RE: [xtm-wg] Wishlist for Thinkers

[Peter Jones <peterj@wrox.com>]

Hi Andrius,

If I understand you correctly, you are looking to the XTM standard as a
possible way of storing a representation of a network of ideas (whatever
those ideas might be and however they are interrelated)?
So you are attempting to identify common characteristics of ideas and the
way that they interrelate to see if the XTM standard could supply an
adequate storage format?

regards,
Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrius Kulikauskas [mailto:ms@ms.lt]
Sent: 25 May 2000 21:07
To: xtm-wg@egroups.com
Subject: [xtm-wg] Wishlist for Thinkers


Hello, I wrote about my hope that our laboratory, Minciu Sodas, might be
able to work more closely with the topic maps community.  I'm reading a
paper by Steve Pepper, thank you!  I have put together a usage matrix
which you might find interesting, it's at
http://www.ms.lt/wishfulthinking.html  Here is a letter regarding it
that I've written for our work group.  Andrius Kulikauskas,ms@ms.lt

*****************************
Working on this map helps overcome two obstacles towards our
import/export standard.

One obstacle is figuring out how to represent a relationship between
thoughts.  For example, do we store such information with the thought,
or do we store it separately?  How do we answer such a question?  This
is such a basic question that we want to get the answer right.  I think
the right answer will be the one that best models our thinking.  For
modeling our thinking, a relationship between thoughts, in my opinion,
captures the fact that there is something worth recording about the
movement of our mind from one thought to another.  In practice, when is
it relevant to record such movements?  The attached map helps answer
this.

Another obstacle is demonstrating practically that our standard
addresses a need and can be used.  It is not enough to demonstrate
import/export, there has to be some value to that.  The map helps by
making explicit what thinkers wish for, what we find valuable.  The map
identifies twelve such activities.  It is the beginnings of a usage
matrix.  The next step is to consider what kinds of tools match with
each activity?  We can make recommendations, based on experiences we
have collected, and who participates in our community, which is also
very important.  We can then start to consider how usages relate, how
tools connect, and work to design converters, and perhaps, an
interactive multiconverter.

I welcome your remarks, and will share some of my own.  The map came
about by collecting testimonials as to what we would like, grouping
them, naming the groups, then laying out the groups on a sheet of paper
so that related groups were adjacent.  I paid special attention to how
they might relate to our "mental workspace".  I then looked for
structural themes, and refined the map.  We can continue to refine it,
and correct it, or simply discuss it, but I'll point out some of the
current features.

The current map organizes our wishes along four threads based on the
mental experience that I think they presume.  I had written about these
mental experiences earlier, the distinction between being immersed in
our thoughts and reflecting on them, the distinction between focusing on
a thought and moving from thought to thought.  

These threads came rather straightforwardly from the map and so I think
we ought to be mindful of their position from left to right, that is,
the thread "immersed in thought" and the thread "reflect on thought" do
not have much in common.  The map suggests that the concept of movement
from thought to thought enables us to relate these two threads, that
with respect to mental movement, immersion and reflection are much more
relatable.  In other words, movement from thought to thought makes it
possible for us to relate immersion and reflection.

The map and its precursors also organize our wishes in terms of their
distance from our "mental workspace", that is, the little empty
bottleneck of space where we do our active thinking.  Some wishes are
very closely related to this workspace, that we "capture thoughts", or
have "free brain space", or "harness concentration", or "develop
thoughtstream".  Others are very distantly related.  I think the more
removed from the workspace, the more leverage they offer.  "Being shaped
by the writing process" or "thinking-tool for allowing structure to
evolve" involve long term commitments.  Along each thread I've grouped
together the wishes.  Some involve our immediate experience, for
example, when we are "immersed in thought", they have us "focus on the
essence".  But what is the ultimate point of focusing on the essence? 
It is that the essence shapes us, perhaps so that we always focus on it,
which are the longest term wishes.  The wishes in the middle of the
thread seem to be what take us to these longest term wishes.  In this
case, they have us "heighten the essence", which increases the effect of
the essence and leads us to be shaped by it.  For each thread, this
leads to a sensible statement:

If I truly want to "focus on the essence", then I must "be shaped by the
essence", and so I "heighten the essence".
If I truly want to "record the system", then I must "share the system",
and so I "refine the system".
If I truly want to "safeguard ideas", then I must "manage ideas", and so
I "elicit ideas".
If I truly want to "open myself", then I must "see outside myself", and
so I "organize myself".

In general:
If I truly want to [what I think], then I must [why I think], and so I
[how I think].
Where:
[what I think] is what I can experience
[how I think] is what I can reexperience
[why I think] is what I can always experience

With regard to our import/export standard, I've written that if we think
of it as a modeling language, then it is allowing us to "reexperience". 
It is also a very helpful idea from Alexander's book on patterns, that
our patterns are given by recurring events (for example, doing dishes,
or walking across the yard to visit a friend, etc.)  It is this
"reexperiencing" that becomes the basis for the structural pattern.

So one helpful (if correct) conclusion is that, for our standard, we
should focus on the four activities that are "reexperiences", because
those are the ones for which modeling is relevant.  The other activities
are either too fleeting, too immediately relevant - or too far off, too
involved, too complete for us to worry about.  

Too immediate for our standard: Tools for entry of thoughts:
- Tools for harnessing concentration.
- Tools for writing down sets of ideas.
- Tools for capturing thoughts, sporadic ideas we have during the day.
- Tools for brainstorming, thinking freely. 

Just right for our standard:  Tools for editing:
- Tools for rewriting ideas.
- Tools for analyzing systems of ideas.
- Tools for finding or generating ideas.
- Tools for reorganizing and visualizing ideas.

Too removed for our standard:  Tools for contemplating:
- Tools for shaping our outlook.
- Tools for sharing intuition.
- Tools for helping and organizing our thinking processes.
- Tools for allowing structures to evolve.

So we should focus on what is needed to support the editing process.  We
should ignore features that serve to enhance data entry, or
contemplation.  This will guide us in defining, as simply as possible,
thoughts and their relationships, and the structural types of
relationships.

I appreciate your comments.

Yours,

Andrius Kulikauskas
Director
Minciu Sodas
ms@ms.lt
http://www.ms.lt/importexport.html

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