The Ontology of Documents

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

2. Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a ruler, a glue-pot, glue, nails and screw. —The functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 11 http://ontologist.com

3. 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 merely through our utterances (declarations) Speech Act Theory Language as TOOLBOX http://ontologist.com

4. claims and obligations and deontic powers are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts (acts of promising, marrying, accusing ... ) The Searle thesis http://ontologist.com

5. change the world if certain background conditions are satisfied: valid formulation legitimate authority acceptance by addressees appointings, marryings, promisings http://ontologist.com

6. we perform a speech act the world changes A speech act is instantaneous http://ontologist.com

7. a new entity comes into being – a claim, obligation, right, power, name, office which survives for an extended period of time What is the physical basis for this extended existence? The memories of those involved? Or documents? Writing creates permanent, re-usable meaning Documents create traceable liability The need for a trace http://ontologist.com

8. Such objects can thereby also serve as the basis for new social objects of a higher-order giving rise to what Searle calls a ‘huge invisible ontology’ Documents provide a reliable way for the social/institutional objects brought into existence by speech acts to endure through time http://ontologist.com

9. The very fact that laws exist in written form makes a profound difference, first to the nature of its sources, secondly to the ways of changing the rules, thirdly to the judicial process, and fourthly to court organization. Indeed it touches upon the nature of rules themselves. Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (1986) http://ontologist.com

10. A system of telecommunications which enables individual producers to watch merely the movement of a few pointers, as an engineer might watch the hands of a few dials (Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”) The price system http://ontologist.com

11. the price system is a mechanism for communicating, in the form of abbreviated signals, the most essential information relevant to our economic behaviour The Hayek thesis: http://ontologist.com

12. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else New York: Basic Books, 2000 Hernando de Soto http://ontologist.com

13. the invisible infrastructure of asset management upon which the astonishing fecundity of Western capitalism rests is both created and held together by documents, by property records and titles, which capture what is economically meaningful about the corresponding assets The de Soto Thesis http://ontologist.com

14. The document system is a mechanism for creating the institutional orders of modern societies and for making possible the types of abbreviated signals which provide the most essential information relevant to our social behavior (even price lists are documents) The generalized de Soto thesis http://ontologist.com

15. stock and share certificates create capital identity documents create identities examination documents create the various levels of the Chinese civil service cadastral maps create real estate parcels marriage license creates bonds of matrimony bankruptcy certificate creates bankrupt statutes of incorporation create companies title deeds create property rights and property owners insurance certificate creates insurance coverage create = create AND sustain The creative powers of documents http://ontologist.com

16. documents create authorities (physicians’ license creates physician) authorities create documents (physician creates sick note) Documents issued by an authority (validly, fraudulently ...) The creative power of documents http://ontologist.com

17. Documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institution vs. issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. the US Declaration of Independence – extralegal law of the Mwenyekiti) The source of extralegal law http://ontologist.com

18. how cope with the fact that social reality can involve contradictions? (Problem for Searle’s ontology of social reality – according to which X is Y if X counts as Y in a given social context C) Problem:If documents create (parts of) social reality http://ontologist.com

19. create identity and thereby create the possibility of identity theft Identity documents http://ontologist.com

20. from word to world(words must fit world) assertives (statements, descriptions) from world to word (world must be made to fit word) directives (commands, requests, entreaties) commisives (promises): bind the speaker to perform a certain action in the future Directions of fit betweenlanguage and reality http://ontologist.com

21. 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

22. Non-Documents novel textbook newspaper advertizing flier timetable recipe map prayer business card LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TYPES (cf. Ingarden on the work of literature) Documents license birth certificate death certificate degree certificate deed contract will receipt passport LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TOKENS http://ontologist.com

23. Non-Documents Documents novel textbook newspaper advertizing flier timetable recipe map business card Leonardo cartoon Not made of paper Made of paper road sign advertizing hoarding car badging gravestone silver hallmark license degree certificate deed contract will receipt clay tablet e-document electronic health record movie clapper credit card http://ontologist.com

24. title/deed/cadastral map (gives rights) price tag/pricelist (makes commitments) patent (gives rights) license/degree certificate (gives rights) statement of accounts (?) identity card/passport (gives rights) membership card (gives rights) birth certificate (?) death certificate (? connected to other documents/e.g. voting records) marriage license (gives rights and obligations) divorce decree (gives rights and obligations) declarative/descriptive documentsplus something more http://ontologist.com

25. Other kinds of documents http://ontologist.com

26. architects plan urban plan engineering drawing city survey census form lab note medical progress note discharge summary insurance certificate marriage license, letter of credit More examples http://ontologist.com

27. documents which need to be displayed (e.g. a price list) documents which need to be filled in vs. documents which are self-contained documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly Further distinctions http://ontologist.com

28. 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 Register it Archive it Destroy it What you can do to and with a document [DOCUMENT EVENTS] http://ontologist.com

29. All the mentioned event-types are independent of the document content and purpose a Easily trasferrable to new applications (e.g. credit approval). They are about human interaction via a document in the abstract. They are essentially several lists of names attached to document portions that are also linked into whole documents. DOCUMENT EVENTS http://ontologist.com

30. If you have a company registry with 600 names, but only 150 companies actually exist, the registry is useless Ontology of document registries http://ontologist.com

31. fingerprint official stamp photograph bar code, cow brand car license plate numbered plot for street trader allow cross-referencing to documents knowledge by acquaintance knowledge by description knowledge by comparison http://ontologist.com

32. How photographs, maps, fingerprints, unique IDs anchor documents to corresponding entities in reality ? Anchoring http://ontologist.com

33. I use my passport to prove my identity You use my passport to check my identity Knowledge by acquaintance Knowledge by description Knowledge by comparison Epistemological use of documents http://ontologist.com

34. anchoring documents to reality how will the ontology of documents look when e-documents are incorporated? http://ontologist.com

35. One document attached to another (documents can talk to each other; they can be filed with each other) The relations between documents then map corresponding relations between the realities documented Attachment http://ontologist.com

36. documents can be split(hat check, torn dollar bill) documents can have a firework style history of initiating new actions ... (Kanban) Splitting http://ontologist.com

37. http://ontologist.com

38. 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, ...) Who else? Documents and their addressees http://ontologist.com

39. Bundling documents to create networks • One document attached to a copy of another document • The relations between documents then map corresponding relations between the realities documented http://ontologist.com

40. Problem with Goody and the literature on literacy They say: massive documentation created the conditions of modern civilization they neglect the degree to which totalitarian societies, too, were made possible by documentation Good documents vs. bad documents http://ontologist.com

41. Template followed by filling in First step towards standardized products is a plan, a description, a template, which can be filled in (brand identity)) Standardized forms http://ontologist.com

42. documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly Document vs. standardized form/template http://ontologist.com

43. allow networking across time (documents can accumulate through attachment) across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms) Standardized documents http://ontologist.com

44. 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

45. Car insurance document depends on residence permit depends on employment contract depends on health certificate depends on physician’s license to practice depends on degree certificate depends on examination document depends on examination script ... Documents which depend on other documents http://ontologist.com

46. Permission to return damaged goods depends on delivery confirmation document depends on shipment document depends on receipt depends on bill depends on order depends on price-list Documents which depend on other documents http://ontologist.com

47. a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name 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

48. 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

49. Countersignatures http://ontologist.com

50. Here too background conditions must be satisfied Hence, too, a document – a baptismal certificate a marriage license ... – is more than just a piece of paper – may need to be registered, archived, stamped The document system is more than just documents http://ontologist.com