The Ontology of Documents

1. The Ontology of Documents Barry Smith http://ontologist.com

2. Beyond information objects PART ONE http://ontologist.com

3. e.g. Bob Glushko: “A document  is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.” focuses on information content, not on the physical container sees business collaborations – e.g. between on-line customer credit card authorization service when the latter verifies and charges the customer’s account – as ‘Internet information exchanges’ but there is more than information here Much valuable work on ‘documents’ in the context of XML, etc., standardization http://ontologist.com

4. of importance e.g. in homeland security (identification documents) in commerce in law in healthcare Thus: not novels ... We are interested here in the class of (roughly: time-sensitive) documents http://ontologist.com

5. Some examples Made of paper Not made of paper license degree certificate deed contract will receipt statement of accounts medical consent form novel textbook newspaper advertising flier recipe map business card advertising hoarding gravestone hallmarked silver plate film credits exterior signage on buildings clay tablet recording outcome of litigation e-document electronic health record movie clapper credit card receipt stock market ticker car license plate http://ontologist.com

6. 1., 2. Teaching, lesson learned (cf. doctor, docile, docent) 3. That which serves to show, point out, or prove something; evidence, proof. 4. Something written, inscribed, etc., which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed, tomb-stone, coin, picture, etc. OED http://ontologist.com

7. the social and institutional (deontic, quasi-legal) powers of documents the social interactions in which documents play an essential role (how documents bind people together) the sorts of things which we can do with documents the different types of institutional systems to which documents belong the provenance of documents (on what distinguishes original, authentic documents from copies, forgeries ...) What is missing from existing document ontologies: http://ontologist.com

8. document as stand-alone entity vs. document with all its different types of proximate and remote attachments document template vs. filled-in document document vs. the piece of paper (or other physical carrier) upon which a document is written/printed, etc. Focusing on information alone will not suffice; it is a hard problem to simulate some of these features in the case of documents which exist only in a digital medium What is missing from existing document ontologies: http://ontologist.com

9. What documents do PART TWO http://ontologist.com

10. natural-science ontology (bio-ontologies) administrative ontology (e-commerce ontologies) Healthcare ontologies (for example) span the two Two types of ontology http://ontologist.com

11. entities such as organizations, rules, prices, debts, standardized transactions ..., which we ourselves create But what does ‘create’ mean ? Documents belong to the domain of administrative entities http://ontologist.com

12. We tell people how things are (assertives) We try to get them to do things (directives) We commit ourselves to doing things (commissives) We express our feelings and attitudes (expressives) We bring about changes in the world through utterances (declarations) (“I name this ship ...”) Austin/Searle Speech Act Theory http://ontologist.com

13. claims and obligations and deontic powers* are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts (acts of promising, marrying, accusing ... ) The Construction of Social Reality (1989) * rights, relations of authority, debts, property-relations, permissions, ... The Searle thesis http://ontologist.com

14. change the world but only if certain background conditions are satisfied: valid formulation legitimate authority acceptance by addressees We perform a speech act ... the world changes, instantaneously appointings, marryings, promisings ... http://ontologist.com

15. – a claim, obligation, right, power, name, office – which survives for an extended period of time What is the physical basis for this extended existence? In small societies: the memories of those involved In large societies: documents Writing creates and sustains permanent, re-usable meaning and permanent re-usable deontic powers A new entity comes into being http://ontologist.com

16. you don’t need to understand a document in order to perform a properly constituted document act paper documents are continuants, which means that they can change over time (be filled in, copied, stamped, etc.) they can also create traceable liability (form an audit trial) they can be attached together, creating new document-complexes whose structure mirrors relations (e.g. of debtor to creditor) among humans Differences between document acts and speech acts http://ontologist.com

17. document acts typically involve components deriving from several of Searle’s five types dual role of a delivery note: to guide those involved in delivering an object to allow the recipient to attest to its receipt and also components of other types –dual role of your signature in your passport: to attest to the truth of a certain assertion to provide a sample pattern for comparison Differences between document acts and speech acts http://ontologist.com

18. speech acts are normally self-validating (they wear their provenance on their face) documents need technological devices (official stamps, special watermarks, signatures, countersignatures, seals, ...) Differences between document acts and speech acts http://ontologist.com

19. http://ontologist.com

20. Countersignatures http://ontologist.com

21. claims and obligations and deontic powers are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts The Searle thesis: http://ontologist.com

22. The de Soto thesis: documents and document systems are mechanisms for creating the institutional orders of modern societies Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, New York: Basic Books, 2000 http://ontologist.com

23. stock and share certificates create capital examination documents create PhDs title deed/cadastral map creates real estate parcels marriage licenses create bonds of matrimony bankruptcy certificates create bankrupts statutes of incorporation create companies title deeds create property rights and property owners The creative powers of documents http://ontologist.com

24. insurance certificates create insurance coverage price tag/pricelist (creates commitments) patent (creates rights) license/degree certificate (creates rights) statement of accounts (creates obligations) membership card (creates rights) divorce decree (creates rights and obligations) The creative powers of documents http://ontologist.com

25. create identity and thereby create the possibility of identity theft what is the ontology of identity? what is the epistemology of identity (the technologies of identification)? Identity documents http://ontologist.com

