CONTACTS 
0201 - SRI International
020101 - Mr. Pat Lincoln; 650 859 5454

SUBJECTS
NASA Possible Source
NASA Pre-proposal OHS
Collaborative Document System, Email, Eric, 000505
Software Programming Initial Objective, 000406
Collaboration Objective DKR,
Email Core Capability DKR, Eric, 000505
Collaboration, Core Capability DKR - Email, Eric, 000505
Email Core Capability DKR, Collaboration, Eric, 000505
Software Programming Multiple Views, Doug, 000601

1511 -
1511 -    ..
1512 - Summary/Objective
1513 -
151301 - Follow up ref SDS 39 0000, ref SDS 38 0000.
151302 -
151303 - Received ref DRT 1 0001 from Paul Fernhout responding to Lee Iverson's
151304 - letter, ref DRP 4 0001, on 000711, ref SDS 39 0001, advising that SRI
151305 - submitted a pre-proposal to NASA Ames for fund an initial 3 year
151306 - project based on OHS/DKR. ref SDS 38 0512
151308 -  ..
151309 - Received ref DRT 2 0001 from Eugene Kim responding to Paul's request,
151310 - by submitting to the project team a copy of pre-proposal section with
151311 - the title...
151312 -
151313 -
151314 -             Open System for Collaborative Knowledge Work
151315 -
151316 -
151317 - ...that explains technical objectives.  ref DRT 2 0002
151318 -
151320 -       ..
151321 -      Principal Investigator: Douglas C. Engelbart
151323 -       ..
151324 -      Co-Investigators:
151325 -
151326 -           Lee A. Iverson,
151327 -           Eugene Eric Kim,
151328 -           Patrick D. Lincoln
151330 -       ..
151331 -      Submitted to NASA Ames: July 13, 2000
151332 -
151334 -  ..
151335 - This submission does not indicate the sponsoring organization??
151336 -
151337 -      Assume it is SRI.
151338 -
151339 -      Is the DKR team involved as an entity, or, do Eugene and Doug
151340 -      join SRI by subcontract?
151342 -       ..
151343 -      What about Eric and the CDS specs, which seem to be relied upon
151344 -      in part in the proposal?
151346 -  ..
151347 - Lee Iverson's letter yesterday reported that SRI requested funding for
151348 - a three (3) year project. ref SDS 39 0001
151349 -
151350 -      The proposal provided by Eugene does not show the amount of
151351 -      funding requested.  Are the four (4) people listed in the
151352 -      proposal as "investigators" the entire team; so, 4 x 3 x
151353 -      $200K  =  $2.4M?
151354 -
151355 -
151356 -
151358 -  ..
151359 - Information Overload Causes Complexity; Requires Intelligence
151360 -
151361 - The purpose and need for OHS is explained thus...
151362 -
151363 -     Solving today's most urgent and complex problems, from designing a
151364 -     spacecraft to managing huge bodies of information, already exceeds
151365 -     the capabilities of any single person.  Further, the complexity
151366 -     and urgency of many issues facing NASA are rapidly accelerating.
151367 -     Thus, these issues will soon far exceed the capabilities of
151368 -     current organizational systems.  Matters are made worse by the
151369 -     increased speed with which key decision makers shift
151370 -     responsibilities, leaving behind insufficient information for
151371 -     their collaborators to seamlessly continue.  We propose an open
151372 -     evolutionary approach to increasing the collective ability of
151373 -     groups of people to address complex urgent problems, through the
151374 -     construction of an Open Hyperdocument System. ref DRT 2 4675
151376 -  ..
151377 - This rationale reflects analysis on 991001, ref SDS 3 3010, reviewed
151378 - on 000713. ref SDS 38 0828
151380 -  ..
151381 - Problem of complexity was reviewed on 991014. ref SDS 5 5600
151383 -  ..
151384 - What discussion or letter in the DKR project over the past 6 months
151385 - has focused on the problem of "complexity" caused by information
151386 - overload?  This may be addressed in Doug's prior papers, which have
151387 - not come up during the development of requirements.  On 991222 Doug's
151388 - 1992 paper proposes intelligence to solve problems, ref SDS 6 8064,
151389 - which he explains become complex based on issue of scale. ref SDS 6
151390 - 1596   He used "Collective IQ" at opening of Colloquium at Stanford on
151391 - 000106. ref SDS 7 0110
151393 -  ..
151394 - On 000505, the solution posed by the CDS, which on 000615 was to be
151395 - renamed the OHS, was expected to compound complexity that boggles the
151396 - mind? ref SDS 24 0782
151397 -
151399 -  ..
