The Minciu Sodas laboratory

What is your favorite standard?

Survey of Standards for Representing Thoughts

As part of my investigation, Linking Locally is Thinking Globally, sponsored by TheBrain, I am collecting evidence that will be helpful in developing our preliminary standard.

I include below a rough draft of the survey for standards.  The information collected will help us understand how we can transfer information between existing standards and the standard that we are developing.  I want to design the survey so that it brings out the extent to which the standard may be used for structuring thoughts.  I also want the survey to be clear enough so that prospective members can, as membership work, find the answers to the survey for a particular standard.

I appreciate your suggestions.  Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@ms.lt


I encourage you to check with me before you complete this survey if you would like us to "reserve" a standard for you so that we do not duplicate our efforts.  Currently working on standards are: Contact them if you would like to help them.  Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@ms.lt

The survey has questions that we would like to have the answers to, although they may be difficult to collect.  Don't try too hard to complete the entire survey, as we can always invite others to help.  Please feel free to skip questions, especially in the section on general questions.  We encourage you to make use of websites, but also raise questions in appropriate discussion groups.  Please note that we will not able to share information unless it is in the public domain.  Thank you for your help!

General questions

0) What is your favorite standard? (for the purposes of this survey) and why?

1) What is the official name of the standard, and its abbreviation and unofficial names, if any?

2) What are websites with helpful information regarding the standard?

3) What standards body is responsible for developing this standard?

4) What individuals and/or enterprises are the main organizers?  Where can they be approached, in which discussion groups, at what conferences?

5) What is the purpose of this standard?  What underlying human need does it address?  What problem does it solve?  What capabilities does it add?

6) What are the key concepts that this standard introduces or makes noteable use of?

7) What is the conceptual history of this standard?  What forces - including economic and political - have affected its development, and how?

8) How is this standard related to other standards?  In particular, is the standard used to define other standards, and if so, what kinds?

9) What software tools can be used to work with information structured by the standard?
 

Questions about thoughts, assuming this standard was used or abused for the purpose of representing thoughts.

10) In what sense is the standard used, or could be used for representing thoughts?  What might be the advantages and disadvantages?

11) What entity does the standard define that might be interpreted as a thought, as an encapsulation of an idea?  (I should give additional questions that help make more clear what to look for)  Please list all entities that might play such a role.

12) What is the typical structure of that entity?  What kind of information does the entity typically store, and why?  Please include the main features, required and optional.  Please provide an example.

Questions about relationships between thoughts (the entities described above).

13) What kinds of relationships does the standard allow between thoughts?  How are they expressed?  (I should give examples of what is a relationship, what to look for, including aggregation).  Please give examples.

14) What are the global structural restrictions on the relationships? (I should give a list of structural types, and also "other")

15) What purposes, in practice, do the relationships serve?  Please give examples.

16) What means, if any, does the standard provide for defining new kinds of relationships, or new restrictions on relationships?

17) In what sense may the relationships themselves be understood to be thoughts? What features may the relationships have?

18) Your name and email:

19) May we share your answers with others?  In particular, do you retain copyright to your answers above, or do you place them in the public domain?  (Your placing them in the public domain makes it feasible for us to share them with others.)

20) Other comments:

Please send answers to Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@ms.lt  Thank you!