Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 http://www.archive.org/details/boostingcollectiOOdrdo Boosting Collective IQ: A Design for Dramatic Improvements in Productivity, Effectiveness and Competitiveness Expedition Seminar • July 18, 1994 Bootstrap Institute Dr. Douglas Engelbart Christina Engelbart Contents Basic Requirements 1. Targeting Collective IQ (CoDIAK) 2. Knowledge-Domain Interoperability 3. Open Hyperdocument Systems (OHS) Strategic Acquisition & Depioyment 4. Co-Evolution via Pilot Exploration 5. ABC Improvement Infrastructure 6. Bootstrap Strategy 7. Current Bootstrap Activities • ARPA JTF ATD Project • OHS Alliance • Networked Improvement Communities and "TurboNIC" • Expeditions 8. Seiected Papers DCE 14Jul94 EWK Stan here Objective High-performance Organizations Ever-Accelerating CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT! rCLE Approach Focus on their CAPABfUTY INFRASTRUCTURE! WHOLE-SYSTEM AUGMENTATIOH Tool Approach Pn^matic CO-EVOLUnON! Faster and smarter PRODUCT CYCLES Faster and smarter IMPROVEMENT CYCLES The Bootstrap 'Paradigm Map" Douglas Engelbart Bootstrap Institute 6-Oct-92 Answer ADVANCED PILOTS, mtd especiaiiy a C COMMUNITY Question Best DEPLOYMENT TARGETS for newly improved CODIAKcagabilities^ opet HYPERDOCUMENT SYSTEM Strategic Question What first capability improvement would yield MOST PAYOFF? Question Any useful strategic INVESTMENT CRITERIA? X Answer Y9»! Fromtfw ABC MODEL of Improvement aclMtyi I BOOTSTRAPPtNQ STRATEGY bnproveniem RO) - On A,- Step tncramant OnB: l8tdertvafli» Ctiallenge GLOBAL INTEROPERABILITY for interactive use 2Blf|ta Absolute Leading Candidate CODIAK knowtedge capidEtiStiiHi Note: This July 18, 1994 briefing package summarizes a particular subset of these total-strategy elements — the following sections deal with specific elements as indicated. The third enclosed paper (Groupware '92) pretty well covers this whole map. MZardi Cardinal lM^lp®(s]3ii5@m ^i^mSiiDSiii' 'SmUf l/<®, UW^ Objective To pursue high-performance organizations. To instill organizations with ever increasing speed, agility, precision and vision - extending beyond improvements to their perception and reflexes, to include boosting their reasoning, memory, foresight, learning, and planning abilities as well (Collective IQ). Notes BEGIN WITH BASICS: PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT £ Examples of org units, or knowledge domains: X • an individual r • project team \ • department ^ • functional unit / • task force • whole org • community Note: can be across- multiple organizations Notes EVERY VIABLE ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT REQUIRES BASIC KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES (interacting) .^j.^lC Scanning) Analyzing Digesting Integrating Collaborating Developing Applying Re-using Notes Sspp^^HiHI'em ^^MfiSmiir 4y]!ly V^, '<]W4} Notes Notes Notes CoDIAK: Every Viable Organizational Unit Requires Basic Knowledge Processes E Analyzing Digesting Integrating ' Developing Applying ' Collaborating Re-using CoDIAK: Concurrent Development, Integration, & Application of Knowledge. As CoDIAK Elements Move Online, So Too Must The CoDIAK Process (interacting) (Scanning) US Dialog Records Memos Status reports Meeting minutes Commentary Dialog trails Design rationale Change requests Document distrib. & exchange Bug reports Design reviews Ingesting 1 A External External Intelligence Articles, books Reports, papers Conf. procedings Brochures Market surveys Industry trends Competition Suppliers info Customer info New technologies New techniques ^ Knowledge Products Proposals Plans Budgets Legal contracts Milestones Source code Design specs Product descript. Work breakdown Test plans/results Field spt manuals Analyzing Digesting Integrating Developing Applying Collaborating Re-using CoDIAK: Concurrent Development, Integration, and Application of Knowledge PARADIGM ALERT* The English language has no v^ford for this "knowledge product". I chose the term "Handbook" for this "baseline" project view. t L Knowledge/ Current Product /"Handbook" Proposals Plans Budgets Legal contracts Milestones Source code Design specs Product