151400 - Knowledge Management Offered by SRI's Proposal Team
151401 - Proposal Identifies Problems of Collaboration, Information Overload
151402 -
151403 - Proposal says...
151404 -
151405 -     1.  Collaboration entails sharing and management of knowledge
151406 -
151407 -         The most important aspect of any collaboration is the sharing
151408 -         and management of knowledge. There are two opportunities for
151409 -         enhancing knowledge management in an enterprise such as NASA.
151410 -         First is improving operations.  At a minimum, this entails
151411 -         managing the highly iterative and dynamic flow of
151412 -         specifications and design information between an organization
151413 -         and its many suppliers and clients. ref DRT 2 9300
151415 -          ..
151416 -     2.  Manage data and generate knowledge (associations with data)
151417 -
151418 -         ...the enhancement of NASA's main mission, which is scientific
151419 -         exploration and discovery.  Innovations in these areas require
151420 -         the ability to manage enormous amounts of data, make it
151421 -         available to others, and generate knowledge while maintaining
151422 -         the associations with that data. ref DRT 2 2100
151424 -  ..
151425 - This is a positive step toward Knowledge Management, however, the
151426 - proposal does not define "knowledge," nor explain a distinction
151427 - between information and knowledge management, similar to IBM's
151428 - proposal for "business intelligence" reviewed on 980226. ref SDS 1
151429 - 2716
151431 -  ..
151432 - On 000716 Joe Ransdell's explanation of scientific process might
151433 - provide ideas to enhance SRI's proposal. ref SDS 41 6960
151435 -  ..
151436 - On 000615 the team at SRI announced a concensus to abandon Knowledge
151437 - Management. ref SDS 31 6271  What then supports this part of the
151438 - proposal?  Evidently, it was felt that NASA would pay attention to an
151439 - offer that includes KM.
151441 -  ..
151442 - On 000622 submitted letter to Cliff Joslyn at LANL suggesting he make
151443 - a presentation to DKR team on KM. ref SDS 32 5795
151445 -  ..
151446 - On 000713 recommended again that Cliff Joslyn discuss this subject.
151447 - ref SDS 40 3348
151448 -
151449 -       [...later today, recommended Cliff Joslyn's presentation to DKR
151450 -       team at SRI explain KM and added value to Information
151451 -       Management. ref SDS 42 2288
151453 -  ..
151454 - Proposal Solves Complexity with Information Management...
151455 -
151456 -     ...solution to these problems is the same: a system that manages
151457 -     the flow of information, the addition of new information, and the
151458 -     access to and sharing of knowledge. We propose to build a
151459 -     standards-based, collaborative knowledge management tool called
151460 -     the Open Hyperdocument System (OHS) that will support deep
151461 -     hyperlinking between documents.  We plan on embracing open
151462 -     standards and building the Open Hyperdocument System as open
151463 -     source to encourage its widespread deployment and coevolution.
151464 -     ref DRT 2 8910
151466 -  ..
151467 - This seems to say that Knowledge Management is accomplished by
151468 -
151469 -      1.  Managing the flow of information
151470 -
151471 -      2.  Managing the addition of new information
151472 -
151473 -      3.  Managing access and sharing of knowledge
151474 -
151476 -  ..
151477 - How does the system get from information to knowledge, which was asked
151478 - on 000120? ref SDS 8 5063
151480 -  ..
151481 - Building a standards-based, collaborative knowledge management tool
151482 - called the Open Hyperdocument System (OHS) that will support deep
151483 - hyperlinking between documents, requires an explanation of
151484 - "knowledge."
151485 -
151486 -     It is certainly an acceptable practice to simply say what the
151487 -     system will do and call that a functional definition of
151488 -     "knowledge."  But the critical point is what will be done
151489 -     differently from what NASA is currently doing that is causing it
151490 -     to drift off course, crash and burn, as reported on 991001?
151491 -     ref SDS 3 0001
151493 -      ..
151494 -     Will a survey be undertaken of NASA's current practices?
151495 -
151496 -          There can be no doubt that NASA currently manages the flow of
151497 -          information, the addition of new information, and, also,
151498 -          access and sharing information, using information management.
151499 -
151500 -          So, what will the OHS add?
151502 -           ..
151503 -          Linking?
151505 -           ..
151506 -          Anything else?
151508 -  ..
151509 - Proposal Offers Deep Linking and Innovative Views...
151510 -
151511 -     The Open Hyperdocument System will be an integrated, collaborative
151512 -     system for storing, editing, viewing, and discussing documents. It
151513 -     will enable sophisticated linking between all types of documents.
151514 -     The architecture will be extensible, allowing support for
151515 -     additional document formats and customizable views. ref DRT 2 4731
151516 -  ..
