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The functional capabilities of conventional information technology are insufficient for managing information about information. •
Providing the functionalities to manage information about information creates a tool that, to implement a system, does with business specific information (as identified by an information map) exactly what it does with information about information to interpret the map.
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Functions for managing information about information intrinsically apply to managing information about everything else. •
Refinements and improvements to an engine apply to all information.
The Information Engine Solves:
Information Topography: Information meanings and types.
• Contexts
• Subjects - Principal, Actors, Roles • Objects - Tangibles, Locations, Constructs • Transitives - Intentions, Actions, Activities, Events • Sub-Contexts
• Explicit - Context-Id, (Occurrence) Identification, Classification, X-Correlations, N-Corelations • Implicit - Summary, Comparison • Facts
• Objective - Existence, Identity, Name, Class, Quantity, Chronolog, Location • I-Chronolog - Effectivity, Applicablity • Subjective - Comments • Non-Linguistic - Depiction, Replication
Information Mechanics - The ordering and derivation of additional information from existing information.
• Origins/Precedence - Determinant/Primary, I-Chronology/Collateral, Derivable/Secondary
• Dimensions - Occurrence, Facts, Effectivity, Applicability
• Vectors - Immediate. Summary, Balance, Factor Distribution, Comparison, Effectivity, Applicability, Time Distribution, Comparison Summary
• Supercession • Data Vectoring • Correlations
Information Maps - Interpretiing the description of information unique to specific situations as defined by Information Cartography Symbol Management
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Translation between and among languages •
Conversion between and among measurement systems (including currency conversion, the "measurement" system that, unlike, say, inches to centimeters, dynamically changes) • Automatic origination of information (time of day, serialization, sequence, algorithm, automated "input"). • Formula solution, summation, difference.
Information Topography and Information Mechanics identify information management necessities ignored by conventional operating software and conventional information management applications. Combined with the interpretation of properly developed Information Maps and Symbol Management they specify the requirements for managing information to its full potential and, by extension, the requirements for an Information Engine.
Though a technology solution, the essential nature of an information
engine ... its specification ... transcends (the tyranny of) technology.
In the above functional specification the primary issue is what we could and should accomplish with information/meaning with a secondary level of using data/symbols. How or even whether we use computers to solve these issues is not a deciding consideration. How we use computers does not in the slightest alter the funtional requirements.
Just as we can still drive a huge variety of cars and trucks of every vintage across the same routes, if DOS, CPM, CP5, MPE, OS-xxx, Windows-xxx, Linux, Unix, etc. had been effective information management engines we could use any or all of them in combination to manage our information without having to choose one over the other. Dealing with the same informational terrain, we would not be forced to replace a still useful vehicle simply because newer models are incompatible with older. Compatability is wholly determined by how well vehicles cover informational terrain, not whether they fit each other.
