Mobile Computing Encourages Thinking
Complement X-IRMC-FIELDS with vThought
Organizing Thoughts Promotes Thinking
Mobile Computing Promotes Organizing
Thoughts
Complement X-IRMC-FIELDS with vThought
The IrMC Provides Context
Minciu Sodas Provides Leadership
The Consequences of a Standard
Organizing Thoughts Promotes Thinking
Minciu Sodas is your laboratory for your work on your ideas. Different
kinds of writing promote different kinds of thinking.
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A sequence reveals strong and weak ideas.
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A hierarchy reveals broad and narrow ideas.
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A network reveals vague and clear ideas.
You would like to use software to organize thousands of ideas over several
years. But products get discontinued, new technologies arise, and you can't
get your ideas out. We need a standard for the import and export of sequences,
hierarchies, and networks. The standard must be philosophically sound and
economically real. Makers of PIMs are interested in mobile computing. Barry
A. Dobyns of The Windward Group suggested the IrMC.
Mobile Computing Promotes Organizing Thoughts
Mobile computing is a lifestyle, not a gadget.
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Information works on a gadget, tracks it down, feeds it data.
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We work on ideas when we reposition ourselves and restructure them.
It is becoming less important whether these ideas are expressed in text,
image, voice, or structured data.Companies are making it simpler for us
to access (Visto), synchronize (Puma, Starfish), and organize our thoughts
(Natrificial, Micro Logic).
We should be able to jot down a handful of ideas throughout the day,
and thousands of ideas throughout the year, no matter where or who we are:
executive, consultant, programmer, hobbyist, or child. There is presently
no way of organizing ideas independently of product. Externally arranging
records and internally structuring them should be two separate issues.
Complement X-IRMC-FIELDS with vThought
X-IRMC-FIELDS generalizes the work of the IrMC on sharing structured information:
vCard, vCalendar, vNote, vMessage. A vThought format could define a general
object or record.
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The vThought format would have global fields to describe the position of
a record.
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X-IRMC-FIELDS would describe the internal structure of the record.
An first proposal for a vThought format:
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One field is for unlimited text. It may be null. X-IRMC-FIELDS would
structure the information in this field.
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Another field is for the hierarchical position. It may be null, but
otherwise gives a unique position within a single well formed ordered hierarchy.
There should be no restrictions on the depth of the hierarchy or number
of branches.
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The next two fields are for the sequential position. Either may be
null. The first field uniquely identifies the sequence, and might
be coded with an integer. The second field identifies the position
within the sequence, but need not be unique, and might be coded with a
real number.
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The last three fields are for the network position. Any of these
may be null. All three could be coded with integers. The first field
is used to uniquely identify the record. The second field indicates
the record it is linking from, and the third field indicates the record
it is linking to. If the second and third field are both null, then
the text of the record describes a node of the network. If either
of them is not null, then the text of the record annotates a link within
the network. There may be multiple links between records.
A vThought format could help unify the current Levels 1 through 4.
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The Inbox in Level 1 could consist of all records with null position in
the hierarchy.
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The hierarchy could be used to import and export groups of records in Level
2.
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The hierarchy could provide the index for accessing records in Level 3.
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Any record to be synchronized in Level 4 could be related to a sequence
of changes.
A vThought format would let X-IRMC-FIELDS focus on the much more complicated
issue of the internal structure of a record, which is the basis for its
semantics. A vThought format would multiply the possibilities of synchronization
by taking care of the structure of aggregates.
| Text |
Hierarchy |
Sequence |
|
Network |
|
|
| |
|
Sequence |
Position |
Link |
From |
To |
| Item |
z1 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Note item about Mary |
z1z3 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Calendar item |
z1z3z1 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Card item |
z1z3z2 |
9 |
|
2 |
|
|
| Message item |
z1z4z3 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Changes in card |
z1zz12 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
| First change |
z1zz12z1 |
9 |
.990323 |
|
|
|
| Second change |
z1zz12z2 |
9 |
.990327 |
|
|
|
| Third change |
z1zz12z3 |
9 |
.990405 |
|
|
|
| Item in Inbox |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The IrMC Provides Context
A flat table standard for vThoughts can be expressed in many variations.
There are many standards and formats that express sequences, hierarchies,
and networks.
The IrMC has addressed the specific issues of information exchange for
personal knowledge management. The achievement in the practical context
of vCard, vCalendar, vMessage, and vNote could be the foundation for a
very general result.
Most trends in computing relieve us from having to think. Mobile
computing, as a way of life, actually encourages us to think.
| Encourage thinking |
Eliminate thinking |
Trend |
| Writing content |
Reading format |
HTML |
| Flat table |
Marked up text |
XML, RDF |
| Personal knowledge management |
Collaborative work |
Lotus Notes |
| Organize thoughts |
Organize files |
Operating system |
| Record reasons |
Record solutions |
UML |
| Arrange externally, syntactically |
Structure internally, semantically |
OKBC |
| Import and export records into standard file |
Act directly on single record |
CORBA |
| Streamline user options |
Multiply user options |
Microsoft Outlook |
| Heed user |
Secondguess user |
Microsoft Word |
| Show information |
Secure information |
Bluetooth |
| Integration of documentation |
Integration of equipment |
MAL |
Minciu Sodas Provides Leadership
The Minciu Sodas Laboratory organizes projects needed to develop a sound
standard.
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Tools for thinkers.
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Ways of organizing information.
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Standards for structuring information.
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Uses of software for deep thinkers.
The Minciu Sodas Laboratory brings people together around work in progress.An
employer can find a worker, a student can find a scholar, an entrepenuer
can find an investor, a supplier can find a customer.
The Minciu Sodas Laboratory provides custom services that give a practical
perspective.
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Custom integration of PIMs, word processors, and databases.
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Sales of heavy duty PIMs and converters to corporations.
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Public consultations.
The Consequences of a Standard
One could work with large quantities of notes. One could export
a hierarchy of information from Lotus Notes to such a standard, and then
import it to Microsoft Word outline view, to HTML, to a menu driven device,
or to a software development platform.
A standard would make possible the serious use of software for organizing
thoughts by freeing users from any particular product that may get discontinued,
such as Lotus Agenda or NetManage Ecco. Personal knowledge management
might then become a significant part of knowledge management.
The restructuring of sequences, hierarchies, and networks accounts for
the ways of visualizing information and provide a classification of UML
methodologies. The vertical integration of documentation for why
a system is the way it is, including the decisions of executives, system
developers, business rule experts, and programmers could provide a strategic
hub for Enterprise Application Integration.
A standard would encourage the transformation of user interfaces
from organizing documents to organizing thoughts. It might lead to
interfaces that balance sequences, hierarchies, and networks and present
a clearer choice of mental pictures.
Finally, a standard would be a practical first step towards a Unified
Knowledge Language for representing and transmitting knowledge.
With this intent we submitted the main ideas of this standard for discussion
at the first standards meeting of the Knowledge Management Consortium International
on January 29, 1998 in Washington, DC.