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The value of computer
systems will not be determined by how well they can be used in the
applications they were designed for, but how easily they can be fit to cases that were never
thought of.
The effective
use of technology does not lie in the automation of the past.
My Interests:
Pursue a joint
PhD in Emergent New Media at the CEADS.
Specific Interests:
Knowledge Cartography and Ecology.
A key question
is whether valuable insights into complexity, vital to governance and self-
governance of social processes, may only be representable and comprehensible through
presentations of an essentially artistic nature. It is then their aesthetic properties that have
valuable ordering and integrative functions. Given the well- demonstrated weaknesses of
current international policy- making, it would be unwise to assume that this is not the case.
I hope in part
to demonstrate the feasibility of enhancing comprehension, and navigating
complexity, using features uniquely dependent upon the riches and subtleties of artistic insight.
The concern here is with the design of a flexible architecture to demonstrate how the power of
both "scientific" and "artistic" approaches may be integrated to enhance comprehension
and
navigation of complexity -- as well as offering new forms of creativity in response to complex
conditions.
I hope to develop
the software (iMap) and process necessary to the new disciplines implied
above.
These complementary
tools involve a variety of overlapping research challenges. The proposal
focuses on developing application of tools rather than on the tools themselves.
The proposed research
would explore and specify a suite of 18 complementary modules
which can enhance community dynamics and the sharing of information between people in
local communities under a variety of conditions.
The immediate research
goals would be to review, examine, test and augment relevant
existing software in a variety of community environments. Much of this work would build
on existing initiatives and interests of the proposers. |
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1. Pressing
problems in knowledge handling policy
At a time when
we are exposed to:
The complexity
of the knowledge handling system is such that conceptual ambiguity is
the rule rather than the exception. At the same time we are running short of the paper
which permits us the luxury of our incredibly ineffective, document-oriented system.
Furthermore, and more serious, the cumbersome nature of the knowledge handling
system effectively prevents the maintenance of "thinking momentum" (2) on any issue,
whether for an individual or in group interaction between researchers. Such disruption
of innovation is increasingly intolerable as well as dangerous because of our dependence
upon collective innovative and rapid responses to the many problem of society. The
scholar's relaxed acceptance of extended delays (deriving from the monastic tradition
and the priorities of the gentlemen-of-leisure who fathered many of the sciences) can no
longer set the standard for knowledge handling [1].
The US National
Science Foundation has invested heavily over the past decade in
abstracting and indexing services for a range of disciplines. It recently summarized the
current state of affairs as follows:
"The world's store of scientific and technical literature continues its
exponential
growth, with a corresponding diversification of the uses to which it can be put. We
may be nearing the limits of what can be accomplished by printing, mailing, storing,
and retrieving pieces of paper." (3)
This is not
the place to detail the evidence in support of this view. A significant practical
example, however, is the case of the United Nations. A former President of the General
Assembly remarked that "the United Nations is drowning in its own words and
suffocating in its own documentation" (4). The UN Joint Inspection Unit notes that "the
point of saturation has now been reached and indeed overstepped and that the law of
diminishing returns is taking over" (5). Their solution implemented, however, is "to set
once and for all, and strictly enforce, a reasonable but drastically reduced ceiling to the
volume of documentation its various bodies call for and its services produce" (5). It can
be argued that such a response to the problem is incredibly short-sighted in view of
mankind's need for new knowledge and the right of all to participate in the generation of
that knowledge and to receive the associated information. To reduce severely the means
of storing and disseminating such knowledge within the world's key organizational
system, without seeking a more appropriate complementary medium, can only be
counter-productive and unsatisfactory.
If some limit
is being reached then the National Science Foundation, continuing the
above quotation, considers that:
"effective communication will necessarily come to depend upon electronic
means of
handling information. In any case, for significant improvements in the accessibility
and usefulness of the information handled we must look beyond paper-based
communications to a computer- sensible literature, stored in central facilities for
instantaneous presentation at remote terminals anywhere. To create such a literature
through the conversion of printed literature would be slow, inefficient, and
formidably expensive. For this reason, a goal for publication is to capture new
literature in computer-sensible form at its source." (3)
The same document
identifies other interrelated goals:
As is noted
below, the NSF is currently funding field experiments amongst groups of
scientists. As has been noted elsewhere (6), it is difficult to convey the nature of the
communication process in this new computer- supported, paper-less environment. "Most
of our intuitions about face- to-face interaction simply do not apply to this new and
unusual form of communication... it is not surprising that computer conferencing might
actually establish an altered state of communication in which the realities of fact-to-face
communication are distorted and entirely new patterns of interaction emerge" (6). Some
impression of the significance of existing applications may be gained from the following
section. A major investment in creating and experimenting with such environments has
been made over the past decade through the ARPANET at the Center for Augmenting
Human Intellect, Stanford Research Institute (7, 8, 9).
2. Software
and Hardware
It is much to
be regretted that those who have an understanding of the existing, and
increasingly available, computer hardware and peripheral equipment are rarely able to
envisage innovative uses for that equipment outside certain specialized sectors of
engineering and fundamental defence research.
Consequently,
when such equipment is used elsewhere, the applications do not constitute
breakthroughs in the ability to respond flexibly to relationship complexity and inter-
sectoral contact, but only a greater ability to handle the increasing quantities of data
within a predefined sector. This lack is matched for those in those sectors, which could
benefit immediately from a wide variety of innovative though relatively simple
applications, but who are unaware of the possibilities.
It is impossible
to explore adequately in this context the significance of these devices and
applications for classification-related questions. Some possibilities can however be
indicated (7).
