexb@starbourne.com
Tel: 510-849-2309
Fax: By Request