26. documents create authorities (physicians’ license creates physician) authorities create documents (physician creates sick note) Documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institution vs. issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. US Declaration of Independence) The creative power of documents http://ontologist.com

27. a map of the organization and of its flows of authority (a system of positional roles in the document represents [creates?] the system of positional roles which is the organization) Organizational chart http://ontologist.com

28. How classify these kinds of documents http://ontologist.com

29. not novels – which exist in many identical copies (tokens of the same type) not watercolors in a gallery – which do not contain time-sensitive information What kinds of documents have creative power in social reality? http://ontologist.com

30. Non-Creative novel textbook newspaper recipe map business card Creative advertizing flier timetable guarantee tax form (filled in) minutes of a meeting ALLOGRAPHIC license birth certificate degree certificate deed contract will receipt banknote painting statue building AUTOGRAPHIC http://ontologist.com

31. What you can do with a document PART THREE http://ontologist.com

32. Sign it Stamp it Witness it Fill it in Revise it Nullify it Realize (interrupt, abort ...) actions mandated by it Deliver it (de facto, de jure) Declare it active/inactive Display it (price list) Register it Archive it What you can do with a document [DOCUMENT ACTS] http://ontologist.com

33. Each kind of document has an associated kind of public the creators of the document-template (legislators, drafters ...) the guardians of the document (solicitors, notaries ...) the fillers-in of the document (this is the central target audience) the recipients of the document (registrars, ...) the beneficiaries of the document (wills) Addressees(documents point also forward in time) http://ontologist.com

34. storing of documents in a way which makes them permanently accessible (checkable, verifiable) amendable (e.g. where property is used as collateral for loans) combinable (attachment): social relations are created via cross-referenced and cross-attached documents more easily authenticated Registration http://ontologist.com

35. Safety procedures for mission-critical technology involve multiple layers of redundancy to ensure against catastrophe. a photograph alone is not sufficient to establish your identity: it must appear in the right place in the right sort of document that has been marked in the right sort of way by signatures, counter-signatures, stamps, ID numbers these elements serve to anchor the document to the reality beyond and to the history of its production Redundancy http://ontologist.com

36. anchoring documents to reality http://ontologist.com

37. fingerprint official stamp photograph bar code, cow brand-mark car license plate allow cross-referencing to documents knowledge by acquaintance knowledge by description knowledge by comparison I use my passport to prove my identity You use my passport to check my identity Anchoring http://ontologist.com

38. Anchoring is different from aboutness A clinical laboratory test result is anchored to the laboratory, the sample, the technician, the instrument, … It is about certain chemical qualities of a certain patient … http://ontologist.com

39. documents needing signatures signed/not signed/incorrectly signed/ fraudulently signed/signed and stamped signed by proxy with a single/with a plurality of signatories The ontology of signatures http://ontologist.com

40. a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name names, too, belong to the domain of administrative (= created) entities this is an abstract yet time-bound object, like a nation or a club it is an object with parts (your first name and your last name are parts of your name, in something like the way in which the first movement and the last movement are parts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) The ontology of names http://ontologist.com

41. What extra features do they have (signing, counter-signing, registering, validating ...) which give them their deontic force? And how do we recreate these features in the realm of e-documents? How do we anchor e-documents to objects and processes in physical reality (e.g. to human beings)? How do documents relate to their linguistically expressed content? http://ontologist.com

42. A credit card receipt is autographic A credit card is allographic But the credit card as physical carrier is dispensable: What is important are the credit card numbers How do documents relate to the underlying physical medium http://ontologist.com

43. These numbers are not mathematical (not informational) entities – they are ‘thick’ (historical) numbers, special sorts of cultural artefacts they are information objects with provenance: abstract keys fitting into a globally distributed lock The ontology of (credit card) numbers http://ontologist.com

44. Standardized Documents PART FOUR http://ontologist.com

45. Template, followed by act of filling in First step towards standardized products is a plan, a description, a template, which can be filled in (brand identity)) documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly Standardized documents http://ontologist.com

46. from the Shiprock Navajo fair New Mexico, September 30-October 1, 2005 http://ontologist.com

47. allow networking across time (documents can accumulate through attachment) across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms) can encapsulate the memory and experience of an entire profession Standardized documents http://ontologist.com

48. Good documents must be well-designed they must map the corresponding reality in a perspicuous way – cf. maps as document they must be easy to fill in by members of its central target audience (need for process of education?) they must not create new problems (should bow off the stage once they have been properly filled in and never be seen again except in those rare cases where problems arise) Good documents vs. bad documents http://ontologist.com

49. improve the flow of communications allow standardized transactions allow assets to be described using standard categories, so as to enable comparisons allow the transition from ad hoc narratives (as in old title deeds) to structured representations of reality communication is hereby advanced because signals are abbreviated supports the creation of more effective registries standardized documents http://ontologist.com

50. one can more easily check that one has filled in the boxes correctly from a syntactical point of view truthfully by the right person with the right authority some entries are made self-validating through the presence of official seals or stamps some entries refer to other forms (copies of which may be required to be attached to this form) the form itself can guarantee that it occupies its proper place in a network of forms facilitates checking and enforceability, and thus contributes to trust and to simplification of transactions and (cf. de Soto) makes us all better people standardized documents embody social memory http://ontologist.com