ontology of documents (2005)

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The Ontology of Documents (2005)

Barry Smith


Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 11

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.


Speech Act Theory Language as TOOLBOX

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)


The Searle thesis

claims and obligations and deontic powers are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts

(acts of promising, marrying, accusing ... )


appointings, marryings, promisings change the worldif certain background conditions are satisfied:

valid formulation

legitimate authority

acceptance by addressees


A speech act is instantaneous

we perform a speech act

the world changes


Differences between document acts and speech acts

• Speech acts can normally be classified as one or other of the five types distinguished by Searle; document acts typically involve components deriving from several of these types

• You don’t need to understand a document in order to perform a properly constituted document act


The need for a trace

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


Documents provide a reliable way for the social/institutional objects brought into existence by speech acts to endure through time

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’


Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (1986)

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.


The price systemA 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 Hayek thesis:

the price system is a mechanism for communicating, in the form of abbreviated signals, the most essential information relevant to our economic behaviour


Hernando De SotoInstitute for Liberty and Democracy

Lima, Peru


Hernando de Soto

The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else

New York: Basic Books, 2000


The de Soto Thesis

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 generalized de Soto thesis

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)


Primacy of documents

• are the social institutions which can, as a matter of necessity, only exist because of documents?

• what is the force of ‘necessity’ here – supposing we had perfect memory, for example


The creative powers of documentsstock and share certificates create capitalidentity documents create identitiesexamination documents create the various levels of the

Chinese civil servicecadastral maps create real estate parcelsmarriage license creates bonds of matrimonybankruptcy certificate creates bankruptstatutes of incorporation create companiestitle deeds create property rights and property ownersinsurance certificate creates insurance coverage

create = create AND sustain


The creative power of documents

documents create authorities(physicians’ license creates physician)

authorities create documents(physician creates sick note)

Documents issued by an authority (validly, fraudulently ...)


The source of extralegal law

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)


Problem:If documents create (parts of) social

reality

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)


Identity documents

• create identity

• and thereby create the possibility of identity theft


Directions of fit betweenlanguage and reality

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


Organizational chart

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)


Non-Documentsnoveltextbooknewspaperadvertizing fliertimetablerecipemapprayerbusiness card

LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TYPES (cf. Ingarden on the work of literature)

Documentslicensebirth certificatedeath certificatedegree certificatedeedcontractwillreceiptpassport

LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TOKENS


Non-Documents

Documents

Made of paper Not made of paper

novel

textbook

newspaper

advertizing flier

timetable

recipe

map

business card

Leonardo cartoon

license

degree certificate

deed

contract

will

receipt

road sign

advertizing hoarding

car badging

gravestone

silver hallmark

clay tablet

e-document

electronic health record

movie clapper

credit card


declarative/descriptive documentsplus something more

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)


Other kinds of documentspartnership agreement/ statute of incorporation

proxy form/representation agreement

tax form

minutes of a meeting

ballot form

residence permit

census report

stock certificate

insurance claim form

insurance policy

visa/immigration document

insurance card/health insurance card

health certificate

consent form (for medical procedure)

medical record

criminal record

Führungszeugnis

pension book

rent book

accident report/theft report/police report/charge

bankruptcy certificate


More examples

architects planurban planengineering drawingcity surveycensus formlab notemedical progress notedischarge summaryinsurance certificatemarriage license, letter of credit


Further distinctions

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


What you can do to and with a document [DOCUMENT EVENTS]

Sign itStamp itWitness itFill it in Revise itNullify itRealize (interrupt, abort ...) actions mandated by it Deliver it (de facto, de jure)Declare it active/inactiveRegister itArchive itDestroy it


DOCUMENT EVENTS

All the mentioned event-types are independent of the document content and purpose aEasily 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.


Ontology of document registries

• If you have a company registry with 600 names, but only 150 companies actually exist, the registry is useless


identification

Marks used to identify ownership of the cattle at an auction market in Dodoma.The cattle identification by branding serves as the basis for a formal pledge system.


fingerprintofficial stampphotographbar code, cow brandcar license platenumbered plot for street trader

allow cross-referencing to documentsknowledge by acquaintanceknowledge by descriptionknowledge by comparison


Anchoring

• How photographs, maps, fingerprints, unique IDs anchor documents to corresponding entities in reality ?


Epistemological use of documents

• 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


anchoring documents to reality

how will the ontology of documents look when e-documents are incorporated?


Attachment

• 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


Splitting

• documents can be split(hat check, torn dollar bill)

• documents can have a firework style history of initiating new actions ... (Kanban)


Documents and their addressees

Each kind of document has an associated kind of public

1. the creators of the document-template (legislators, drafters ...)

2. the guardians of the document (solicitors, notaries ...)

3. the fillers-in of the document (this is the central target audience)

4. the recipients of the document (registrars, ...)