1. Computer
graphics devices (CRT displays). These are now familiar to many, if only at
airline reservation desks. What is much less well-known is the form of this device which
can handle not only lines of text but can also display highly complex relationship
networks (such as arrow diagrams) whether in two or three dimensions with many
possibilities for assisting the user in the exploration, comprehension and re-
representation of such (concept) networks for comprehension by others interested in
alternative or simplified displays. Very complex domains may be represented on displays
of several hundred colours [2].
2. Graph plotters.
Complex relationship charts of up to several square meters in size
may be drawn, with several colours, under computer control on the basis of data
selected by the user (possibly after viewing a display of successive parts of it with the
previous device). The significance of a knowledge user or institution being able to obtain
and represent the structure of a knowledge domain in this way remains to be appreciated
(7).
3. Computer-assisted
structure elucidation. Programs are now in use for the interactive
exploration by chemists of possible molecular structures in the light of inferred structural
fragments and various constraints (12, 13). The approach bears many similarities to an
application which should be available to users wishing to explore concept structures (e.g.
in association with the proposal of the Committee on Conceptual and Terminological
Analysis, and Unesco's current Interconcept program (10, 14).
4. Computer-conferencing
The US National Science Foundation is now investigating the
consequences of providing computer terminals to individuals who are members of
geographically dispersed "invisible colleges" (3). The scholars so linked, whether in one
or more countries, can exchange, store and comment on information according to an
evolving agenda. Such applications may include those mentioned above. To date
however the structures of the "agendas" governing the relationship between the items
chosen for a particular computer conference are of the simple hierarchical variety.
However, the computer does facilitate linking and sequencing keywords in the series of
interventions constituting the transcript of a conference so that such associative
networks may be explored in a manner somewhat similar to citation analysis. The
significance of being able to use such an environment to facilitate interaction in relation
to a complex evolving network of concepts, and to use the environment to explore and
experimentally re- structure collectively such a network, remains to be
appreciated—particularly with regard to interdisciplinary and intersectoral
communication [3].
3. Knowledge
representation
The previous
section indicates a breakthrough in terms of hardware in support of a new
knowledge- handling environment and the NSF initiative indicates that this is being very
seriously explored. What is still not appreciated apparently, is the significance in such an
environment of the decomposition of the "texts" of a particular author into sentences or
even words. The computer permits this (by the very nature of its operation) and
facilitates any recombination of his statements into new configurations (perhaps blended
with those of his colleagues). This is important for concept analysis (14, 15, 17).
A stage is therefore
reached in which a given text is treated by the computer as a
network of key words embedded in a field of explanatory comments. The structure of the
network bears an iconic relationship to the knowledge it represents. Knowledge
innovation is more and more closely represented by the changes to the structure and
content of that network. The explanatory and introductory comment, which constitutes
the great bulk of any text is only of secondary significance and can be stripped away,
given a much lower handling priority, or reprocessed into a more compact and
comprehensible form by communication and education specialists. Soergel, in discussing
the possibility of an automated encyclopedia, discusses this point (18) with a quotation
from Bohnert et al (19):
"An increase in accessibility without a corresponding increase in human
assimilation
rate will be self- defeating... Often one needs to know only a central idea, result,
theorem, or the methods employed, with bibliographical information for later
reference, but finds that a short course in unneeded detail is required to get to it."
Little attention
has been given to this problem of assimilation, other than a heightened
emphasis on "speed reading". It would seem that much is to be gained by looking at the
ability of the graphics devices discussed above to provide structured diagrams and
displays in which a deliberate attempt is made to use inter face programs (possibly
selected according to the presentation preference of the user) to provide a high degree of
iconicity. Relationship structures as displayed should bear a strong relationship to the
relationship between the knowledge structure which has to be absorbed as a gestalt for
learning to take place (20).
In parallel
columns below, an attempt is made to clarify the distinction between a
hypothetical knowledge-oriented system, now technically feasible, and the current
approach. The intention is not to imply that the former should replace the latter but rather to
show that the former offers various means of avoiding some of the key problems faced by the
latter - the two are however complementary. The distinction is basically between integration or
fragmentation in the handling of information.
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PRESENT:
Document/Information System
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FUTURE:
Knowledge-representation System
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Index tends to
be based on simple hierarchy or
alphabetic listing of subject, author and title, which
can be handled on catalogue cards. Budgetary
constraints usually prevent widespread
introduction of sophisticated classification and
cross- referencing techniques.
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"Index
" constitutes a complex network giving
a representation of entities and relationships
and the dynamics of any points under debate.
This complexity can only be handled by
multidimensional computer techniques. Cross-
references are necessarily inserted by the
author to define the location of his innovation.
Others may be inserted automatically,
optionally, or experimentally by computer.
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Users want rapid
access to documents; the index
is a temporary inconvenience to gain access to a
document.
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Users want rapid
access to the "network
index" which represents the needed items of
knowledge and their relationships; documents
are a temporary inconvenience only used if it is
necessary to re-examine data and detailed
arguments justifying the entities and
relationships incorporated (Document access is
a secondary problem for which a
documentation system may be used.)
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Access to knowledge
via documents means
multiple reproduction and transfer of documents to
a variety of libraries where they may or may not
be used.
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Access to knowledge
is direct and does not
require reproduction and transfer of
documents. (Only one copy of the document
justifying the amendment need exist on
microfiche so that copies need only be
prepared when the data and arguments must
be re- examined in detail)
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Out-of-date, rejected,
low quality, false, old
documents are retained in the system and indexed
with no index indication of their status.
