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Title:

DISO: How Millions Will Build a Global Brain

Your vote:
Yes No
Organizer:
David Gallagher, SPCI
Description:
A Defined-Interdependency System of Orientation (DISO) allows us to organize nearly all information in a manner analogous to how a GIS organizes spatial information – using relational concepts to record what is somehow “next to” what. The key is understanding what situations are and what they comprise. The global brain ensues.
Questions
Answered:
  1. Why will proprietary search algorithms never be able to tame the information explosion adequately by themselves?
  2. Why would a universally-accepted subject classification scheme (if such could ever emerge) never be able to tame the information explosion adequately by itself – much less a hodgepodge of “folksonomy tags”?
  3. What is situation mapping, and why is it the key to taming the information explosion?
  4. How can we organize information so that we can explore the global contentscape in a manner similar to how Google Earth allows us to navigate the global landscape – zooming in and out and panning this way and that?
  5. Why will the most significant transformative potential of social networking remain unrealized until we learn how to map our situations?
  6. Why will the idea of a DISO – a Defined-Interdependency System of Orientation – save us from the mediascape splintering envisioned in the “Googlezon” film, “EPIC 2014”?
  7. How will a system of a few highly abstract but familiar concepts become the thread used by amateurs and experts together in a massive, fun, decentralized effort to weave the Semantic Web, integrating ontologies and speeding progress in both AI and IA?
  8. What constitutes a “global brain”?
  9. How can some of the energy, attention, and enthusiasm that consumers currently pour into gaming, chatter, and leisure research be attracted into a collaborative effort toward building a “global brain”?
  10. How could a “global brain” catalyze and facilitate a decentralized, peaceful transformation of our global civilization into a more vibrant, creative, sustainable, and compassionate society?
Level:
Advanced
Category:
New Technology / Next Generation
Type:
Dual
Event:
SXSW Interactive 2009
David Gallagher
on 8/8/08
Welcome! I hope something you read here piques your interest and moves you to 5-star me and then come to the presentation!

If you visit the Situation Mapping website (click my name above to get there), you will see that it is still under construction. At this writing, all that is there is what you see here. However, I intend, before the Panal Picker period is over, to add an executive summary of Situation Mapping. If you would like me to alert you via email when that goes up, you may email me requesting that I add you to my alert list. Send it to the email address given on the website.

The SXSW proposal included more than simply a title and a 50-word description. It also included ten questions that the presentation would address and a 50-word bio of the presenter.

I checked with the SXSW staff about it, and was encouraged to include all the rest of the information, if so moved. Here it is:


Ten questions that the presentation will address:

1. Why will proprietary search algorithms never be able to tame the information explosion adequately by themselves?

2. Why would a universally-accepted subject classification scheme (if such could ever emerge) never be able to tame the information explosion adequately by itself - much less a hodgepodge of "folksonomy tags"?

3. What is situation mapping, and why is it the key to taming the information explosion?

4. How can we organize information so that we can explore the global contentscape in a manner similar to how Google Earth allows us to navigate the global landscape - zooming in and out and panning this way and that?

5. Why will the most significant transformative potential of social networking remain unrealized until we learn how to map our situations?

6. Why will the idea of a DISO - a Defined-Interdependency System of Orientation - save us from the mediascape splintering envisioned in the "Googlezon" film, "EPIC 2014"?

7. How will a system of a few highly abstract but familiar concepts become the thread used by amateurs and experts together in a massive, fun, decentralized effort to weave the Semantic Web, integrating ontologies and speeding progress in both AI and IA?

8. What constitutes a "global brain"?

9. How can some of the energy, attention, and enthusiasm that consumers currently pour into gaming, chatter, and leisure research be attracted into a collaborative effort toward building a "global brain"?

10. How could a "global brain" catalyze and facilitate a decentralized, peaceful transformation of our global civilization into a more vibrant, creative, sustainable, and compassionate society?


Brief bio of the presenter:

David is the person whom happenstance guided to begin asking the questions that summoned the idea of a DISO. Seed insights began arriving in 1986. Since then, David has devoted himself as best he could to bringing forth the DISO idea. He has been working on it full-time since 2003.


I will be checking this page periodically, and I encourage you to post any questions you have. I will try to answer them appropriately. --David.
David Gallagher
on 8/8/08
Sorry the preceding comment was all run together. When I wrote it, it was all organized into paragraphs. But apparently the comment form ignores carriage returns. A much more readable PDF version of the proposal is available on my website. Click my name above (in the Presenter field) to get there. --David.
David Gallagher
on 14/8/08
FYI, David Swedlow will be joining me on the podium. David groks situation mapping very profoundly and has an uncanny ability to come up with the perfect metaphor for explaining things. So his comments will, I am sure, add invaluable spice and insight to the presentation and Q&A.
Nancy Lynch
on 26/8/08
The implications and possibilities are breathtaking -- I am interested in seeing how it can be adapted for analyzing current topics of concern so that the public may have access to all of the information necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of issues.

Please provide more detailed information about your background. It sounds fascinating!
David Gallagher
on 27/8/08
Nancy, that is certainly one of Situation Mapping’s noteworthy applications – the analysis of public policy issues. Indeed, that was really what first motivated me to ask the questions that led me to its “discovery.” I was in the Ph.D. program in Political Science at Columbia University, studying Comparative Public Policy. Two streams of concerns converged: (1) a sense that there existed no rigorous conceptual framework for comparing public policies; (2) a sense that the theoretical paradigm that was on the ascendent in political science at the time (rational choice theory) inherently tended to ignore many important factors. A third influence came when I started experimenting with how to store and organize my dissertation notes. I got excited about relational databases and created my own notekeeping software, using a product called Data Perfect (which has been defunct for a long time now). The development of the conceptual basis for Situation Mapping definitely benefited from that early exposure to relational databases, as well as from my substantive concerns.
David Swedlow
on 28/8/08
With all of the technology around social media, it's clear that we're moving to a new paradigm in communications. Unfortunately, the technology itself doesn't deal directly with the most difficult hurdle in this transition: our internal modeling systems.

Situation Mapping addresses that very aspect in a way that I have not seen before, but reminds me of the move toward open space technology, issue maps, and much of what David Weinberger writes about.

I'm keenly interested in having a broader discussion about the fundamental structure of these models, and a way that people design, build and use existing and new technology much more effectively.
Rebecca McIlwain
on 28/8/08
After meeting with "the Davids," I had a flash of insight about just how revolutionary this mapping process could be. I think it could have huge applications for people who need to assimilate large amounts of information and assess consequences when trying to make policy decisions. I hope you get lots of attention, investment, and interest in your project! I will be following along....
W Anderson
on 29/8/08
I'm keenly interested in how policies might be practically compared and contrasted, so this is definitely intriguing.
David Gallagher
on 30/8/08
Thanks, Nancy, David, Rebecca and W for your comments!
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