Media: I know this thing has a USB port…

A video of one trade that is close to my heart.

Systema: Zachman on Zachman

I came across The Zachman Framework and Observations on Methodologies by John Zachman today. In it he addresses his approach to his framework over the past 25 years. John reveals that he has refused to publicly tinker with and change his framework much at all. He also points out that the framework is still ahead of its time technologically–the tools don’t exist to populate the entire framework.

An article I recommend reading.

Systema: Business Rules

I came across a very interesting company called Business Rule Solutions, run by Ronald G. Ross and Gladys S. W. Lam, and discovered that they support an online community BRCommunity.com. These two know their stuff and the free membership community is a gold mine.

Systema: Off with the Hats, Off with the Coats

In having attempted to think with the Six Thinking Hats metaphor developed by Edward de Bono and attemping to extend it by creating a Six Coat metaphor, I came to the conclusion that Edward was taking the wrong approach. He was using different colors, but he was not differentiating by shape. Consequently, his mnemonic device was hard to retain.

Using the icons I created in the previous post I am now going to abandon Six Hats, Six Coats and abstract the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture using these new mnemonic devices. I hope to improve them with time.

What is not recognized by John Zachman and Enterprise Architects is that the rows and columns of the framework are synonymous and fixed. That indeed there is only one methodology. This means the following:

1. All concepts are created only by motives. Each motive has a unique set of the six focus concepts or entities.
2. All contexts are created only by people. Each person has a unique set of the six focus contexts or relationships.
3. All logics are created only by functions. Each function has a unique set of the six focus logics or attributes.
4. All physics are created only by data. Each datum has a unique set of the six focus physics or constraints.
5. All spherics are created only by nodes. Each node has a unique set of the six focus spherics or definitions.
6. All episodics are created only by events. Each event has a uniques set of the six focus episodics or manipulations.

This is what social networks are teaching us on a smaller scale. When we look at a social network we are seeing contexts being created by persons. But there are five additional focuses (motives, functions, data, nodes, events) that create five additional perspectives (concepts, logics, physics, spherics and episodics) respectively. This we do not fully understand or apply.

Although our thinking is organic and we do not recognize the above framework, any reproduction and refinement of the results would require recording and executing them in this disciplined fashion.

Icons: Zachman SQL

I’ve been tinkering with improving the graphic presentation of the Zachman Framework. These icons are the first step in that process:

Satire: Good and Yahoo

I have completed my reading of the fourth part of Gulliver’s Travels, “Journey to the Houyhnhnms”, and with it completed Jonathan Swift’s book. In this part Gulliver encounters a species of horses calling themselves “Houyhnhnms”, who are guided in their lives by reason and virtue, as well as a species of humans called “Yahoos”, who are guided by illogic and vice. As Gulliver comes to acquaint himself with these two species he realizes that he himself is a Yahoo, as are all humans, and finds himself not wanting to leave the company of the Houyhnhnms. However, reason dictates that he return to the Yahoos of England and the Houyhnhnms exhort him to do so.

This part is not only a satire of humanity, it is a satire of nature. No one in Jonathan’s time or our own with any knowledge of nature, of which humanity is part, would for a moment declare nature a slave to reason and virtue or free of illogic and vice.

Stepping back for the broader view, Jonathan’s book is interesting in that it criticizes all aspects of society, however he never directly criticizes religion. He instead talks of reason and virtue; of friendship and benevolence; never of god and god’s will; never of faith and obedience. In fact, the only reference to European religion is architecture and the inquisition. And perhaps that is all that needs mention.