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Out-of-date,
rejected, false, etc. entities or
relationships may be eliminated from the
system by listing them on paper, microfilm, or
other "documents" with the bibliographical
source from which they were obtained (ie they
are available if required but do not clog the
system).
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Only the knowledge
held in the documents
physically available at that location is accessible.
The index frequently only indicates the documents
held in the documentation centre in question.
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All knowledge
is on-line, although the
supporting documents may not be physically
accessible without delay.
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Research is conducted
primarily using documents,
notes and file cards as a stimulus to creativity.
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Research is
conducted primarily using the
knowledge-representation structure (i e. the
graphical representation) as a stimulus to
creativity. Private and tentative amendments
can be made experimentally, shared
electronically with selected colleagues, and
then destroyed, stored or released
electronically to a wider audience. The authors
"notes and file cards" can be effectively
integrated into the system to facilitate his
thinking processes.
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Different styles
of documents are produced on the
same topic for research, education, public
information and propaganda, program
management, policy making, etc., purposes. The
same material is repeated, with some extensions
and some omissions, for each audience. This leads
to a "spastic" or "aphasic" response to new
situations, by different portions of society due to
delays in production of the documents for different
audiences and to significant variations in the
importance given by the authors to different items
of information.
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The entities
and relationships entered on the
basis of research insights are also used for
other purposes. Instead of producing different
documents and reprocessing the insights,
different identified "filters" are used in
presenting or displaying the entities and
relationships to different audiences. In this
way, each new research insight is immediately
incorporated into each other form of
knowledge-representation; each portion of
society works from the same data base.
(Problems registered by non-research bodies
are immediately evident as a challenge to
research.) In this way if an element of
knowledge represented cannot be understood,
the user merely calls for a new method of
representation (of the same knowledge)
possibly using isomorphs (or even analogies)
from a domain with which he is familiar. (At
any point he can move into a programmed
learning mode and be instructed with simpler
representations or work from an area of
knowledge with which he is familiar.)
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Each new document
must carry a lot of verbal
packaging to explain and define the context within
which innovative elements are introduced. Such
contextual material is repeated by each author
concerned with that domain of knowledge. There
is no guarantee that the rephrasing of earlier
arguments (necessary for status and copyright
reasons) will constitute an improvement facilitating
greater comprehension (rather than inhibiting it).
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The author need
only enter the specific entities
or relationships which constitute his
innovation. (Since the academic's status is
bound up with his specific modifications to the
knowledge structure and not the verbalizations
held in a document, the problem of adequate
verbalization may be handled separately.
Hopefully a limited number of skilled verbal
presentations, from a minimum number of
different perspectives and literary styles, could
be constantly updated by professional writers
using the best verbal arguments by any
appropriate academic or communicator.)
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Articles retain
permanently their total length and
degree of encumbrance to the document system.
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Articles may
retain their full length only for a
period of days before being shortened or
stripped (by computer) of explanatory matter
and represented as a network of concepts - or
simply stored on microfilm or erased.
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Alternative concepts
or contradictory evidence
published elsewhere can be conveniently ignored
in a document or textbook—particularly where the
counter argument comes from another discipline
(or a school of thought publishing in a different
language). The risk of explicit published criticism is
low in many fields, therefore the degree of support
for (or criticism of) any particular element in a
document remains unclear.
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Alternative
concepts, relationships or
contradicting evidence are immediately forced
on one's attention - even in the case of
relationships linking to other disciplines. The
degree of support for (or criticism of) any
particular element is clearly evident. Members
of qualified professions may "vote" on
particular amendments to the knowledge
structure which is their concern.
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Interdisciplinary
links are ignored if the author has
no interest in them. As a result there is no built-in
process within the documentation system which
encourages integrative studies to counter-balance
the further fragmentation of knowledge. Integrative
studies have low status, being equated with
educational texts, general reviews and journalism.
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Interdisciplinary
links are already held in
position whether the author wants to ignore
them or not. Integration of isolated items of
knowledge into higher orders of synthesis is
facilitated and may be undertaken
experimentally, selectively and largely by
computer program {searches may be made for
various degrees of isomorphism between
concept structures in different domains).
Integrative innovations acquire a high status
as a means of comprehending wide domains of
knowledge and controlling the associated
information.
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The documentation
system does not permit
panoramic summary of any permanent
representation of knowledge in a particular
domain.
Each verbal summary
extant at a particular
moment is under criticism and subject to reserves
from different schools of thought within the
discipline or in other disciplines. In this important
respect a document arising from a single group of
authors can never contain the totality of views in a
domain of knowledge. Only the non-concretized
interaction between a succession of documents
approximates to it. These invisible qualifiers on any
document are a feature of the "collective mentality"
of the members of the discipline. The knowledge
of the discipline at any moment is very much in
(and between) the minds of its members rather
than on paper or in a row of books.
The forum of academic
debate is concretized in a
scattering of journal articles and other documents.
There is little interaction between the journals but
the debate is somewhat summarized in the various
collections of abstracts in which the contents index
gives some indication of the interventions on
related topics.
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Each entity
link and qualification is indicated
in the knowledge-representation system. In
effect one "layer" of the "collective mentality"
of a discipline is rendered visible. Each
modification to knowledge in the domain can
be entered on an hour-by-hour basis.