descriptions Work breakdown Test plans & results Field spt manuals Op)en Issues IM^Ip)®^MI®!iii ^(Bmlmmir •^wlJ^ i/©, 1]§M lB®®ii^W^lp HmQiiMM^ THE IDEAL HANDBOOK WOULD SHOW THE COMPLETE, CURRENT PROJECT STATUS Goals, Plans, Designs, Budgets, Targets, Commit- nnents, Schedules, Status, Staffing, Organization, Methods, Expectations, Specifications, Work Breakdown Structure, External Reference Data, ... If kept constantly current and with visible relevance for all, a dynamic Handbook has central importance. Storing intermediate Handbook states, and a record of the transitional dialog and reasoning, yields a critically valuable organizational memory. L This Basic Organizational Capability Emerges as our Highest-Leverage Target The Concurrent Development,Jntegration, and Application of Knowledge (CoDIAK) L Developing an evolving knowledge base that integrates the concurrent contributions of many distributed participants, operating from the many (nested) knowledge domains involved within and among our enterprises, and concurrently supporting their application of the Included knowledge. Notes Below we use the model of a complex product-development project, in an industrial context, to illustrate the development of our CODIAK concepts. Change the scale and substance, as for almost any complex pursuit, and the CODIAK picture will still emerge as a critical capability to augment. ("Handbook" -- the electronic embodiment of a knowledge product.) Notes Notes ^^(§/M@/ra Wi^mSifDm ^JJmll^ t/@, ll^)§4i M Key Challenge: Interoperability among CoDIAK domains ■^ "-in Til .el,<>.»««»».^ l^®®iiMmip /?®©i?i??aj8© Notes EACH FUNCTIONAL DOMAIN IS A CANDIDATE FOR WORKING INTERCHANGE WITH ALL OTHERS One Person's Knowledge Workshop Task Management Contact Log Personal Notes. Draft Memos Correspondence Boss Hierarchy Phone Lists Financial Budget Work Procurement Subordinates L, Suppliers Notes ORG UNIT'S CODIAK PROCESS NESTED WITHIN OTHER ORG EFFORTS L Notes SispM^Mswo ©iwro^roa/ Ju^ VS, 'JDSW Notes Each Functional Domain is a Candidate For Working Interchange With All Others Example: A Manufacturing Organization Management Marketing Customers Design Engr. Engr. Analysis Manufacturing Quality Assurance Fiscal Legal Procurement Subcontractors L.. Suppliers Notes BJ Heavy manufacturing industries have been active in exchange standards for CAD models, and Product Description data -- and also for electronic forms of conventional documents. But there is little appreciation (yet) for what the future, basic CODIAK processes will require. Close Cooperation Between Large Organizations Puts New Demands on Knowledge-Work Interchange Example: Two Aerospace Companies required to do "Program Teaming" Company X Program P Company Y Program P Notes D TEAMED AEROSPACE PROGRAM -- IMMENSE DEMAND FOR KNOWLEDGE-WORK EXCHANGE Program P Company X: 2000-3000 PeopI 6000 + companies . 3 Program P Company Y: )0-3000 People 7000 + > companies; 20W First^ ^uppl/rs 2C^300 First- Tj^ Suppliers \ / u ' w/ \ w / 2000 S ac^, 2000-3000 Secoi^ \ JF Tier Suppliers W \ s / '^ 7^ ^AV V\\ \ I J 4000-5000 Third-Tier Suppliers V IM^ip®(siSiiS®iiii mmlmmir 'SwSf 1]§» Him ID, The need for CODIAK interoperability will extend the scope of standards. > \ lB@@M2mip anasiiSiiaiiM Notes Notes Notes [M2ilp®(^S23@m ^(BmSuasia' ^aaHf 1I§» H^^ First beachhead for improving CoDIAK capability: Open Hyperdocument Systems IE L •m Common CoDIAK Capabilities Underlie Every Special Knowledge Domain Engineering. ^ > > > >, I fecholarty; =^\ fPlanningj / [k.Li 'nL 1^°^^^^"'^ , —^ I— iVr/l— I l~1 W/ L Each adds its own special extensions, all of which must intemperate with the common capability, and with the other knowledge domains. Open HyperDocument Systems: An Integrated Knowledge Environment to Support Very Large Common CODIAK Capability L f— II— iPCll lmr~ir~lt^ — r— iCTi — .1 — If— iR^i — I. — .