IAO Meeting notes of January 5th 2010

Details

• Convened by: Alan
• Notes by: Melanie
• Where: Skype
• Attendees: Alan, Michel, Melanie

Agenda

• work on defining information related processes, such as writing, processes related to issue 65, perhaps a first go at communication process.

I don't know if it's worth discussing, in this context, the CD primitives mtrans, mbuild, attend, speak http://www.cc.gatech.edu/computing/classes/cs3361_96_spring/Fall95/Notes/cd.html

Minutes

MD: difference objective specification and objective? AR: same controversy than textual entities It is hard to know what objective exactly is, so we try with sthg related that we know, ie objective specification - protocol, sthg written down One missing bit: no process bearing information currently

Michel: Suppose we had plans directly as realizable entities plans versus objectives discussion. what does an objective specification specify?

MC: agree with MD - don't see issue having objective/conclusion, being concretized as specification or textual entities

AR: Current thinking: objective is a "state of affairs" example: Owning a car for: Objective to have a car. objective specification: a directive information entity that describes an intended process endpoint. When part of a plan specification the concretization is realized in a planned process in which the bearer tries to effect the world so that the process endpoint is achieved

AR: if we can do whatever we need to with objective specification no need to define objective - otherwise we may need to

in OBI: achieves_planned_objective: This relation obtains between a planned process and a objective specification when the criteria specified in the objective specification are met at the end of the planned process.

Example: IAO meeting = process (sthg happening over time) objective specification = part of the meeting agenda

"I suggest we work on defining information related processes, such as writing, processes related to issue 65, perhaps a first go at communication process" AR: is there an objective specification here? Is there a plan specification here? "we work on defining information related processes": is that a plan specification? in IAO: plan specification: a directive information entity that when concretized it is realized in a process in which the bearer tries to achieve the objectives, in part by taking the actions specified. Plan specifications includes parts such as objective specification, action specifications and conditional specifications.

MC: in this example, the plan specification = working on defining. objective specification: having definition at the end of the call

AR: "we work on defining information related processes" is part of a plan specification in that it specifies an action - the work. In that description is there an objective specification? MC:There is an implicit objective specification, to define information related processes AR: there is no objective specification in that text

Per its definition every plan specification has an objective specification and an action specification. If we admit that "we work on defining information related processes" is a plan specification then there has to be an objective.

AR: Is the agenda a plan specification? It doesn't seem to have an objective specification.

MC: plan specification is having IAO meeting and discuss agenda action specification are agenda items objective specification: describes end point. The objective (specification) is implicit. MC: when realizing process you rarely explicitly state your objective - but when you work on definition you implicitly mean that you will have a definition at the end

Discussion: What happens when it appears that there is no "specification" of the objective? There are still objectives that are implicit. AR: For our meeting. Objective: To work on definitions? Objective: to have definitions? "we work on defining information related processes" Issue: We say plan specification always have a part which is an objective specification. What happens when we don't see the objective specification. Sentiment: If we worked with plans and objectives we could say that every plan has an objective, but not say that every plan specification has an objective specification

Clear need - we have to give examples of what instances of plan specification and objective specification are.

Another view: You read that email with the agenda. You create a full fledged plan specification (borne by your brain). AR had plan originally, wrote down plan specification as agenda for the meeting, and MC and MD interpreted that specification, and created a plan in their head. What is exchanged/communicated is the plan specification.