[topicmapmail] MindSet, standard for modeling thinking
Andrius Kulikauskas
ms@ms.lt
Fri, 03 Nov 2000 14:26:25 -0600
I've been writing about our laboratory's work on the MindSet
import/export standard for tools of organizing thoughts. Thank you for
your comments, which I have read, but not responded to all of. I want
to report that I've written a draft:
http://www.ms.lt/mindset.html
I appreciate your comments and advice.
MindSet is, first of all, a modeling language. I describe an
implementation with CSV, but I also expect we will develop a XML Topic
Maps Template.
I am especially interested in applications. One that might be
immediately useful is educational, helping to clarify the structure of
Topic Maps, RDF, groves, and other complicated standards, so that we
know how the terms are structurally related. I think MindSet can
present that information in a very simple table.
Yours,
Andrius Kulikauskas
Director
Minciu Sodas
ms@ms.lt
http://www.ms.lt
+1 (773) 586-6280 or +1 (773) 651-3785
November 1, 2000. News from the Minciu Sodas laboratory devoted to
caring about thinking. Director Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@ms.lt Public
Domain 2000.
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We want a network of tools for thinking!
We'll model our thinking with MindSet.
Modeling is for reexperiencing.
November priority: Organize around Use Cases.
1) Reach out for feedback. (See p r i z e !)
2) Expand our working group.
3) Build consensus.
4) Develop opportunity.
Welcome to our new members!
F r e e : Converter for TheBrain.
Let's talk!
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I have posted my draft of the MindSet standard,
http://www.ms.lt/mindset.html
On behalf of our working group
http://www.egroups.com/group/ourownthoughts/
I ask for your comments. Please send them to ms@ms.lt Thank you!
Andrius Kulikauskas
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We want a network of tools for thinking!
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MindSet addresses our wish to accumulate and organize our thoughts with
a variety of software tools. We want our thoughts to flourish within a
network of special purpose tools. We refuse to doom them to an
"all-purpose-tool" that ultimately gets discontinued.
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We'll model our thinking with MindSet.
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MindSet is a modeling language with which we clarify the implications of
transfering our aggregated thoughts from one tool to another. We
express each of our thoughts as a bundle of "mental levers". We
approach our thought with different mental states by using different
levers: we get immersed with Content, reflect with Prompt, jump from
thought to thought with ID, FromID, ToID, and picture our thought
globally with our structural Intent. We express all of this with a
single table, which we can manipulate as a spreadsheet. My draft
includes a CSV format. We expect to develop other formats, including
XML for Topic Maps.
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Modeling is for reexperiencing.
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The concept of Intent arose during my investigation of our belief
"Linking Locally is Thinking Globally", sponsored by TheBrain,
http://www.thebrain.com
MindSet describes conceptual expectations for eight kinds of structural
Intent: Independent Thought, Unordered Hierarchy, Nondirected Network,
Acyclic Network, Closed Sequence, Open Sequence, Directed Network,
Irregular Structure.
I pursued my investigation in the context of the Infrared Data
Association, http://www.irda.org , where I proposed to develop IrDAKiss,
a format for meaningful transfer of sequences, hierarchies and networks
of information. What I learned through IrDA is that we need to
establish a modeling language. Only then can we look for the advantages
of switching back and forth between differently organized user
interfaces.
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November priority: Organize around Use Cases.
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My priority in November is that we organize ourselves by considering,
what are the use cases of MindSet that we would like to develop?
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1) Reach out for feedback. (See p r i z e !)
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How might you use the MindSet standard? Let us know! Please write to
ms@ms.lt We offer 3 free licenses to TheBrain for the best use
cases in the month of November!
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2) Expand our working group.
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I welcome your help to reach a wider community. We wish to reach people
interested in Knowledge Management, Creativity, Mobile Computing, Topic
Maps, Ontology, Personal Information Management, Web-DAV, Conceptual
Modeling, Mind Mapping, EAI, User Interface Design, Collaborative Work.