151517 -     This system will have four important technical features...
151518 -
151519 -         •  Support for sophisticated hyperlinking in existing and
151520 -            future document formats, ref DRT 2 6231
151521 -  ..
151522 -         •  innovative user interfaces, ref DRT 2 7400
151523 -
151524 -               Need an example to demonstrate value added.
151525 -
151526 -               This seems to be WBI multiple views, discussed most
151527 -               recently on 000601. ref SDS 27 7238
151528 -
151529 -         •  customizable and extensible application engine, ref DRT 2
151530 -            9240
151531 -
151532 -               This is useful, but it will require some attractive
151533 -               features that cause people to change tools in order to
151534 -               benefit from being able to customize functions.
151535 -
151536 -         •  open source and open standards, ref DRT 2 0072
151537 -
151538 -               Why is the method of organizing the work force a
151539 -               "technical feature"?  See also below. ref SDS 0 7566
151540 -
151542 -  ..
151543 - There is nothing here that hints at how better information management,
151544 - or KM, will be accomplished?
151546 -  ..
151547 - No technical capability to organize the record.
151548 - ..
151549 - Where is Jack's ontology presented on 000623, ref SDS 34 9900,
151550 - and where are Eric's catagories, submitted on 000601? ref SDS 28 5933
151551 -
151552 -     As well, on 000622, team determined that the project would be
151553 -     Doug's Augment + catagories. ref SDS 33 6652
151554 -
151555 -        [On 000725 ontology submitted separately. ref SDS 43 7426
151557 -         ..
151558 -        [On 000824 architecture discussed in meeting with Eric
151559 -        Armstrong on 000822 did not discuss subjects. ref SDS 44 PU5N
151561 -  ..
151562 - Proposal Offers Linking to Organize Information...
151563 -
151564 -     Associating concepts is a natural and powerful method of
151565 -     organizing information.  Hyperlinking provides a way to associate
151566 -     different concepts, and to easily navigate through recorded
151567 -     knowledge.  Of course, hyperlinking is nothing new.  The first
151568 -     hypertext system was implemented in the 1960s by Doug Engelbart,
151569 -     this project's principal investigator.  Since then, there have
151570 -     been different incarnations of hypertext systems. ref DRT 2 5332
151572 -  ..
151573 - Does "linking" or "associating" really "organize" information?
151574 -
151575 -     Annotations and granular addressibility to documents will enhance
151576 -     current web capabilities. ref DRT 2 0903
151578 -  ..
151579 - Will this really create "knowledge" and support management?
151580 -
151581 -     Where has any of this been tried?
151582 -
151584 -  ..
151585 - Proposal intends to use XML and to transcode non-XML documents into
151586 - XML. ref DRT 2 3976
151587 -
151588 -     On 000405 Paul Fernhout cautioned that XML does not solve any
151589 -     significant knowledge management issues. ref SDS 13 5977
151590 -
151592 -  ..
151593 - Proposal enables collaboration for software development by adding
151594 - annotations to email.
151595 -
151596 -     By automatically translating documents into an intermediate XML
151597 -     format without modifying the original document, the Open
151598 -     Hyperdocument System will support linking to and from legacy
151599 -     document formats.  For example, editors will be able to annotate
151600 -     an article by linking their comments to Microsoft Word documents
151601 -     submitted by the author.  Product managers will be able to link
151602 -     software requirements documents to related e-mail discussion
151603 -     threads, use cases, class diagrams, and even source code.
151604 -     ref DRT 2 5226
151605 -
151606 -        [On 000830 meeting reported goal for OHS to improve
151607 -        collaboraton for software using email. ref SDS 45 EI6G
151609 -  ..
151610 - Sounds like Jack's caution on 000623 not to change the original
151611 - document was accepted. ref SDS 34 5475
151612 -
151613 -     How though, does this "organize" or "manage" information, and get
151614 -     us to "knowledge" which is the objective of the proposal?
151615 -     ref SDS 0 4410
151616 -
151617 - ..
151618 - Proposal offers open source organizing method.  The benefit and
151619 - risks to NASA are not clearly set out. ref DRT 2 2355
151620 -
151621 -     Can NASA's work on high security issues be supported by open
151622 -     source tools, that make it easier for a hacker to modify and
151623 -     access stuff?
151624 - ..
151625 - Proposal plans to target software development, ref DRT 2 3763,
151626 - per Doug's vector discussed at the meeting on 000601, ref SDS 27 7238,
151627 - and planning on 000406. ref SDS 15 5078
151628 -
151629 -
151630 -
151631 -
151632 -
151633 -
151634 -
151635 -
1517 -