| — |rrni~~l E 8) ? a o S I i Q. Explicitly Structured Multi-Media Document Processing Separation of View & Content Object-Level Addressing & Hyper-Linking Screen share, scripting, etc. P BoetKtrwp kurttun ■ IB@@ii^2mip Sm^Miiaii^ Notes Notes The special-domain list is endless — government at all levels, all business and industry, every institution, every facet of daily life. In ttie sfiort run, it is far easier for the marketplace to keep investing in isolated, large-system point solutions. But the CoDIAK capability is extremely general, and will inevitably be supported by a generic solution where the subset of special features within each special domain will be surprisingly small. Going after such a general solution sooner will be much more cost-effective than the point- solution alternative, and should yield mucy higher leverage in productivity and performance. Notes B^^HQitTsp Jjoa'^HwH'S Notes '&xp'^iini'on "^^mhrni JuH-y i% imM NotOS Especially an OHS Examples of OHS Elements: • Document Structure • Viewing/Browsing • Object-Level Hyper-Linking • Journal/Library and XDoc Facility • Architecture Supporting Customizable "Knowledge Workshop" • Architecture Supporting Shared-Screen Teleconferencing AUGMENTING THE CODIAK PROCESS L. • Open-system, integrated architectures are of critical concern, supporting and spanning across: -) many difterent classes of workers -) many different workstations and application domains 5 organizational units, offices, and organizations • Exploration must go beyond technology to include associated work methods and organizational stmctures. • Exploration must go beyond R&D to include pilots, and strategic deployment within rapidly changing organizations. 0 Soourap ifunm m Notes Linkage to and From External Information CAD Systems Video Records Financial Systems On-Llne Information Services riiii I OHS Environment Geographical Information Systems World Wide : Web 1 I Relational Databases Publishing Systems Msiip®(slS2S@m ^(smasusiir ^sjllf i/©, l/DIMJ lEi@@2Mmip OifiisMsjits m AN OPEN HYPERDOC SYSTEM (OHS): SHARING FILES & SHARING SCREENS Supports:^ ,/ • Structure • Object-Linking • Viewmg\ • Browsing • Shared screen • Scripting o X L. 1^, E-Mail i DS a V Shared File Journal (Libra, External Docs (Offline) C-3^°ci0'[3°I K^J o o Q Notes "Hyperdoc" provides flexible linkages to any object in any multi-media file; "Open" provides vendor-independent access within and across workgroups. UNAMBIGUOUS TEXTUAL ADDRESSES ENABLE USE OF IN-FILE CITATION "LINKS" Otractory: WJONES nf: ARS ^ , / \ \ . . °(JSmith,S-Doc, components)" pif*etory: JSMnVi "(S-Doc. figure-1)' Notes Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD.2250. EXAMPLE; Jump online to item 7 in "oad,2250," with flexible views more of the optional vocabulary and skills in a smoq progression. 'ard-compatible CONTROLLING THE VIEWS L A user of a book, or of most on-line text systems, is constrained text as though he had a window through which he sees a fixei document. But as described below, our worker can view a many ways, depending upion his need of the moment. MULTIPLE WINDOWS For whatever total screen area is available to the worker, his general performance will be improved significantly if he can flexibly allocate that area into arbitrary-sized windows whose contents can be independently controlled. Notes (Espp9^!l9!!'§xn #mbM©7 Juty V-X "J-M^ Notes m The remaining foils show a vahety of views which a user could evoke when studying & modifying the stnjctural content of an AUGMENT document. VIEWS next view -^ ebb 7 CONTROLLING THE VIEWS 7a A user of a book, or of most on-line text systems, is constrained to viewing the text as though he had a window through which he sees a fixed, formatted document. But as described below, our worker can view a section of text in many ways, depending upon his need of the moment. f s I VIEW: All levels: Numbers On: All line per statement; Blank lines. Notes Notes m 1 VIEWS <:ebt> next view-^<:zg= 7 CONTROLLING THE VIEWS 7a A user of a book, or of most on-line text 7b MULTIPLE WINDOWS 7c WINDOW VIEWS 7d USER-SPECIFIED SEQUENCE 1 VIEW: 2 levels: Numbers On; 1 line per statement: Blank lines. IS VIEWS <:et)mg> 7c WINDOW VIEWS 7c1 STRUCTURE CUTOFF. Show only the 7c2 LEVEL CLIPPING. For the designated 7c3 STATEMENT TRUNCATION. For those 7c4 INTER-STATEMENT SEPARATION. 7c5 (Note: The foregoing view controls are 7c6 STATEMENT NUMBERS AND NAMES. 