Re: SUO: RE: RE: The Story So Far
Chris --
Ian Niles wrote:
> > A natural language and subject categorization
> > scheme don't embody a single view about the way the world is; they
provide a
> > representational framework for stating and locating views about the
world.
You replied:
> Surely the whole point is that they do NOT provide a sufficiently
> accurate/formal/etc. representational framework. The problems we are
talking
> about arise when we start using a sufficiently accurate/formal/etc.
> representational framework. To slip into a Hayes rhetorical mode for a
> moment - if you are taking these as your examples, you have little or no
> idea of the kinds of tasks that need to be done to produce something
useful
> for commercial/industrial systems.
My thought:
I would truly like to understand what you mean by "useful"? I wonder how
you think commerce has been conducted, and economies of the world have
proceeded in the centuries before you, and the particular cleavings of the
world that you are so enamored of, appeared on the scene?
The rhetorical mode that you adopted is very unfortunate for the point
you are trying to make. The kind of rhetoric that states one or another
of the colleagues here have "little or no idea" about something or other
is extreme and polarizing, and from my perspective meant to be
divisive.
In any event, natural language and various practical classification schemes
have been the way useful commercial and industrial work have always been
conducted. I came to this list as a step in a long career of trying to
refine these
schemes and usages to make them more practical and useful in a world
that is increasingly permeated and dependent on interoperating software
mediations of human communication. In recent exchanges I am learning that
this endeavor (IEEE SUO) was conceived by folks who have a different
concern.
I am still trying to really understand what that motivating concern is, and
whether
it has any relevance to the work I am trying to do. The words "useful
commercial/industrial systems" give me hope for commonality. The rejection
of all of natural language and existing classification schemes pretty
effectively
snuffs that glimmer of hope.
Doug McDavid
Certified Executive Consultant
Voice of the Practitioner Initiatives
Professional Development - BIS, Americas
Member of IBM Academy of Technology
mcdavid@us.ibm.com -- 916-549-4600