http://ontologist.com 1 the ontology of documents barry smith

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The Ontology of Documents

Barry Smith

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PART ONE: Beyond Information Objects

PART TWO: What Documents Wreak

PART THREE: What you can Wreak with Documents

PART FOUR: Standardized Documents

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PART ONE

Beyond information objects

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Much valuable work on ‘documents’ in the context of XML, etc., standardization

e.g. Bob Glushko: “A document  is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.”

• focuses on information content, not on the physical container

• sees business collaborations – e.g. between on-line customer credit card authorization service when the latter verifies and charges the customer’s account – as ‘Internet information exchanges’

• but there is more than information here

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(Much bad stuff too)

HL7 Clinical Document Architecture

• is an XML-based document markup standard that specifies the structure and semantics of clinical documents for the purpose of information exchange

• all CDA documents derive their meaning from the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM)

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HL7-RIM

Document:Definition: Specialization of Act to add the characteristics unique

to document management services. (3.7.1)

Act:Definition: An Act is an action of interest that has happened, can

happen, is happening, is intended to happen, or is requested/demanded to happen. (1.5.1)

Act:Definition: A record of something that is being done, has been

done, can be done, or is intended or requested to be done. (3.1.1)

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HL7-RIM (Ballot September 2004)

Logical nonsenseAct = record of an Act (1.5.1)Act = intentional action (3.1.1)

Ontological nonsense“there is no distinction between an activity and its

documentation” (3.1.1)

Sheer nonsensedocument is a subclass (?!) of structured document (2.2.3)(Compare: number is a special type of prime number)

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HL7-RIM• draws no clear distinctions between

– documents (as entities which endure, can be stored, etc.)

– those acts of recording information which create documents

– acts of ordering or requesting or signing documents

– the information recorded in documents– the activities described in documentsetc.

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We are interested here in the class of (roughly: time-sensitive) documents

of importance e.g. • in homeland security (identification

documents)

• in commerce

• in law

• in healthcare

Thus: not novels ...

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Some examples

Made of paper Not made of paper

novel

textbook

newspaper

advertising flier

recipe

map

business card

license

degree certificate

deed

contract

will

receipt

statement of accounts

medical consent form

advertising hoarding

gravestone

hallmarked silver plate

film credits

exterior signage on buildings

clay tablet recording outcome of litigation

e-document

electronic health record

movie clapper

credit card receipt

stock market ticker

car license plate

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OED

1., 2. Teaching, lesson learned (cf. doctor, docile, docent)

3. That which serves to show, point out, or prove something; evidence, proof.

4. Something written, inscribed, etc., which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed,

tomb-stone, coin, picture, etc.

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What is missing from existing document ontologies:

• the social and institutional (deontic, quasi-legal) powers of documents

• the social interactions in which documents play an essential role (how documents bind people together)

• the sorts of things which we can do with documents• the different types of institutional systems to which

documents belong• the provenance of documents (on what distinguishes

original, authentic documents from copies, forgeries ...)

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What is missing from existing document ontologies:

– document as stand-alone entity vs. document with all its different types of proximate and remote attachments

– document template vs. filled-in document– document vs. the piece of paper (or other physical

carrier) upon which a document is written/printed, – etc.

Focusing on information alone will not suffice; it is a hard problem to simulate some of these features in the case of documents which exist only in a digital medium

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Allographic vs. Autographic• A work of art is “autographic if and only if the

distinction between the original and the copy has meaning; or rather, if even its most exact reproduction does not have the status of authenticity.”  (Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art)

• painting is autographic• music is allographic• It follows that a musical forgery is ontologically

impossible (R. Pouivet, “The ontology of forgery”)• How simulate the autographic in a digital medium?

Not via any pure information object, but only via provenance (history).

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Allographic = identity is notationalvs. Autographic = identity is historical

• A signature is autographic

• A fingerprint left at the scene of the crime is autographic

• A fingerprint taken for identification purposes is allographic

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PART TWO

What documents wreak

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Two types of ontology

• natural-science ontology (bio-ontologies)

• administrative ontology (e-commerce ontologies)

Healthcare ontologies span the two

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Documents belong to the domain of administrative entities

entities such as organizations, rules, prices, debts, standardized transactions ..., which we ourselves create

But what does ‘create’ mean ?