The knowledge-representation
system
constitutes a "thinking forum" in which the
juxtaposition of relevant ideas from all sources
is maximized. The researcher can expose
himself to a pattern of theoretical formulations
in the process of being continually improved,
and to which he can contribute. Concepts and
relationships can be "registered " by postcard,
but more dynamic possibilities are increasingly
available. A dozen or more specialists in a
particular field {the "invisible college" for that
topic) can contribute simultaneously to work
on ideas being written on one "mental note
pad " via electronic dialogue support systems
which help them to respond to each other's
ideas {even if they are a continent apart) with
a rapidity that allows each of them to maintain
thinking momentum.
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Thinking momentum
is constantly interrupted when
access to new documents is required. (Long
delays, 2 - 3 months, are normal; 50 months or
more from initiation of research to appearance in
abstracts.)
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Thinking momentum
is maintained since the
essence of any new domain of knowledge is
always accessible - all the links and entities are
there {delays are measured in seconds for data
links).
{This mode of
operation should be compared
with some discussions between academics
interested in the same topic in which progress
is frustrated because if someone thinks of a
good idea he wants to "publish " it (to gain
credit) before contributing to the thinking
momentum of his colleagues - this may mean a
delay of months)
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Author has "published"
when document is in
circulation and "available"; index entries are of little
significance to the author. Texts must be at least
several pages in length before they are considered
"documents" worthy of registration in an
information system. The documentation system is
embarrassed when faced with obtaining
"ephemeral" or "phantom" material which has not
been made commercially available through the
normal publishing channels.
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Author has "published"
when the appropriate
knowledge structure in the "index " has been
modified; incorporation in "index " (through a
terminal) is of highest priority for the author.
Acceptable amendments to the knowledge
structure can be as little as a single line of text
in length, or simply the indication of a
relationship between existing, but hitherto
unrelated, items of knowledge. Even in the
course of rapid change to the knowledge
structure the paternity of each emerging
formulation is identified and registered (if the
author so desires).
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Author's status,
credibility, pride and interest are
primarily associated with visible documents on
library shelves and only secondarily with the
research community's collective judgment on their
value. The documentation problem is aggravated
by the "publish or perish" code which governs
much of academic life. Unless an academic
produces a document he is "invisible" and loses
status.
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Author's status,
credibility, pride and interest
are associated with the visible entities and
links in the graphic representation accessible
to all. By switching emphasis to the specific
entities and relationships which the academic
has formulated, successfully confirmed or
criticized - his status is determined by the
bonds and entities with which he is associated.
Each of his contributions is "visible" until it is
superseded. They are not subject to the
vagaries of document distribution patterns and
the journal referee system.
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The key figures
in a discipline and the relationships
between their spheres of influence are unclear.
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The "luminaries"
in a particular discipline are
all visible together with the relationships
between their spheres of influence.
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The direction of
research is governed in part by
shifting fashions of credibility, status and politically
determined funding (e.g. "environment",
"resources", "population") which obscure the basic
knowledge structure. This is only partly evident in
print but is controlled by an ongoing informal
dialogue centred upon the elders of the discipline
who legitimate consideration of particular entities
and relationships.
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It is quite
evident which issues are currently
under debate and the manner in which the
demise of a set of entities and relationships will
weaken the status of a whole set of dependent
elements. Current fashions would not obscure
the basic knowledge structure. Ideally the
system would also act as a continually updated
voting board for each element, providing an
opportunity for members of the profession to
indicate their approval, whilst at the same time
providing an appropriate focus for counter-
arguments and alternatives.
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The world's publishing
and purchasing capacity,
and the consequent necessity for the journal
referee system and increasing costs, limits
arbitrarily (and in many cases inequitably) the
number and variety of viewpoints which can be
expressed on any subject. The nature of the
referee system leads to an inhibition of innovation.
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The reduction
of the volume of text required to
"carry" any conceptual innovation, and the
integration of the referee and editorial system
at the computer level permits a greater number
and variety of viewpoints and more subtle and
equitable mechanisms for the expression of
peer-group support or criticism.
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Considerable intellectual,
administrative and
technical investments are made in achieving a
unified standard of classification and description
which determine the structural specifications of
information systems. Relationships between
different standardized schemes of this type are not
facilitated nor are experiments with amendments
or alternatives to any particular scheme.
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The information
is handled in a very flexible
format. A choice may be made at any time
between a variety of classification schemes.
Some of these may be universal schemes,
others may be specialized, and others may be
experimentally employed by the user.
Considerable use is made of computer power
to switch between classification schemes and
to restructure them {tentatively) in the light of
new insights and relationship coding schemes.
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Interrelated modes
Briefly the requirement
appears to be that users should be offered the possibility of:
The main purpose
of this facility is to enable users to "hang" significant data elements onto
memorable artistic representations which can be massaged and augmented over time to carry
higher levels of ordered complexity. Features could be developed to enhance the ability of the
user to reflect selected relational links between data elements into the features of the artistic
representation. The software itself might be used to offer options to the user for "hanging"
a
range of data elements (files, programmes, relationships, images, etc) on an aesthetically
dimensioned display.
Open environment
The package envisaged
is not intended as a closed or over- defined environment. Rather it is a
tool that grows and adapts according to the development of the user's artistic and conceptual
skills over the years. In a sense the artistic representations are selected and crafted by the user
into a personalized knowledge display in order to embody the full range of issues with which he
is dealing. Aesthetic priorities would be used to configure together apparently incommensurable
insights, where any conventional classification would be unable to provide such integration.
Clearly those with
less artistic competence may draw on libraries of complex artistic figures (or
have them specially crafted by specialists). These may be used as such or modified at will (as in
many standard packages). Information may however be "fed" into (or onto) them by the user
(possibly with the assistance of a consultant specialist -- a future role in the knowledge ordering
sciences).
