Re: [humanmarkup-comment] Brass Tacks Revisited

Hi Everyone,

It occurred to me that similar issues keep cropping up in our work. This is coming up because Joseph, Ranjeeth, Kurt and I have been thinking about coming up with use-case ideas featuring the utility of HumanML as an emerging technology with potential to combat terrorism. I thought I would revisit some old posts of mine called Brass Tacks and summarize those thoughts because they were attempts boil down complex issues to core issues. So here they are:

Brass Tacks 1:

Bottom Line Applications...This is my opinion, but based on the way the world really works, Business Applications pay the bills for all the rest, and though we have some very worthy idealistic goals, in order to achieve a penetration of the marketplace sufficient to realize any goals, we will need to address those nasty bottom line economic issues early on.

... the same practical reasons why reducing miscommunication improves performance in such areas as conflict resolution, work in spades for business, and that means improvements in bottom line profit performance...

When terms can have varying meanings in different contexts, HumanML can specify the context. When terms are meant to carry emotional connotations, those connotations can be made explicit for the sake of emphasis or understanding.

To be specific, adding up the improvements that can be had in performance evaluations, progress reports, contracts, conference reports, all add up to cumulative improvement in the quality and depth of information and data at the fingertips of top management, so the number one Brass Tacks Application is Executive Management Decision Support.

Brass Tacks 2:

...we are here to create a markup language, not describe human behavior, psychology, cultural frameworks or traits. Those things will be described and developed by those who use HumanML.

This observation was based on my own experience in phase 0, when... "I got in there amongst the trees and completely forgot there even was a forest somewhere."

Brass Tacks 3:

VISIBILITY ...we are likely to draw more attention than almost any other single OASIS Initiative...

...our purpose is to bring those qualities and concerns and processes that are UNIQUELY Human with a Cap H to that digital environment...

That means enabling emotional content and context to be included, as with music and other arts which express these complex feelings that make us human, and this is important because that reduction in misunderstanding of which we have spoken and at which we aim can only be accomplished by including that information in our communications, and including it accurately.

Oddly enough, that means that you all need to have the courage to accept occasional embarassment as happens when humans interact.

...encouraging honesty in emotional contexts... we can only be successful if we improve accuracy or fidelity in communications. And if we just preach that people ought to tell the truth, we will fail as surely as if we had never tried in the first place.

However, if we can face our own embarassments in public and show how it actually improves understanding, as it will and does, then we can achieve this by example.

Brass Tacks 4:

The Importance of Being Common

I have posted this twice so I won't do it again. It boils down to not trying to make things high-flown and pretentious. It means that instead of trying to sound good and look good, we should just do our level best to do our work as well as we can for the common good.

Brass Tacks 5:

There was no Brass Tacks 5, but I am adding it now.

Make a Plan. Create an Outline First.

Don't just dive in with a lot of I-feel-good-about-doing-this and expect to achieve great results. Or, at least, when that feeling wears off and you are faced with the less-than-great outcome of that initial burst of energy, don't get discouraged, but go back, and,

Make a Plan....

Figure out where you want to go, and how you think you are going to get there. Then post it so that the common sense of the group can hack at it and hone it into shape. Let's make use of our group strengths.

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