[hackerspaces] [OK] Reminder: OpenKollaboration Meeting Wed. Aug. 19, 8am PST, 11am EST, IRC channel #openkollab

[sureshf]

Hey Everyone!

This is just a friendly reminder about Our Weekly IRC Chat: The whole
group meets every Wednesday at 3PM GMT/UTC (that is 8AM PDT, 11AM EDT)
on the IRC channel #openkollab.
It’s been another insane week at OpenKollab! A week marked by intense
discussion and dialogue around a range of different issues. We are in
the early stages of discussion regarding what the architecture of the
OpenKollaboration Platform should be and, in keeping with the very
early stage nature of this project, the discussion surrounded two very
fundamental issues: syntax and ontology. Namely the related questions
are:

SYNTAX AND ONTOLOGY
Syntax: What should the syntactic structure of information be such
that users can easily interface with the platform? This leads to
another related question:

Ontology: Should the structure of information in the system be
organized according to a completely distributed peer to peer model
with the user defining the meta-data (tagging model) or should there
be some top-down influence (ontology model).

Clearly syntax and ontological considerations can’t be separated, but
the discussions have been in parallel. Initially, a proposal was
advanced suggesting that we look at the problem in terms of relational
operators that would help to link an organizations needs to offers of
resources available etc. Details of this can be found at:

http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Syntactic_Considerations_for_Natural_Language_Input_of_Project_Needs_Resources_and_Goals_as_advanced_by_Suresh_Fernando_Aug_13_2009

For the clearest articulation of the case for a distributed P2P
information system, read Clay Shirky’s piece: Ontology is overrated
(http://www.shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html
For an argument in favour of the ontology model in the context of a
collaborative platform see: http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/OK_Ontological_Considerations

The latest architectural proposal, Tent as advanced by Tav, is
distributed architecture model that can provide the underpinnings for
a system that will make possible what is required by those that are
advancing the argument in favour of the importance of ontology in this
context. Initial thoughts on the tent proposal can be found at:
http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Tent_as_advanced_by_Tav_on_Aug_14_2009

WHAT SHOULD BE THE PRIMARY LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION? – Projects,
individuals or…

Another area around which there was some discussion was the question
as to what the primary level of description should be. Gerry suggested
that it should not be the project level

(http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Gerry_raises_the_question, Suresh
argues in favour of projects (http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/
Suresh_s_argument_in_favour_of_projects)

SUPER-ORDINATE AND SUB-ORDINATE GOALS
Since the aim of the OK Collaboration Platform is to drive
collaboration, one issue that requires detailed consideration is how
to think about the goals of organizations. What do we need to know and
how can we link them.

An initial proposal relating to this can be found at:

http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/OPENKOLLAB_SUPER_AND_SUBORDINATE_GOALS
Virtual Currencies

Another thread that emerged was the issue of virtual currencies –
mechanisms that allow us to compensate those that are contributing to
the collaborative process. Gerry initially raised the issue:
http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Gerry_raises_the_issue

Gerry and Suresh dig a little deeper:

http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Gerry_and_Suresh_dig_deeper

INTERESTING RELATED APPLICATIONS
Alex also introduced a couple of really interesting wordpress plug-ins
that can link you to interesting blog posts, paragraphs and even
sentences based upon keywords within your own posts. Details can be
found at: http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Collaboration_Tools_Discussion

SUB PROJECTS
One sub-project that we could really use your help with is Project
Mapping. We are aiming to manually gather data on a number of
companies to begin a ‘bottom-up’ process of driving collaboration.
This will complement the more top down approach that will, in time, be
driven by our platform. See Gerry’s comments (http://
wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/Process_Dialogue)

It also supports our efforts by providing us with specific information
on exactly what sorts of information about companies is actually
required in order to make collaboration happen. This is information
that will be necessary to make the OK Collaboration Platform actually
work!
Information on this sub-project can be found at:

Project Mapping: http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/ProjectMapping

Project Info: http://wiki.openkollab.com/wagn/ProjectInfo

Suresh Fernando
http://wiki.openkollab.com
http://radical-inclusion.com