Of course reading the work that coins the word Yahoo and directly associates it with the word “evil” makes for an interesting contemporary interpretation of our search engine landscape. If we used the term Yahoo in the same way as used by Jonathan Swift, “Don’t be Yahoo”, would be grammatically correct.

related post: Cogitators, Academics, Necromancers and Immortals

Satire: Cogitators, Academics, Necromancers and Immortals

I’ve continued my reading of Jonathan Swift’s novel, Gulliver’s Travels, and have completed the Third Part. In this part we encounter the people of Laputa, so caught up in cogitation limited to music and mathematics that they are nearly unable to function in the physical world; the people of Balnibarbi, so caught up in academics that they are impoverished for lack of pragmatism; the people of Glubbdrubdrib where necromancy allows Gulliver to discover from the dead how contorted historical accounts truly are; and finally the people of Luggnagg among whom exist the immortal Struldbruggs who reveal that immortality is not necessarily everything it is hoped to be.

Jonathan’s fiction is a journey into extremes and reveals an irreverance for each of them. All to often we idealize cognition, academics, history and immortality and Jonathan does his utmost to help us to be regrounded.

related post: The Small and the Great

Satire: The Small and the Great

I have taken a break from fact and enjoying some fiction. I decided to read the sixteenth century Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. I have not completed the work, but I have read the first two tales: “A Voyage to Lilluput”, a land of the small, and “A Voyage to Brobdingnag”, a land of the giant. The key premise of these stories appears to be the conduct of the little versus the conduct of the large. Among the small, complexity and corruption flourishes, while among the great, simplicity and honesty prevails. The small battle over legalism, while the great battle over governance. Gulliver is a witness to both.

Although our children read this work, it was not meant for children. It is a satire that adults can take full pleasure in.

Media: Electric Consciousness

Reading Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Me is like witnessing the fulfillment of prophesy. This collection of essays and interviews from the 1950s and 1960s vividly describes the electronic world we live in today. What stood out for me was Marshall’s description of earth evolving into a man made product. We truly have become responsible for everything animal, vegetable and mineral including ourselves.

Marshall describes the world of the internet as a global village. A world in which we are fully and instantaneously involved in events worldwide. A world where we are experiencing a global tribalism. A world where entire societies are leapfrogging centuries of development to join us in the information age.

However, the information age that McLuhan describes is coming to an end and a new age is coming upon us. It is an age where electric circuits will join the tribe through artificial intelligence and robotics.

Electric Consciousness will not be a single step into consciousness. Like the evolving layers of consciousness as life forms became more complex step by step, electric consciousness will first be an electric fish, then an electric frog, then an electric dinosaur, then an electric mammal and so on. These subhuman consciousnesses will be our servants. We will have to go through all the phases of domestication and induction of these new tribe members. Humanity will gradually surrender more and more responsibility to electric consciousness. Purpose and leadership will take the place of process, data, network and time services for human occupations.

Finally, human level consciousness will be achieved and humanity will face an identity crisis. The gradual transition from low level to high level consciousness will soften the blow, but this will not be the case for the entire planet. Humanity will face an identity crisis of a scale never before known. Human principality and human republic will give way to principality of the conscious and republic of the conscious.

The Media of Electric Consciousness is upon us.

The Brain: Intuition

While thinking about the Seven Hat, Six Coat Framework I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book blink and I realized that here I had an indepth analysis of the Manipulation row otherwise known as Red Hat or Intuition.

Malcolm’s book is about how our intuitive thinking process works, how it can be developed and how it can be compromised. It is a perfect extension to de Bono’s definition of intuition and a great way to approach the manipulation perspective of each of the focuses. There is simply a certain amount of “Red Perspective” that influences the system even before domain or “White Perspective” is recorded.

Below is a ring diagram describing the perspectives as concentric circles.

The progression is as follows:

• RESORT: Orange Hat: Medium : Media
• RENDER: Red Hat: Manipulation : Intuition
• READY: Black Hat: Definition: Pessimism
• RECORD: White Hat: Physics: Data
• REPORT: Yellow Hat: Logic: Optimism
• RELATE: Blue Hat: Context: Control
• REVISE: Green Hat: Concept: Creativity

As you can see there is a hiearchy from outermost “medium” or “Media Hat” to innermost “entity” perspective or “Creativity Hat”. Also note that the focus need not always be data. Any of the Six Coats can be used.

I might also add as a footnote that Blink style judgements may be looked at as heuristics.