Results of the Minciu Sodas laboratory for caring about thinking.

Recently updated: Stephen Bonzak answers: What does he really care about? April 13th, questionnaire: What do you really care about? March 12th, ways of Loving Our Neighbors March 9th, diagram of structural intents for the Mindset standard February 27th.

Under Construction

Andrius Kulikauskas: We have a system of twelve archives where we collect data for our work, subjective answers to interesting questions, all in the public domain. I am reviewing the structure of these twelve archives. I would like to make them available for collaborative accumulation.

What are general principles that I'd like to introduce? I'd like the data to be organized by question. In other words, our archives should be a system of questions to which we are collecting answers. Also, I would like questions to have subject components, that is what is especially interesting to consider. For example, it means nothing to ask, What are tools for thinking? if we don't take any stand as to what it means to support thinking, or interpretation as to whether a particular tool actually does that.

Our archives address our four goals: We clarify reasons for thinking, we provide tools for thinking, we develop structures for thinking, and we promote formats for thinking.

Why are We Thinking?
We Clarify Reasons for Thinking. Reasons for Thinking. The kinds of thinking, and what each kind yields. Features of Reasons for Thinking. Sets of options that thinking raises, and the issues each set deals with. Our director's collection of the structures of life. Uses of Reasons for Thinking. Domains of thinking, and what in each domain is considered creative. Questionnaire: What is definitely creative?

How are We Thinking?
We Provide Tools for Thinking. Tools for Thinking. Tools for thinking, and the faculties of thought they support. Our collection of tools for thinking. Features of Tools for Thinking. Features of tools that support thinking, and how these features support thinking. Questionnaire: Who helped me think? Uses of Tools for Thinking. Projects of thinkers, and what they reflect about the needs of thinkers. Questionnaire: What do I really care about?

What are We Thinking?
We Develop Structures for Thinking. Structures for Thinking. Ways of structuring information, and the associated organizing principles. Features of Structures for Thinking. Effects of structure on thinking, and what these effects determine about a general format for information. Uses of Structures for Thinking. Useful restructurings of information, and the tools and formats that each such restructuring requires. Questionnaire: Do you organize your thoughts?

Are We Thinking?
We Promote Formats for Thinking. Formats for Thinking. Standards for structuring information, and ways each may be interpreted as a format for thoughts. Features of Formats for Thinking. Components of standards for structuring information, and how each might be expressed within a universal format for thoughts. Uses of Formats for Thinking. Possible applications of a universal format for thoughts, and how they might be realized through existing formats.

Why are We Thinking? We Clarify Reasons for Thinking.

Reasons for Thinking. The kinds of thinking, and what each kind yields. Corporations are valuing knowledge as an asset that they need to manage wisely. Our moral duty, however, is not to manage what we know, but to manage what we think. We control or at least influence what we think by choosing our manner of thinking: defining, guessing, doubting, calculating, and so on. Our study of the implications of various kinds of thinking will lead us to think more consciously and willfully. Of special interest to: Knowledge workers, knowledge managers.

Features of Reasons for Thinking.Sets of options that thinking raises, and the issues each set deals with. When we grapple with our own minds, we become aware of the difference between our minds and our wills. Our minds present us with options before we can choose from among them. Even so, our wills may decline to choose, and simply wait for our minds to take a different approach. Our study of the connection between the sets of options our minds offer and the issues they address should make us more critical of the role our minds play, and more aware of the spectrum of issues that our wills may respond to. Of special interest to: Designers of user interfaces, users of mobile computing devices.

Uses of Reasons for Thinking. Domains of thinking, and what in each domain is considered creative. Sculpture, surgery, music, programming, and other fields offer different understandings of what is creative. We can develop an idea by expressing it in a variety of media, such as a poetry, photography, or music, and learning from the response of our audience. If we place our work in the public domain, then we may also learn from our fellow creators. Andrius Kulikauskas presented such a strategy for developing ideas at the Mannheim Film Festival Coproduction Meetings as producer for Rimas Morkunas' documentary film "Tomas". Of special interest to: Multitalented artists, publishers for the public domain.

How are We Thinking? We Provide Tools for Thinking.

Tools for Thinking. Tools for thinking, and the faculties of thought they support. We all come up with new ideas every day. Executives, scientists, politicians, authors, and others who lead large projects need to take a global perspective on thousands of ideas. Minciu Sodas will help team them up with custom programmers who can creatively combine data bases, word processors, Internet applications, and tools from this survey. Of special interest to: Project leaders, custom programmers.

Features of Tools for Thinking. Features of tools that support thinking, and how these features support thinking. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Indiana University, and Computer Sciences Corporation are institutions with myriads of knowledge workers who want tools that match their needs and styles. What makes for a complete and harmonious set of tools for knowledge work? Of special interest to: Companies with many knowledge workers, Enterprise Application Integration solution providers.

Uses of Tools for Thinking. Projects of thinkers, and what they reflect about the needs of thinkers. In Lithuania, during the Soviet occupation, a remarkable number of thinkers worked in isolation to develop sophisticated systems of ideas. Hewlett-Packard is showing some interest in the mature needs of such thinkers. Meeting their needs is a way of preparing for future market opportunities. Of special interest to: Independent thinkers, market researchers.