7c7 FROZEN STATEMENTS. A worker may 7c8 USER-SPECIFIED CONTENT FILTERS. i VIEW: 3 levels: Numbers on: 1 line per statement: No blank lines: Branch only. ^Ifim(sl325@m ^(SimSufasii}' MH"^ l/@, HWM ^©©H^^msp Sm^HMwitB L. Structure Provides "Handle" for Any Operation gb 9d Move Branch -7 (to follow)^ 9 MODIFYING THE DGJCUMENT 9a Givenine arrayyof capabilities described 9b CoDMirrent user of mouse and keyset also 9b1 Keyset hand strikes "m" and "b" (for 9b2 The moyse hand depresses the 9c A few extr^verbs are useful for structure 9d A major ssurce of structure-modification 9e (Note: I just had myself timed for this 9f In our view, interactive computer support Handles structural branch of any size. (Can type Stmt Nums or click anywhere on stmt.) Notes m Journal/Library Facility Networking has opened whole new horizons for organizations, but also opened the "floodgates" for information overload. Too much, too hard to manage, and the important knowledge that might have enduring value is buried or lost, a I / V t L Try providing an integrated library-like system. Just prepare a submittal form for the message or document, and an automated "clerk" assigns a catalog number, stores the item, notifies recipients with a link for easy retrieval, notifies of supercessions, catalogs it for future searching, manages document collections, ... 0 floolvnp *u«rua»a Notes A Journal System Provides "Hypertext Publishing" for Durable Recorded Dialog and Exchange /Journal/ XCatalog/ Submittal Form prepared using special email form choosing from a wide selection of fields for cataloging Document D — To, Cc, & Bcc (for Notification distribution), Keywords, Comment. Supersedes, Access-restrictions, etc. Notification mailed to distribution Notes Note: OHS should support multiple journals, distributed across multiple servers within and across organizations. l^ • Document review "Inconsistencies in <2a> and <5d>..." • Doc management Stonng intermediate states of pro) docs • Doc accountability Versions tracked, signatures venfiable T • Intelligence collection Market research, news releases, findings 1 • More ... , , ^ Notes An integrated external-document (XDOC) system was planned from the beginning to be a part of what we now call the CODIAK capability. It remains a basic element in expected future Hyperdocument Systems. CONTROLLING EXTERNAL DOCUMENTS IS AN IMPORTANT COLLABORATIVE FUNCTION • Books, clippings, articles, etc. • Catalogued and indexed via same tools as for "internal," on-line documents. • Important purpose is to support citation links to external material. • Another purpose is the common one of facilitating retrieval and access. L Notes m OHS Architecture Provides "Knowledge Workshop" for Many Classes of User Client Terminal Terminal- Charactsficttcs FBa r L. VTC: Virtual-Terminal Corit roller CLI; Command-Language Interpreter PCI; Procedure-Call Interface IM2sip Commentary Price ^^ Justification ^^ m^—m iL Proposal Marmgement ^ ^ Teeh Approach ' Costs ^ . SchecUe ' RFP^ statement of Work . Evaftiation '^ \ Strat€ gy r \ 3mes 1 L k. Commentary Jih B®®iisiiir§iip) Hm^itSM^ OHS Alliance Program Business Management Accounting Reporting OHS Alliance Sj^stern Engineering Notes Notes Notes UijrjlslrDp Jnsfl3(hoits Notes Ssip^SHhm ^mfjirnvT 4wty 'J% 'il^ Notes OHS Alliance Program Development & Maintenance REQUIRE- MENTS I Hardware? I Softwarel jf Design /] Drawings L. OHS Alliance Corporate Knowledge Base L IQI^QI 'jLLUi, \ iji mn jjij^iiijiiij^ » i ». ^^^^"^""^ V -^ ^_. y > ,r, : ,-,1 UT-^^^ftc- Prnnram 1 Prr aHK ptl^r- Notes lM2isp®(sl5^5®m ^(smSmsiiJ' SmUf l/®, ^1©^ IB@®iiQillJWIp UiNMSdiM^ Our Capability Infrastructures Grew Via Co-Evolution of Human & Tool Systems HUMANSYSTEM Paradigms Organization Procedures Customs Methods Language Skills Knowledge Training Attitudes TOOL SYSTEM Facilities Media Tools Machinery Vehicles etc. ^^mEWJh Notes •m HUMAN-SYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS FOR CODIAK SUPPORT There is much more to be learned about the rigorous use of an OHS in a wide-area, distributed CODIAK process. The human-system elements ~ all the methods, procedures, conventions, skills, etc. ~ must be highly developed in close association with the continuing