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Austin/Searle Speech Act Theory

1. We tell people how things are (assertives)

2. We try to get them to do things (directives)

3. We commit ourselves to doing things (commissives)

4. We express our feelings and attitudes (expressives)

5. We bring about changes in the world through utterances (declarations) (“I name this ship ...”)

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The Searle thesis

claims and obligations and deontic powers* are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts

(acts of promising, marrying, accusing ... )

The Construction of Social Reality (1989)

* rights, relations of authority, debts, property-relations, permissions, ...

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HL7-RIM

claims to be based on speech act theory, but ignores completely the deontic features of speech acts

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appointings, marryings, promisings ...change the worldbut only if certain background conditions are satisfied:

valid formulationlegitimate authorityacceptance by addressees

We perform a speech act ... the world changes, instantaneously

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A new entity comes into being

– a claim, obligation, right, power, name, office –

which survives for an extended period of time

What is the physical basis for this extended existence?

In small societies: the memories of those involved

In large societies: documents

Writing creates and sustains permanent, re-usable meaning and permanent re-usable deontic powers

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Differences between document acts and speech acts

• you don’t need to understand a document in order to perform a properly constituted document act

• paper documents are continuants, which means that they can change over time (be filled in, copied, stamped, etc.)

• they can also create traceable liability (form an audit trial)

• they can be attached together, creating new document-complexes whose structure mirrors relations (e.g. of debtor to creditor) among humans

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Differences between document acts and speech acts

• document acts typically involve components deriving from several of Searle’s five types– dual role of a delivery note:

• to guide those involved in delivering an object• to allow the recipient to attest to its receipt

• and also components of other types–dual role of your signature in your passport:

• to attest to the truth of a certain assertion• to provide a sample pattern for comparison

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Differences between document acts and speech acts

• speech acts are normally self-validating (they wear their provenance on their face)

• documents need technological devices (official stamps, special watermarks, signatures, countersignatures, seals, ...)

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Countersignatures

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The Searle thesis:

claims and obligations and deontic powers are brought into existence by the

performance of speech acts

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The de Soto thesis:documents and document systems are

mechanisms for creating the institutional orders of modern societies

Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital, New York: Basic Books, 2000

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The creative powers of documents

stock and share certificates create capital

examination documents create PhDs

title deed/cadastral map creates real estate parcels

marriage licenses create bonds of matrimony

bankruptcy certificates create bankrupts

statutes of incorporation create companies

title deeds create property rights and property owners

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The creative powers of documents

insurance certificates create insurance coverage

price tag/pricelist (creates commitments)

patent (creates rights)

license/degree certificate (creates rights)

statement of accounts (creates obligations)

membership card (creates rights)

divorce decree (creates rights and obligations)

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Identity documents

• create identity

• and thereby create the possibility of identity theft

• what is the ontology of identity?

• what is the epistemology of identity (the technologies of identification)?

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The creative power of documents

documents create authorities(physicians’ license creates physician)

authorities create documents(physician creates sick note)

Documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institutionvs. issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. US Declaration of Independence)

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Organizational chart

a map of the organization and of its flows of authority (a system of positional roles in the document represents [creates?] the system of positional roles which is the organization)

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Homework: How classify these kinds of documents

partnership agreement/ statute of incorporation

proxy form/representation agreement

ballot form

residence permit

census report

stock certificate

insurance claim form

insurance policy

visa/immigration document

bankruptcy certificate

insurance card/health insurance card

health certificate

consent form (for medical procedure)

medical record

criminal record

pension book

rent book

accident report/theft report/police report/charge

architects plan (vs. template for an architects plan)

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What kinds of documents have creative power in social reality?

not novels – which exist in many identical copies (tokens of the same type)

not watercolors in a gallery – which do not contain time-sensitive information

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Non-Creative

noveltextbooknewspaperrecipemapbusiness card

CreativeA

LL

OG

RA

PH

ICA

UT

OG

RA

PH

IC

advertizing fliertimetableguaranteetax form (filled in)minutes of a meeting

licensebirth certificatedegree certificatedeedcontractwillreceiptbanknote

paintingstatuebuilding

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PART THREE

What you can wreak with documents

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What you can do with a document [DOCUMENT ACTS]

Sign itStamp itWitness itFill it in Revise itNullify itRealize (interrupt, abort ...) actions mandated by it Deliver it (de facto, de jure)Declare it active/inactiveDisplay it (price list)Register itArchive it

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Addressees(documents point also forward in time)

Each kind of document has an associated kind of public

1. the creators of the document-template (legislators, drafters ...)