What are We Thinking? We Develop Structures for Thinking

Structures for Thinking. Ways of structuring information, and the associated organizing principles. Andrius Kulikauskas worked on a program "Imintis" for structuring thousands of notes in sequences, hierarchies, and networks. He wanted to check whether there are no other ways of organizing information. This study lead to the discovery of a classification of visualizations which, in particular, applies to UML methodologies. Organizing Thoughts into Sequences, Hierarchies, and Networks, by Andrius Kulikauskas and Saulius Maskeliunas, has been included in the modeling language evaluation seminar EMMSAD'99. Further work on this study should yield a clearer theoretical understanding of how and why information gets structured. Of special interest to: Information managers, tool developers.

Features of Structures for Thinking.Effects of structure on thinking, and what these effects determine about a general format for information. Kestas Augutis had an idea for "3 Books" by which a school child could write her thoughts in a sequence to create her own chronicle, in a hierarchy to create her own thesaurus, and in a network to create her own encyclopedia. By arranging ideas in a sequence, we distinguish between the strong and the weak ideas, in a hierarchy - the broad and the narrow, and in a network - the vague and the clear ideas. Such effects let us understand what a sequence, hierarchy, and network mean with regard to the arrangement of thoughts, and how best to formalize these structures in defining a standard for notes. Andrius Kulikauskas presented a first version of such a standard to the Unified Knowledge Language work group at the January, 1999 meeting of the Knowledge Management Consortium International, and to the Infrared Mobile Computing work group at the April, 1999 meeting of the Infrared Data Association. Of special interest to: Educators, programming language creators.

Uses of Structures for Thinking. Useful restructurings of information, and the tools and formats that each such restructuring requires. Natrificial Software Technologies, www.thebrain.com, a member of the Minciu Sodas laboratory, is the maker of The Brain, software for creating and visualizing relations between items. Why and how might systems of notes be transferred to such software from Lotus Notes, HTML, Microsoft Word, and vice versa? Programmers will create converters to transfer notes to and from various software by way of a common format. Of special interest to: Software vendors, software users.

Are We Thinking? We Promote Formats for Thinking

Formats for Thinking. Standards for structuring information, and ways each may be interpreted as a format for thoughts. A thinker who writes and organizes thousands of ideas using a software program is afterwards unable to export the structure of the ideas to another program. There is a lack of a standard for the transfer of sequences, hierarchies, and networks of notes. How should such a standard be variously expressed in terms of current standards such as XML, UML, HTML, and how might the current standards be understood more broadly, as organizing thoughts, rather than data? Of special interest to: Information publishers, software makers.

Features of Formats for Thinking.Components of standards for structuring information, and how each might be expressed within a universal format for thoughts. Standards for information usually include auxiliary fields devoted to harmonizing records, for example, last update. Various standards might work better together if these auxiliary fields were understood within a broader framework. Communities of thinkers can learn from such auxiliary fields, in their search for "rules of the road" for cooperation that would discourage unhelpful discussions. Of special interest to: Community organizers, standards developers.

Uses of Formats for Thinking. Possible applications of a universal format for thoughts, and how they might be realized through existing formats. Andrius Kulikauskas presented a possible vThought standard for sequences, hierarchies, and networks of information to the Infrared Mobile Computing work group. It was suggested that he collect examples where such a standard might enrich the communication through infrared waves of various consumer appliances. Such practical examples from every day life could speed up the creation and implementation of a standard for structured notes, and help give rise to a fantasticly woven world where devices can be thought of as talking and thinking. The Infrared Data Association can implement such a standard within twelve months. Of special interest to: Consumer product makers, consumer groups.

Why are We Thinking? We Clarify Reasons for Thinking.	Reasons for Thinking. The kinds of thinking, and what each kind yields.	Features of Reasons for Thinking. Sets of options that thinking raises, and the issues each set deals with. Our director's collection of the structures of life.	Uses of Reasons for Thinking. Domains of thinking, and what in each domain is considered creative. Questionnaire: What is definitely creative?
How are We Thinking? We Provide Tools for Thinking.	Tools for Thinking. Tools for thinking, and the faculties of thought they support. Our collection of tools for thinking.	Features of Tools for Thinking. Features of tools that support thinking, and how these features support thinking. Questionnaire: Who helped me think?	Uses of Tools for Thinking. Projects of thinkers, and what they reflect about the needs of thinkers. Questionnaire: What do I really care about?
What are We Thinking? We Develop Structures for Thinking.	Structures for Thinking. Ways of structuring information, and the associated organizing principles.	Features of Structures for Thinking. Effects of structure on thinking, and what these effects determine about a general format for information.	Uses of Structures for Thinking. Useful restructurings of information, and the tools and formats that each such restructuring requires. Questionnaire: Do you organize your thoughts?
Are We Thinking? We Promote Formats for Thinking.	Formats for Thinking. Standards for structuring information, and ways each may be interpreted as a format for thoughts.	Features of Formats for Thinking. Components of standards for structuring information, and how each might be expressed within a universal format for thoughts.	Uses of Formats for Thinking. Possible applications of a universal format for thoughts, and how they might be realized through existing formats.