evolution of OHS requirements. L. Notes Much-Simplified Representation of Organizational Futures' Frontier '^pa Barely imagjneable 20-year horizon Rapid boundary movement Anticipatabie today ^^ Today's Frontier perpetration ^^*VA* Higher degree of technology harnessin^*- Human-System Configurations 0 Aoocatrap inMatum u Notes ^Ju]y V9, um^i Notes Re: Your Improvement Plans — Prevailing Paradigms Strongly Affect Answers To: L What degree of improvement is considered possible? What degree of change can be contemplated - in tools, knowledge, skills, roles, methods, conventions, ...? What degree of dependence can be placed on "The Marketplace" to provide the necessary change support? Who among the current players in the market- place are expected to play the cntical roles of exploration and transition mapping? D C Engelban Notes m Mode (1) For Increasing Regional or Organizational Capability (1) Simultaneously elevating capability across broad population. '^ -■ - '- ^ s-^ Distribution of Capability Ttirougtiout Population DC Engeibart Notes HUMAN-SYSTEM EVOLUTION NEEDS SUPPORT FOR GRADES OF USER PROFICIENCY! • Yes, "easy to learn" for beginners; but this will decrease in importance as the user- population continues to mature. • Evolution will be severely inhibited if experienced, heavy users can not extend their capability with enhanced vocabulary and procedural proficiency. L., M]sip®(slM®m ^(smSmsiir ii7^ nv, iim4} Notes Notes Notes m An Organization's Bootstrapping Process Primary Org Output ^I3f ^T ^i_i; Capability- Improvement Products *^^^ =g]j„ Bootstrap Feedback CT Two-Stage Organizational Bootstrapping Primary i Org Output -gg' J Capability- Improvement Products ^^^•cpw^ Bootstrap Feedback m Info-Systems Vendor's Bootstrap Leverage Primary Vendor Output "C^ Those Info-Sys Products that can '^ym support vendor's own internal work processes. L IMssip®^M5®ii)i B®mlmsi(f MO^ 11§» U^)^ strategic Option: Collaborative Alliance to Support Member Improvement Projects Orgn U. i Customer-Driven ^ p Improvement Alliance 4 Notes ^ C Activities Joining Forces Member 1 Member 2 VirfOKIi ^ I f0f Bootstrapping Leverage: boosted by its own products- continuously augmented Human-Tool Systems. Notes The Bootstrap Strategy is based upon the hypothesis that the constructive capabilities of individuals and their organizations can be further augmented to much higher levels than we expehence today. The Bootstrap Strategy offers a pragmatic way to check that out. What are we waiting for? L Notes tlp(B(slliil®m ^®mlmsiif SmSy i/©, i/DI^ lB®®2^2irsiip am^aSiimii^ OHS Alliance Objectives • Develop evolving OHS prototype series • Co-evolve best practices for - knowledge environment design - Collaborative processes, conventions, roles - training, coaching, and deployment strategies • Collaborate on advanced pilots ("frontier outposts") • Share cost, risks, and lessons learned • Stimulate commercialization Approach • Stakeholder participation • Use results for Alliance's own work accelerates leaming • "Grow" results from lessons leamed, projected scenarios and ongoing intelligence ingestion • Facilitate commercialization through vendors Notes Bl ARPA Project for Command Control 'Any time, any where' Distributed JTF Planning & Tracking througtiout crisis life cycle JCollaborative • Intel ^K Planning ' Plans ^^ Environment ' Dialog •Webs KEY IDEAS: • Document-based, flexible browsing, editing, linking, structuring, coordina ting, tracking, version control • Integrated, evolvable infrastructure Co-evolution of tools & practices • Support high-performance teams L! OBJECTIVES: Deliver quantum-leap boost to JTF "Collective IQ" via integrated multi- media groupware "Open Hyperdoc System" tools & methods(OHS) Deliver similar capabilities to ATD Team, and to the nation at large FY94 MILESTONES: • Add GUI to first-generation OHS • Transfer OHS to UNIX server and extend OHS with API & reach-thru • Demonstrate OHS applicability (tools & practices) • Conduct Workshop for ATD Team AN IMPORTANT NEED: COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT MEMBER IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS Org1 Org 2 / ;r—^ y >• W" j^ / / ? T / / Improv. Projects Networked Improvement i Community -NIC } Notes Notes ®®®i?s!ftrfi^ JjiSiiU'iQj^-^ Notes Notes '^p^cinToJi ^yJTjJrjijT 'JuJy 75, 1:^M STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY: A NIC TO SUPPORT IMPROVEMENT FOR A COMMUNITY OF NICS NIC 1 NIC 2 NICn /^ Improv. Projects / y y V / Networked Improvement Community -TurboNIC L.. 5^ ^^^v Bootstrap Institute invites participation in guided "Expeditions" out into this frontier ■^ To live and work for a U) time in farthest outpost 2 i c 9. 