Mental Models & Terminology Working Group (Proposed)

Mission and Scope

The (ambitious) mission of the proposed MM&T WG is to identify and address the issues of ToIP stakeholders/users, that relate to ways of thinking (mental models) and terminology, and that may adversely affect the ToIP mission, i.e. "constructing, maintaining and improving a globally working, pervasively used, scalable and interoperable infrastructure  for the (international) exchange of verified and certified data".

Conveners (add your name if you are interested to become one of the convenors)

• <we need a convenor-lead name here>
• Oskar van Deventer (TNO)
• Rieks Joosten (TNO)

Interested Members (add your name if you may be interested in joining this proposed WG)

• Drummond Reed
• Daniel Hardman
• Scott Perry
• Shashishekhar S
• Philippe Page
• Paul Knowles

Description

Context

ToIP is the first and only member of the Linux Foundation that, next to a focus on technology (e.g. cryptography, DIDs and other identifiers, communication protocols, verifiable credentials, etc.) also and specifically focuses on governance, including business, legal and social aspects. Its complex and daunting mission is "constructing, maintaining and improving a globally working, pervasively used, scalable and interoperable infrastructure for the (international) exchange of verified and certified data". This is an engineering task that must not only provide the technology, but also actual business value and capabilities for complying with different legal contexts and societies. The main difficulty ToIP seeks to overcome is the integration between technology, business, legal, etc. 

MM&T WG Mission

A well-known impediment for this is 'language confusion', evidence of which is that many stories about this exist in various cultures. A more contemporary acknowledgement of this is the arechitecture of the EU parliament building in Strasbourg, which resembles the Tower of Babel (according to Pieter Brueghel's famous painting).

The (ambitious) mission of the proposed MM&T WG is to identify and address the issues that relate to ways of thinking (mental models) and terminology that may be an impediment for the ToIP mission of constructing, maintaining and improving a globally working, pervasively used, scalable and interoperable infrastructure  for the (international) exchange of verified and certified data.

MM&T WG Purpose

In a similar way that the results of ToIP, in order to be used, must be fit for purpose, the results of this WG must also be 'fit for purpose'. This implies that the WG needs to keep tabs on what the various stakeholders will actually want to do with the mental models and terminology that this WG will govern.

Specifically, the WG  shall create and maintain a list of stakeholders, their objectives, the issues they face regarding mental models and terminology, and the products or services that they might use for resolving such issues.

Knowing the kinds of products or services that will actually be used by others will provide the requirements that the mental models and terminology of this WG must satisfy. It helps us decide what tasks to undertake, guide us with tool selection, etc.

This is especially important because we envisage stakeholders to come from very different domains - technical, business, legal, etc. - each of which has different needs. Minimizing the effort being spent in this WG will require us spending some time to identify these needs, and finding ways to reconcile them into a minimum number of artefacts to be produced and maintained.

Mental Models and Terminology

The most basic purpose for having mental models and terminology (formal labels for carefully defined concepts) is to help someone that interprets a term (interpreter) that is uttered by someone else (speaker), to accurately apprehend its intended meaning. In casual, human conversations, 'interpretation errors' (mis-apprehensions) may be detected and corrected if relevant. In automated contexts, terms (messages) are just interpreted as they are programmed, so any miscommunication occurs at the human level, and may go undetected and lead to buggy software (or costly repairs).

We want to build on a specific practice we find in (Dutch) legal settings. In many court cases, discussions are about whether or not someone or something qualifies as (an instance of) a term, e.g. 'guardian'. The outcome of this discussion is relevant, because the law assigns consequences (duties, rights, ...) to those that do, or do not qualify. Often, the first article in a law document specifies the terminology that is used by that law, and hence should also be applied in cases where that law applies. And the point is that lawyers, knowing that such definitions must be used to decide whether or not something qualifies as in instance of a term, have made it a habit of defining a term in terms of criteria that judges and lawyers can apply, precisely for the (basic) purpose of ensuring that they all mean the same thing in a specific context. We have noted that it sometimes happens that a single criterion has different names (terms) in different laws. Lawyers can work with that by keeping strict tabs on the scope and context from which a term stems, and in which it is used.

Emphasizing that the MM&T WG is NOT for legal users only, we still remain inspired by the 'Legal Dictionary', which not only provides a definition of various terms, but also a brief description (for TL;DR readers), backgrounds, various use-cases that exemplify the relevance of (the distinctions made by) the terms, and more. This may well serve as a prototype of (one of) the result(s) this WG would be working towards, that would be capable to reconcile the different needs that different stakeholder-audiences could have in a single MM&T WG product, and that could evolve as ToIP evolves.

MM&T WG Tasks

The envisaged tasks of this WG consist of

• creating and maintaining a list of stakeholders, their objectives, the issues they face regarding mental models and terminology, and the products or services that they might use for resolving such issues.
• specifying, creating and maintaining a product framework, inspired on the 'Legal Dictionary', that can be filled with contents concerning mental models and terminology (and other relevant stuff).
• specifying and operating a process for maintaining and improving the contents of that framework, a proposal for which is under construction.
• specify other products/services that the WG will provide, or organize to be provided, so as to help stakeholders to address their issues.
• specifying and operating processes for maintaining (the contents of) such products/services.
• ...

Governance

<insert proposed governance policies and procedures>

The MM&T WG will have a (small) 'governing committee' (GC) that

1. oversees the work that is being done to further/fulfill its mission as described above, which consists at least of the following:,
   1. function, at least initially, as a modeling committee (MC) for the mental model on 'Mental Models', and how to CRUD them. 
   2. define the artefacts that constitute the 'body of knowledge' (BoK) of the MM&T WG, which document all mental models and terminology that the WG governs.
   3. define artefacts that may be considered for CRUDding the BoK of the MM&T WG mental models, as well as criteria that must be satisfied in order for such artefacts to be considered.
   4. define the process that considers  such artefacts (that satisfy the criteria), and produces a decision saying whether or not to update the BoK, and if so, how the BoK will be updated.
   5. define concrete artefacts (e.g. web pages, ...) that are to be generated from the BoK. Such artefacts are part of the results/products that the MM&T WG aims to produce.
   6. ensure that technology is available that automatically generates and updates such artefacts from the BoK (particularly as it is changed).
2. connects/liaises to the other WGs within ToIP as well as groups/organizations outside ToIP, e.g. relevant W3C groups, DIF, ... for the purpose of furthering the work of both the ToIP MM&T WG and that of the other groups, insofar that is considered useful.
3. ...

The MM&T WG will have at least one 'modeling committee' (MC) that oversees the construction and maintenance of mental models that are relevant within ToIP, consisting of carefully defined concepts, relations between them and the constraints involved. In order to refer to these, the committee will choose labels that appropriate with in the scope of its own work. Each mental model will also be associated to 'stories' (visions, use-cases, ...) that explain it, or identify pitfalls etc.,  in terms of what is understandable in other domains (e.g. legal, business, ...), using labels that exist in that context if they nicely map onto concepts or relations, or otherwise introducing/suggesting other labels.