2. the guardians of the document (solicitors, notaries ...)

3. the fillers-in of the document (this is the central target audience)

4. the recipients of the document (registrars, ...)

5. the beneficiaries of the document (wills)

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Registration

storing of documents in a way which makes them – permanently accessible (checkable, verifiable)– amendable (e.g. where property is used as

collateral for loans)– combinable (attachment): social relations are

created via cross-referenced and cross-attached documents

– more easily authenticated

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Redundancy• Safety procedures for mission-critical

technology involve multiple layers of redundancy to ensure against catastrophe.

• a photograph alone is not sufficient to establish your identity: it must appear in the right place in the right sort of document that has been marked in the right sort of way by signatures, counter-signatures, stamps, ID numbers

• these elements serve to anchor the document to the reality beyond and to the history of its production

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anchoring documents to reality

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fingerprintofficial stampphotographbar code, cow brand-markcar license plateallow cross-referencing to documents

knowledge by acquaintanceknowledge by descriptionknowledge by comparison

• I use my passport to prove my identity• You use my passport to check my identity

Anchoring

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The ontology of signatures

documents needing signatures

signed/not signed/incorrectly signed/

fraudulently signed/signed and stamped

signed by proxy

with a single/with a plurality of signatories

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The ontology of names

• a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name

• names, too, belong to the domain of administrative (= created) entities

• this is an abstract yet time-bound object, like a nation or a club

• it is an object with parts (your first name and your last name are parts of your name, in something like the way in which the first movement and the last movement are parts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony)

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How do documents relate to their linguistically expressed content?

• What extra features do they have (signing, counter-signing, registering, validating ...) which give them their deontic force?

• And how do we recreate these features in the realm of e-documents?

• How do we anchor e-documents to objects and processes in physical reality (e.g. to human beings)?

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How do documents relate to the underlying physical medium

• A credit card receipt is autographic

• A credit card is allographic

• But the credit card as physical carrier is dispensable:– What is important are the credit card numbers

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The ontology of (credit card) numbers

• These numbers are not mathematical (not informational) entities – they are ‘thick’ (historical) numbers, special sorts of cultural artefacts– they are information objects with provenance:

abstract keys fitting into a globally distributed lock

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PART FOUR

Standardized Documents

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Standardized documents

Template, followed by act of filling in

First step towards standardized products is a plan, a description, a template, which can be filled in (brand identity))

documents filled in

completely/partially

correctly/incorrectly

validly/invalidly

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from the Shiprock Navajo fair

New Mexico, September 30-October 1, 2005

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Standardized documents

• allow networking

• across time (documents can accumulate through attachment)

• across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms)

• can encapsulate the memory and experience of an entire profession

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Good documents vs. bad documents

Good documents must be well-designed1. they must map the corresponding reality in a

perspicuous way – cf. maps as document2. they must be easy to fill in by members of its

central target audience (need for process of education?)

3. they must not create new problems (should bow off the stage once they have been properly filled in and never be seen again except in those rare cases where problems arise)

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standardized documents

• improve the flow of communications • allow standardized transactions• allow assets to be described using standard categories,

so as to enable comparisons• allow the transition from ad hoc narratives (as in old

title deeds) to structured representations of reality• communication is hereby advanced because signals

are abbreviated• supports the creation of more effective registries

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standardized documents embody social memory• one can more easily check that one has filled in the boxes

— correctly from a syntactical point of view — truthfully— by the right person— with the right authority

• some entries are made self-validating through the presence of official seals or stamps

• some entries refer to other forms (copies of which may be required to be attached to this form)

• the form itself can guarantee that it occupies its proper place in a network of forms

• facilitates checking and enforceability, and thus contributes to trust and to simplification of transactions

• and (cf. de Soto) makes us all better people

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