Over time the user
would effectively be equipped with a highly personalized interface to the
complex of data elements with which he deals -- effectively a personal "insight mirror". Personal
preferences and challenges would govern whether this interface, like the decoration of a room
or house, changed frequently or seldom. The package would not confine the user to a single
representation. The same data might be hung onto one or more alternate artistic
representations, each with their own advantages.
Conceptual keystones
Many documents
of fundamental importance to patterns of collaboration within societies,
organizations and groups (or even to an individual's creative processes) are based on sets of
principles, values, qualities, policies, initiatives or other points (eg declarations, charters,
action plans). These are usually listed out as a numbered sequence, possibly with nested sub-
points. The conventional method of producing such documents favours (and reinforces) linear
thinking at a time when non-linear, contextually- oriented approaches are often believed to be
more appropriate to ensure higher levels of integration amongst the elements of the set.
The software required
would aim to facilitate the ability to envisage viable configurations of
functions based on structures more complex than those reinforced by hierarchical organization
charts and the like. It responds to the need for potential collaborators to design "conceptual
keystones" essential to the coherence and viability of unforeseen coalition possibilities in
difficult situations of governance. This contrasts with the functions of hypertext which in no way
aspires to offering integrative insights into the map of hypertext relations, even if this can be
displayed.
The assumption
made is that aesthetic representations may prove to have considerable
advantages over conventional approaches to organization of knowledge in offering
understanding of such keystones. But the relationship to such conventional representations may
be preserved. New significance might even be given to the notion of an "artifact", without
needing to coin an ugly neologism such as "artyfact".
Conceptual scaffolding
The key feature
sought from this package might be described by phrases such as "conceptual
scaffolding" and "insight capture". The progressively refined artistic representation
would serve
as a form of scaffolding for an evolving pattern of insight. The artistic dimensions provide a form
of order through many patterns of associations which may be of a most tentative and even
playful quality. Understanding and creativity are supported and challenged by the relation
between the representation and the data held by it.
As with the construction
of any building, there is a basic need for "scaffolding" to hold the
conceptual and organizational elements in place, especially during the early phases of
"imaginative, interdisciplinary" interconnection. It may be argued that it is the lack
of this
scaffolding feature which prevents many potentially useful initiatives from "getting off the
ground" -- and staying up. And the more complex the psych-social structure, and the more
communication space it spans, the greater the need for more complex scaffolding.
A typical function
of scaffolding in a conference is to provide a framework within which
complementary perspectives can be articulated, especially when there is a major tension
between them. For example, when Concept A is formulated, the scaffolding holds a space for
Concept B to counter-balance it. Such scaffolding is even more essential when more than two
concepts have to be held in balance. As with buildings, the scaffolding provides a protection
against disruptive forces in the conference process. A typical disruptive force in a
contemporary conference might focus narrowly on "industry is exploitative", when the larger
issue is to provide a sustainable framework in which to balance the exploitative characteristics
of industry against the socio- economic benefits that it provides in the light of environmental
constraints. The more complex the balance, the more vulnerable is the conference to disruptive
forces.
The challenge
is how to allow different category structures, and the groups advocating
them, to mesh before their incompatibilities tear each other apart. This is a major issue
when dealing with the strong, creative, and often idiosyncratic, personalities (and groups)
whose collaboration is ideally required. It is seen in its most dramatic form in the Middle East
peace process and in negotiations among the warring parties in Bosnia. The apparently
disproportionate importance attached to "table layout" in any negotiation procedure is a
physical indication of the nature of the conceptual challenge.
Failure to respond
to this issue leads to project outputs whose only real integrative feature is the
physical binding of a document containing unrelateable "integrative" contributions -- however
skilfully worded the introduction may be (In German: Buchbindersynthese!).
The scaffolding
required not only has implications for elaboration of new structures. It also
supports the learning processes through which others subsequently come to grasp the scope
of such structures as viable alternatives to the simpler conventional patterns that have proven so
inadequate to the challenges of the times.
Providing means
for higher and subtler degrees of order to be carried by aesthetically organized
displays, allows otherwise incommensurable positions in conferences to be related in ways
which the present hierarchical and legalistical approaches to order render impossible. This is
also true for any emergent agreements and communication protocols. Ironically this recalls
some of the underlying functions of heraldic devices and seals that still carry significance in
secret societies.
Whether for a coalition
of forces or for an individual, the computer-held aesthetic display could
become a fundamental asset as intellectual property. It is potentially of greater value than
patents or copyright because it is effectively the generative aesthetic (or template) that holds the
pattern of insights through which products of lower order are created.
Where different
coalitions represent their respective ordering through contrasting aesthetic
displays, many opportunities then attach to the significance of the transformational pathways
between them (eg through morphing). This is of special relevance to any negotiation process.
Users
A package of this
kind would be most attractive to those who have a broad range of
interrelated interests. Typically it would respond to the needs of those who are ill-served by
normal filing systems and databases - - and find themselves constantly striving for some more
significant pattern to order the complexity with which they are dealing. It would offer few
advantages to those whose tasks are already well- defined by sets of files and conventional
relational databases.
From an "arts"
perspective the package would be most appreciated by those experimenting
with new forms with which they seek to challenge conventional approaches to organization. It
would provide an arena or bridge that would explicitly establish the relevance of the arts to the
organization and comprehension of knowledge. But clearly it would be of very limited interest
to those who are well- satisfied by more conventional software packages for artists. However it
would incidentally allow those more concerned with providing commentary on details of
specific works of art (eg symbolism) to attach text comments to any portions of a picture for
later user interrogation.