Who else might be interested?
Would you like to use MindSet with your favorite software? Let me know
more! Write to me at ms@ms.lt We want to develop a community of tool
makers and tool users.
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3) Build consensus.
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Thank you to our members Ben Darnell, http://thoughtstream.org and
Caspar van Beek for starting discussion on our draft.
I have proposed a vision for our working group, "Sharing Our Mental
Workspace", http://www.ms.lt/ourownthoughts.html Currently we have
thirty members with a wide range of interests. We'll want to agree on a
shared vision.
Our laboratory functions as a networking club. We'll each need to
consider how we'd like to participate, and express this through use
cases we'd like to bring to life. Let's think of use cases as points of
contact between us. I want them to be the basis for the decisions we'll
need to make about the MindSet standard.
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4) Develop opportunity.
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The Minciu Sodas laboratory looks to private sponsorship as the best
source of feedback on the value of our work. I expect business
opportunity to fuel the unfolding of our network of tools for thinking.
Let's discover niches for your services. Write to ms@ms.lt
My vision is that our network will start with individuals who both use
and design tools. We should target users of MindManager,
http://www.mindmanager.com , which is a tool for applying Tony Buzan's
method of "mind mapping". MindJET has just released MindManager version
4.0, which includes robust import/export and Saxon Basic scripting. We
should also look to our open source members, such as
http://thoughtstream.org , http://www.memes.net and
http://www.openideaproject.org The latter two are great examples of
the c o l l a b o r a t i v e a c c u m u l a t i o n of
knowledge. It is rational for people to work together to accumulate
knowledge if they have the assurance that 1) they can download all of
it, using the MindSet standard, and 2) they have rights to use all of
it, which they will if contributors agree at the start that the
knowledge will belong to the public domain. The MindSet standard helps
make it rational to collaborate. I am pursuing this through the
Knowledge Management Consortium International, http://www.kmci.org , for
whom our laboratory organizes discussion You can join our discussion at
kmci@egroups.com by sending a blank message to
kmci-subscribe@egroups.com
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Welcome to our new members!
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Here are some new members of our working group, Our Own Thoughts, and
their interests:
Jeffry Archambeault, http://www.openideaproject.org ,
jarchambeault@uswest.net, Open Idea Project, Collaborative data exchange
client/server standards, through-the-web development, global cothinking,
thinking tool scalability.
Flemming Funch, http://www.worldtrans.org/ , ffunch@worldtrans.org,
Systems for sharing of structured knowledge. Mechanisms for cultivating
synergy in groups of people. Self-organization methods for humanity.
Exploring, celebrating the diversity of life.
Mark Oeltjenbruns, http://www.RhoDeca.com , marko@RhoDeca.com, Data
structures (import/export), Software projects to facilitate this type of
work, Software services that may be needed.
Lucas Gonzalez Santa Cruz, http://www.gulic.org/copensar ,
lucas@dgsp.scstf.rcanaria.es, Outline editors for one or many thinkers
(and central or distributed)
Kenneth Yu of nwis.net, http:// www.nwis.net, kenyu@nwis.net, Optimizing
data structures for any particular scenario. Creating applications
integrating MS Active Directory and SQL. Repository issues. TheBrain
SDK.
Would you like to become a member? Write to ms@ms.lt
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F r e e : Converter for TheBrain.
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Raimundas Vaitkevicius has posted his version 0.2 converter from
TheBrain to CSV:
http://www.egroups.com/message/personalbrain/187
He welcomes your comments, Raimundas_Vaitkevicius@fc.vdu.lt
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Let's talk!
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All are invited to join minciu_sodas_en@egroups.com to discuss this
newsletter, the "big picture" of our laboratory, and new endeavors to
foster caring about thinking.
Thank you for sharing our newsletter responsibly and shamelessly, along
with your opinions! Public Domain 2000.