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Meeting Summary for June 7th, 2023

Originally, “chunks” were captured through a nesting egg structure, where a hierarchy of extensions on an essential base (e.g., a noun phrase) defines a single chunk. This has been the working model of defining in Drasil, but has drawbacks in practice, primarily with ergonomics (it requires a complex network of types which is difficult to debug and analyze). @JacquesCarette analyzed the existing chunk hierarchy, resulting in groups of chunks that were highly related. However, we encountered difficulties in recreating the explanation behind the division of the chunks, leading us to reevaluate their existence.

Objective

This meeting focused on (re-)understanding the first pool found by @JacquesCarette's analysis (a-f on the whiteboard figure -- NamedChunk, IdeaDict, CommonIdea, ConceptChunk, ConceptInstance, and CommonConcept/CI) and updating it as necessary.

Analysis

The focus around these chunks is to teach Drasil about names (and their meanings). Names provide at least a few things: giving an identifier to concepts, unambiguously reusing and referring to those concept, and enabling pattern discovery in usage thereof. The chunks allow for names to have abbreviations, definitions, domains, and classifications, but with extra plumbing around the declarations for flexibility (specifically in declaring). However, this flexibility is costly to maintain due to needing us to maintain multiple chunks for a particular name when we typically use them all for many words. For example, an IdeaDict is used to add abbreviations to NamedChunks (basic noun phrases) while a CommonConcept is used to add an abbreviation to a ConceptChunk, the overlap in what they provide largely overlaps, but we have to create 2 types to add abbreviations to words. A CommonIdea/CI adds an abbreviation and a domain of knowledge to NamedChunks, which is very similar to ConceptChunk (a name with a definition and optional domain) and CommonConcepts. A ConceptInstance is also similar to ConceptChunks with a “level” difference but with many of the same possible extensions and plumbing. Together, these chunks are complex and require careful work to make sure we can make extensions possible from any particular chunk.

Results

We deem this group of chunks to be too similar to be unique, and too complex to be (easily) usable and maintainable. As such, we decided to merge them into a single chunk based on NamedChunk, which we decided to call Concepts.

Concepts

A “Concept” is a noun phrase that denotes something (anything!). Ones that are explainable have a definition in natural language (e.g., English). Sometimes they have abbreviations (such as NASA), and domains and/or classifications of which they belong (such as Astronomy and Public Organizations). Concepts should be used to capture noun phrases that we expect to use (and reuse) or when we want to discover patterns of their usage.

Action Items

1. Merge NamedChunk and IdeaDict into a single type. All NamedChunks can become IdeaDicts without issue.
2. <<pending @JacquesCarette's analysis>>

Meeting Blackboard Notes