Diversity of user preferences
It should not be
expected that users would in general favour one art form over another. For the
package to be of value it would have to respond to the needs of users with quite different
artistic tastes -- including individuals who might alternate between different forms. Five
extremes might be considered as examples:
-
(a) Free form:
Here the user would employ an idiosyncratically composed
combination of shapes and colours (typical of any novice user of drawing packages).
Relatively little would be invested in a particular figure, and frequent changes and
adjustments would be expected in order to contain the range of data elements. As with
maps of a fantasy land, features would be added or eliminated as required. Emphasis is
placed on the familiarity the user acquires from having made it himself.
- (b) Classic designs: Here the user
would typically make use of a well-known, or
favourite, painting as a template onto which to hang the data elements. Existing
software tools (including "morphing") could be applied to enable the user to transform
the image in different ways, but with the expectation that the relationships between the
attached data elements would be maintained through the transformation.
- (c) Geometric symmetry: Here the
user would select from a library of geometric
forms in two (polygons), three (polyhedra), or more dimensions. A form of adequate
complexity would be offered and/or chosen as a function of the number of data
elements to be held in relationship. Typically these would be associated with differently
coloured points, lines, areas, possibly with particular attention to symmetry features
(great circles, poles, etc). Advantage might be taken of the inter- transformability of
symmetric polyhedra to explore zooming between different levels of complexity, with
the data clustered more coarsely or more finely according to level of complexity (on the
associated polyhedron).
- (d) Rotatable spherical surface:
For example, data might be distributed over the
surface of a sphere articulated into (coloured) zones by the projection of a symmetric
polyhedron onto it. The concept is very simple. The globe is cut up into segments by
lines (possibly based on regularly polyhedral projections onto the sphere). The user
then simply links lines, intersections or areas to directories or files, possibly zooming
into parts of the surface to get more structural detail onto which to hang such links.
Clicking onto any part of the surface then brings up file name and/or content. The
advantage of this approach is that the user is responsible for the "geography" of the
surface and can redesign it according to need or fantasy -- even using freehand islands
and continents. The globe then holds the full range of the user's concerns. The user is
free to introduce as many integrative and mnemonic dimensions as seem appropriate.
This seems very do-able and way ahead of the way users are all obliged to structure
our many areas of interest in computer files. Hierarchical sets of directories and sub -
directories become severely counter-productive after a certain point. The user can
rotate the sphere, zooming between alternate polyhedral projections, to focus in on the
location of details. The use of such a device can perhaps be understood as "pigeon-
holes" distributed in a non- linear but organized fashion over the surface of sphere.
Each feature offers the ability to store data, but the modifiable non-linear geometry of
the whole offers new ways to contextualize and understand the relationship between
such data elements. Known systemic feedback loops might for example be associated
with pathways around the surface.
- (e) Music: The above cases all rely
on essentially static forms. It is probable that some
forms of complexity can only be effectively understood through a dynamic relationship
between artistic forms subject to cyclic transformation over time. In this sense music
introduces a fourth, and possibly fifth, dimension -- whilst maintaining the
comprehensibility of the whole.
Related frames of reference
The envisaged package
may be seen as combining initiatives already explored and justified in
other contexts:
-
(a) Computer-aided
design (CAD): There is much experience with CAD packages
which have many features of interest to this new initiative. However CAD packages
treat artistic features as a consequence of design rather than as essential to the
comprehension of the whole. Although skilled at manipulating complex forms and
linking them to databases (on materials, suppliers, etc), complexity is essentially
handled by machine rather than calling for new approaches to comprehension.
- (b) Spatial metaphors in computer environments:
This is a central concern to some
features of software development and interface design as is illustrated by a recent
ACM-ECHT workshop on spatial metaphors for information systems (Edinburgh,
1994).
- (c) Multi-media: It is unnecessary
to make detailed comments on the way in which
these techniques are now developing rapidly, or on the arguments made for them. It is
however necessary to point out that the approach advocated here emphasizes
"embedding" one form of representation within another rather than relying on the
association or juxtaposition of text with relevant illustrations (or sound) as in multi-
media. Indeed the "illustration" selected by a user in this project may have absolutely no
subtantive relationship to the content that it holds. Although its underlying pattern may
be fundamental, as a metaphor, to any higher conceptual integration of the elements so
related.
- (d) "Memory palaces":
There is a long tradition of mnemonic aids (Luria, Spence,
Yates). The mnemonic challenge has been obscured in recent decades because of
increasing reliance on paper and computer environments. The challenge of holding
configurations of information in memory, as a platform for higher orders of creativity,
nevertheless remains where the linear context needs to be transcended. Embedding
information onto memorable surfaces is an old skill which has been most recently
studied in relation to those with unusual memory and calculating skills (notably idiot
savants).
- (e) Symmetry: Major cross-disciplinary
studies have shown symmetry to be both
ubiquitous and fundamental to organization in many areas. Work on this topic has not
yet been related through computers to that of the organization of knowledge.
- (f) Computer games: Considerable
resources are currently invested in sophisticated
computer games - - far more than in any innovative use of computers for knowledge
organization. Many of these games endeavour to offer the exploration of complex,
multi- plane, realities that require the solution of challenging conceptual and symbolic
puzzles. The newer ones increasingly place considerable emphasis on artistic quality (eg
Myst). A common feature is the ability of the user to "interrogate" parts of any image
(symbols, drawers, etc) for clues enabling the user to then continue his exploration. The
interrogation may result in the display of text or symbols. The architecture may be
decorated so as to offer clues as to where such interrogation may be fruitfully made.
