THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net



Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:41:27 -0800

03 00050 61 07122002




Mr. Jack Park
CALO Project
SRI International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
..
Subject:   Tools of Cooperation Everything Connected to Make Sense of Anything

Dear Jack,

Thanks very much for feedback, noted in Tools for Cooperation as foundational to good management.
..
Here are some further comments... December 20, 2007
Jack Park wrote:
> Rod,
>
> On the web, you ask
>> Is the
>> GI0447 - reference to "Tools for Cooperation" part of that review process?
>
..
Thanks for the line number (GI0447) to the record on 071113 which provides context for your comments.
..
Absent a link, line numbers enable folks to go look at what you saw that orients your comments. ..
December 20, 2007
Jack Park wrote:
>
> In some sense, that paper is a part of my literature review. Know this:
> I do not use the term "alphabet technology"; it's a bit too abstract
> for my audience and thinking.
>
..
So, then you did not submit the paper on Tools for Cooperation to follow up on the action item in your letter on 011208 to review concepts and implications of "alphabet technology" for advancing intelligence support explained in POIMS. ..
December 20, 2007
Jack Park wrote:
>
> In terms of what I think about what SDS is about, I plainly see
> it as a personal subject map; nothing more, nothing less. That
> you happen to wire subjects up in the particular fashion you
> have chosen is, itself, worthy of review in my work. There are
> certainly other ways to wire up the same subjects. In fact,
> were you to craft a subject map platform instead of a
> custom-built file-based system you are describing, you
> would open the market to your product for many other purposes.
>
..
Just guessing because when someone offers a description it may be accurate for a particular context. My sense is that "subject map" is an important part of SDS, noted in POIMS; however, the more important part is the "plan, perform, report" process that augments intelligence, explained in POIMS.
..
Then there is the baseline structure for routinely organizing the record so everything is in the right place at the right time, as Morris noted on 010425 and so everything does not wind up getting filed under "miscellaneous," noted in your letter on 070729. These elements applied with complementary functions make it possible to create connections called out by Bush (1945), and Engelbart (000405), but which have proved (I keep wanting to say "proven" but the spell checker keeps telling me I'm wrong - such a troubling thought) difficult to accomplish with other tools, discussed in the "Tools for Cooperation" paper, and noted earlier by Murry Altheim on 020820. ..
December 20, 2007
Jack Park wrote:
>
> You speak to some sense of charm in the "networks using open source
> development." I suspect that it frequently can be a mistake to think
> otherwise, to continually reinvent the wheel, the rocking chair, and
> the saw horse. Those puppies are already out there in just about
> every implementation strategy and OSS license you can imagine: why
> you even consider rolling your own in the face of such opportunity
> is beyond my grasp.
>
..
I concur with caution to avoid "reinventing the wheel," as seen from review on 000324 when Lee Iverson made this point during a meeting at SRI.
..
Hopefully, we can visit before too long so you can demonstrate how other tools can accomplish context management in SDS, as set out in POIMS.
..
The real question is what does the "wheel" for context management do? What does it empower people to do better than with native intelligence? What does the organic structure of context look like if you opened a human mind and displayed the billions of connections? ..
December 20, 2007
Jack Park wrote:
>
> If you take a look at the apache solr project, you'll see a
> fully-indexed schema-based engine that serves both desktop and
> web applications. It strikes me that you could pretty easily
> craft the SDS records as you presently understand them into
> solr schema and get on with your project.
>
..
I admit to being cautious about using a "fully-indexed schema-based engine" to accomplish SDS tasks, especially looking at work product from folks that shows no evidence of actual access to the record. What you are describing may be useful. Can you demonstrate these tools in operation? How long have you been using it?
..
I'm working in the cafeteria at UCSF on Divisadero. Mil just walked in from treatment upstairs, so we are out of here.

Look forward to everyone's thoughts on Tools for Coordination.

Sincerely,



Rod Welch
rodwelch@pacbell.net
..
Copy to:
  1. EXT-Johnson, Garold L"