Back again!

Yes my blog has been quiet for a while. I am battling cancer while trying to perform this research, unfortunately the cancer demanded more attention - I was hospitalized with pneumonia and a couple of other complications.

Today I want to explore the difference between the current standards and the context approach we developed in the 90's.

The context approach was based upon a simple model developed by Mike Mohammed. The model calls for the analysis of a domain, dividing its terms into a series of categories. These categories are:

• ENTITIES - otherwise affectionately known as "things" - if it is a noun it is an entity.
• ACTIVITIES - the "verbs" - actions that can be performed to change state.
• ATTRIBUTES - both entities and activities may have attributes that describe fixed and variable.
• CONTROLS - define rules by which activities may be initiated.
• RELATIONSHIPS - the most interesting part of the model describing many kinds of relationship. For example a person driving a car has a relationship to the car that is transitory.
  

These concepts are related in a simple model that enables the domain to be mapped to it's fundamentals. Models from multiple domains can be compared and mappings between domains produced much like a language translation.

By contrast the current standards approach requires no such structure. It would seem to me that most human language (may be all - I have not made an extensive study) divides the vocabulary into parts of speech: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs. If this is basic to how we process language, it could also be a sound foundation for machine semantics.

My current efforts include:

1. Attempting to refine the model to provide a temporal component.
2. Attempting to define the model in current standards as basis for further development.

Both these efforts are more difficult than at first appears, however I feel the second is most likely to be the greater challenge.

Please contact me at roger.coates@webdirection.ca if you are interested in this research.