5. Who else?


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


Good documents vs. bad documents

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


Standardized forms

Template followed by filling in

First step towards standardized products is a plan, a description, a template, which can be filled in (brand identity))


Document vs. standardized form/template

documents filled in

completely/partially

correctly/incorrectly

validly/invalidly


Standardized documents

• allow networking

• across time (documents can accumulate through attachment)

• across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms)


Good documents vs. bad documents

Good documents must be well-designed1. they must map the corresponding reality in a

perspicuous way – cf. maps as document2. they must be easy to fill in by members of its

central target audience (need for process of education?)

3. 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)


Documents which depend on other documents

Car insurance document depends on residence permitdepends on employment contractdepends on health certificate

depends on physician’s license to practicedepends on degree certificatedepends on examination documentdepends on examination script

...


Documents which depend on other documents

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


The ontology of names

• 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 signatures

documents needing signatures

signed/not signed/incorrectly signed/

fraudulently signed/signed and stamped

signed by proxy

with a single/with a plurality of signatories


Countersignatures


The document system is more than just documents

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


Each document has a jurisdiction

issue of enforceability

documents create actionable liability

collections

expense of resort to district courts ...


How to define documents

• First: create a list of types: car license plates

novels

birth certificates

certificate of correctness of a translation

...

Now specify which items on this list are types of documents in the sense relevant here:


Definition

x is a document =def

x is a (potentially permanent) record of time-sensitive information*,

and is of a type instances of which are reliably used as constituents of instances of

corresponding types of complex social actions

*true or false?


END


Definition

x is a document=def

(1) x is a permanent record representing or expressing one or more deontically or

institutionally relevant acts

and (2) is of a type instances of which are reliably used (and produced to be used?) to

achieve deontic ends in complex social actions


What Do We Mean by Authentic? What's the Real McCoy? By H.M. Gladney and J.L. Bennett


Pre-history and history

• History = since documents

• Imagine applying the methods of social science to the entire corpus of credit card transactions

• Imagine doing something similar to the entire corpus of human history


Different types of legality

legality through and throughlegality which incorporates (good) extralegality on the sidelegality solely for the purposes of allowing (good)

extralegality legality which masks (bad) illegality (again in various

ways) (corruption)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHAT DOCUMENTS ARE MISSING?


Groupware (from Robert Johnson)Factory system to authorise new product developments, which went to about 20 peaple sequentially (R&D, production costing etc.). – a system that allowed creation, viewing and updating a digital document by multiple parties.

Aspects of authorship which we had to build inOwner of documentCurrent ownerViewersUpdatersApproversSigners (who signed off parts eg. a costing)Parts of a documentUpdatable parts vs. parts now unchangeable (for audit reasons – you should not be able to retrospectively unapprove something you previously approved)Closure

Lotus Notes does this?


•

• >• >Activities are extended episodes of action. Routines are a special case • >of activities in general. A routine is an activity where in each • >situation there is no choice between possible actions (there is a • >single affordance relevent to the activity). So we can formulate an • >information system that support routine activity as that set of • >resources that eliminate the need for choices at each stage of the • >activity. That is, it converts and choiceful activity into a routine • >activity. One possibility is to structure the environment - to engineer • >constraints and affordances that reduce choice. The other is to provide • >information resources that provide the extra information cues that • >resolve the choice.• >


• >For instance if we are faced with two doorways that afford exit, a sign • >with an arrow would resolve the choice (given the actor has suitable • >enculturatyion). Alternatively, a rule such as "always take the left • >door" would resolce the choice. Again a list of the choices to be • >encoutered and the correct choice could be prepared before the journey. • >Finally, blocking one doorway physically would resolve the choice. All • >of these things would be information resources. As in Shannon • >information theory their information content is their ability to reduce • >choice (in this case choice for actions).• >


• >So in relation to your question, you can view stereotyped documents • >this way. They express resolutions to choices (perhaps for the • >institutional receiver). The simplest case is when in an activity there • >is one choice with two options. Then only one bit of information is • >required, and this can be provided by a single sign such as a kanban • >card or a stop light or an arrow or a door handle. We can build from • >this case to sequences of simple signs for multi-situation activities, • >or to more complex sign structure requiring deeper cultural embedding • >(perhaps language).• >


• >The signs are themselves affordances but they work in a more subtle way • >than the blocked doorway. It is our cultural practices that atune us to • >the sign whereas it is out innate perceptual abilities that atune us to • >the opening as an affordance for exit.• >• >There is another difference which I cannot quite articulate. In a • >natural affordance the pattern that can be perceived that gives away • >the oportunity for action provided by some physical structure is • >actually part of the "surface" of that structure. For instance, for the • >climbing affordance of steps, the physical part is the vertical and • >horozontal surfaces that recur in different settings. We percive them • >through an invariant pattern of parallel lines in the visual field that • >invariably accompanies the physical structure.• >• >For signs we seem to have abstracted way the signifier of the presence • >of an affording structure from the structure itself. So a sign saying • >pull does not "enable" you to pull to gain exit in that same way that a • >handle both signifies the pullability and also allows it to be effected • >at the same time.• >• >I think the idea that signs (and more complex styalised physical• >communications) are just affordances is an exciting one. What do you • >think?• >

ontology of documents (2005)

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