- (g) Virtual reality environments:
Although of immediate relevance to standalone-PC
and Internet environments, it is clear that a package of this kind is equally relevant to
virtual reality environments. Indeed it is the special combination of artistic and database
information that could make such a package of unique importance in opening up new
virtual reality applications -- for a technology that is more likely to be constrained by
lack of applications than other constraints.
The similarity to virtual reality applications under development may be seen
from a
recent UK innovation which converts engineering drawings of oil rigs into a walk-
through virtual reality environment. At any point in the walk-through, portions of the
architectural display may be interrogated to bring up technical information.
But again the emphasis in the required package is on the ability to "walk
through"
conceptual environments whose complexity is such that it can only be approximated by
creative visualization using the full riches of the arts. This is way beyond the scope of
mechanistic configurations of piping -- and yet as a piece of "art" such a configuration
could indeed serve to "carry" much knowledge that might be quite unrelated to the
pipework.
Range of applications
The major emphasis
in each of the following cases is to enable the user to articulate a complex
pattern whilst maintaining a sense of coherence and ensuring a configuration of functional
checks and balances.
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 C.
STRUCTURAL OUTLINER The package as
described might usefully be associated with another feature. "Text outliner" is a
term used in word- processing packages to describe the ability to organize complex documents
into nested hierarchies of chapters, sections, paragraphs and sub-elements. These hierarchies
may be optionally "collapsed" to allow the user to focus on those levels of interest and to
navigate around a complex document. Text may be added at any level, but kept from view until
requested. An index to the whole may be prepared from the outline down to whatever level of
detail is required.
The proposed package
in many ways functions as a structural equivalent to the text outliner.
Hence the expression "structural outliner". Users are free to zoom between levels of structural
complexity (as in CAD applications) -- each with text or other information associated with their
structural features.
The package envisaged
suggests the need for a computer- based structural "outliner" to
facilitate a non-linear approach to the creative production of such "conceptual
keystones". The need for a more integrative approach may be seen in the occasional
efforts to group conceptual elements, basic to a strategy, into a table, a pie-chart, a
diagram, or even into a form of mandala. Although currently simplistic, the structure
provides an integrative perspective that links a variety of disparate, but
complementary, elements that together ensure the viability of the larger pattern.
The required package
therefore focuses initially on the design of computer software (possibly
adapting an existing package) for which an appropriate database is then developed in
collaboration with a number of bodies. The intention is then to use these tools to provide a
"catalytic context" from which new patterns of group and institutional action could
emerge.
The principal output would not therefore be any form of "report" but rather a piece of software
(possibly a prototype). It is the dissemination of this software, ultimately through commercial
channels, which would enable many people to explore the tool as a "collaboration enhancing"
device. In this sense the real objective of the package is new forms of collaboration. In
subsequent use the database would be receptive to user- enhancement, notably to patterns of
concepts from non- western cultures.
It is envisaged
that such a PC-based structural outliner would be used in a manner somewhat
similar to the conventional text outliners and mind mapping aids. However the software would
offer many ways of configuring the evolving set of elements within a variety of non-linear
structural frameworks, whether in two or three dimensions. The geometric and symmetric
properties of these would be used to suggest levels of coherence and integration absent from
conventional presentations.
Its claim to originality
would lie in its ability to open up (and mid-wife) new and alternative
patterns of collaboration -- especially across discipline and faction boundaries. In creating this
device, the purpose of inter- institutional collaboration would be to enrich its scope (as
represented by the database) and explore opportunities it opened up (specifically in relation to
institutional arrangements for sustainable development).
In the light of
a number of collaborative international exercises (and notably the design of a
collaborative process culminating in the Inter-Sectoral Dialogue in Rio de Janeiro on the
occasion of the Earth Summit), it is legitimate to consider whether there is not a strategically
more appropriate approach to encourage imaginative, interdisciplinary work of relevance to the
policy
Scaffolding possibilities
Many of the geometric
operations basic to fruitful exploration of such a structural outliner are
detailed in a classic study by Robert Williams: The Geometrical Foundation of Natural
Structure; a source book of design (New York, Dover, 1979). Part 3 of that work details 10
principal methods through which polygons and polyhedra can be generated or have identity
changes. These include: vertex motion, fold, reciprocation, truncation, rotation- translation,
augmentation- deletion, fistulation, distortion, dissection, symmetry integration. It is such
operations which are required to explore transformations between structures whose features
are used to carry the conceptual (and even symbolic) significance basic to any new patterns of
collaboration.
Structurally an
agenda or a conference programme, even a multi-track program, is rather
simple -- even simplistic -- especially when considered in relation to the complex ecology of
problems and organizations which are supposedly to be interrelated effectively through it. Is it
any wonder that conferences are relatively ineffective at coming to grips with complex issues?
What is being attempted is in defiance of Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety.
The issue is therefore
how to enable users to collectively design more complex forms of
conceptual scaffolding to hold in place embryonic or unstable concepts until other concepts can
be fitted into the pattern to lock them into place. Ideally, of course, it is the conferencing
software which should provide such scaffolding. And, like the scaffolding for buildings, it should
be adjustable to different structural configurations as the building grows.
Four forms of scaffolding
are especially interesting: symmetrical structures; tensegrity structures;
resonance hybrids; embedding data in images.
Dynamic scaffolding and structural transformation
The need for conceptual
scaffolding is clear given the kinds of complexity with which society
has to work. The challenge of making the more complex structures comprehensible is also clear
-- those most appropriate to the challenge of sustainable development may be beyond the
ability of any single human mind to grasp. But any form of development implies structural
transformation. Whilst transforming simplistic structures like conference agendas and
organization charts may pose little challenge, the transformation of the complex structures
described earlier are quite another matter.
The process of
conceptual or social transformation appears to call for a form of dynamic
scaffolding which provides some form of continuity -- from stage to stage -- through the
transformation process. What we are looking for is a form of scaffolding onto which the
conference's insights can be mapped at Stage I. The relationships in this mapping would then be
stretched or changed in the transformation to Stage II, which might be some very different kind
of structure -- suggesting new kinds of relationships between the concepts so bound (and
between their proponents in the conference).
There are few examples
of this kind of structure: image transformation or "morphing"; vector
equilibrium.
"Structural outliner" library
Of greater potential
interest is the possibility of building up and maintaining a structural library of
concepts organized into sets. Whether in cultural or spiritual traditions, or in the theories of the
natural and social sciences, there are a multitude of clearly defined sets of concepts. These
range from religion (eg 3-fold trinity, 8- fold way), psychology (eg 4-fold Jungian types), to
chemistry (8- group periodic table), and the principles of many international programmes of
action.
The user would
be able to draw upon a library of such structural templates based on symmetric
or aesthetically balanced designs whether: tables (matrices) in 2D and 3D; polygons;
polyhedra; or tensegrities; traditional forms (mandalas, etc).
In each case there
is merit for a user to be able to scan through a library on the basis of:
The user can then
select the set and/or the form as a basis for the organization of his own data.
Note that it could be fed into some more comprehensive display as a detail that is accessible by
zooming.
An associated thesaurus
would be designed to provide facilities beyond those usually provided
by such a function in a word-processing environment:
-
(a) Complements:
Its main function would be to facilitate selection of complementary
sets of terms, depending on the size of the set with which the user was working. With
respect to a single element set, the synonym function is all that is called for. As usual,
synonyms and antonyms are required for what amounts to two element sets. But what
is also required is the ability to process items in 3-part, 4- part sets.
(b) Broader / Narrower: The thesaurus would also be used to enable identification
of
terms corresponding to broader or narrower terms, especially the contextual terms
appropriate to the set as a whole.
-
(c) Traditional
sets: This feature would enable users to browse relevant traditional
sets of differing numbers of elements corresponding to the size of the set being worked
(tertiaries, quaternaries, etc).
- (d) Academic sets: This feature
would offer access to sets elaborated in contemporary
academic studies.
- (e) User modified: The user would
of course need to be able to amend the thesaurus
in the light of specialized interests and evaluation of the library versions. The user would
build up a library of complementary sets reflecting his/her specialized concerns and
sense of the balance between the elements.
Restructuring
(by rules, by library,
or by indications)
Many features could
be developed in the light of existing packages to restructure displays,
maintaining the relationships to data. They might include:
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D. IMPLEMENTATION AND PRACTICALITIES
It is clearly possible
to design and produce such a package without reference to existing
packages. This could prove to be expensive and inappropriate, especially for a demonstration
package.
Given the number
of features common to other existing applications, there could be
considerable merit in adapting or "piggy-backing" on such initiatives.
There is also merit
in reflecting on the possibility of specifically designing the package as an
interface to other packages. In the simplest case it might be of immediate value as an interface
through which to order a complex set of word-processing documents that would normally be
held in a nested hierarchy of sub- directories.
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 4. Conclusion The above section
attempts to give an understanding of the special characteristics of the
knowledge- handling environment which will be increasingly accessible, if only to those in
privileged institutions. For whilst there are few technical and economic constraints to prevent
such an environment becoming widely accessible, it is probable that this will be obstructed by
socio-political factors, including recognition of vulnerability to abuse and government control.
On the other hand, there is some probability that government agencies will come to favour and
promote the widespread existence of such a system as permitting a sophisticated improvement
over telephone surveillance of intellectuals and social change agents.
Whatever the general
outcome, it is highly probable that such environments will be developed
for creative thinkers in key research disciplines and policy environments and for the
conferences and institutions in which they interact. The key to the attractiveness for them of
such (micro)environments is the manner in which the processes of thinking and communication
are blended with those of storage, retrieval, classification and reclassification. In fact it is the
intimate relationship between shared creative thinking and exploratory integrative
reclassification in the light of new insights that is the chief feature of such environments. Of
special interest is the manner in which the processes of:
-
analysis,
- conceptual innovation (and its verbal representation),
- explanatory comment,
- linkage to related initiatives,
- abstracting,
- classification,
- dissemination, and
- peer-group assessment
effectively blur
together into a new and more dynamic process whose nature remains to be
explored and for which the current division of labour is inadequate.
It is unlikely
that any encyclopedic system based on large amounts of textual information will be
as practical or significant as the dynamic, multi-perspective, participative system outlined
here—although there may be points of contact between the two approaches.
It is interesting
that the right note was sounded by the US National Academy of Sciences
Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication (SATCOM) in 1969 when it was
stated that: "More exciting than retrieval of information from a static store is evolutionary
indexing, in which user's modifications, restructuring and critical commentaries steadily improve
the initial indexing. . ."
The challenge for
those active in the field of classification will be to provide their proposed
schemes or amendments as computer program packages or optional modules which can be
easily employed in such environments in order for the user to be able to restructure (possibly
only temporarily) the data base with which he is working to perceive it in an alternative light.
Hopefully this would lead to improvements in the ability to classify and enhance comprehension
of inter- and trans-disciplinary concepts (21, 22, 23). |
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1. Art | Fitting Together