1 WB can establish. f Rapid boundary movement r,3,. p,^,3efui. mO 1 provide cntical ^ expenence regarding o ^ E 5 0) x: Antfdpatable today U®" , needs and possibilities bry-^ 1 'or moving our « .ff ^^ organizations out f?r ^ 1 there. * Today's Frontier 1 o o 1^ cgj^ penetration 1 Higher degree of technology hamessir>g*- j Human-System Configurations ,»«-/ Notes 8 'J J Selected Papers Authorship Provisions in Augment Working Together Toward HIgh-Performance Organizations: A Strategic Role for Groupware Also published in Computer Supported Cooperative Work: A book of Readings, Irene Greif (Editor], Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, CA, 1988, pp. 107-126. Also published in Groupware: Software for Computer- Supported Cooperative Work, D. Marca & G. Bock [Editors], IEEE, 1992. DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD,2250, AUTHORSHIP PROVISIONS IN AUGMENT Douglas C. Engelbart Tymshare, Inc., Cupertino, CA Journal (OAD,2250,) December 9, 1983 Note: Published in "COMPCON '84 Digest, "Proceedings of the 1984 COMPCON Conference, San Francisco, CA, February 27 - March 1, pp. 465-472. ABSTRACT 2 AUGMENT is a text processing system marketed by Tymshare for a multi- user, network environment. In AUGMENT'S frontend is a User Interface System that facilitates flexible evolution of command languages and provides optional command recognition features. Exceptionally fast and flexible control of interactive operations is enabled by concurrent action of mouse and optional one-handed chord keyset. Files are hierarchically structured, and textual address expressions can flexibly specify any text entity in any file. The screen may be divided into arbitrary, rectangular windows, allowing cross-file editing between windows. Many options exist for controlling the "view" of a file's text in a window, e.g.: level clipping, paragraph truncation, and content filtering. Structural study and modification of on-line documents are especially facilitated. A Journal system and "Shared Screen Teleconferencing" support collaboration among authors and their colleagues. Graphic illustrations may be embedded in the same file with text. 2a INTRODUCTION 3 AUGMENT was designed for augmenting human intellectual capabilities. It was targeted particularly toward the core work of professionals engaged in "tough knowledge work" — e.g., planning, analyzing, and designing in complex problem domains. And special attention was paid to augmenting group collaboration among workers pursuing common goals. 3a Authorship has received a great deal of attention in AUGMENT'S evolution, as one of the central human activities to be augmented. An important set of provisions within AUGMENT - in its architecture, design principles, and specific features - is directly aimed toward bringing high performance to the authorship activities of knowledge workers. For the purposes of this paper, we thus speak interchangeably of "knowledge worker" and "author." Sd We recognize explicitly that highly skilled workers in any field, and knowledge work is no exception, are those with good command of their tools. Our basic design goal was to provide a set of tools that would not themselves limit the Page 1 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9Dec-83 17:43PST OAn.2250, capabilities of the people using them. A system designed to encourage more skilled workers will always enable higher human performance than one designed to support less skilled workers. 3c In this regard, our design goal was to provide as much capability as possible for each level of system usage skill, and a continuous evolution path between skill levels. We believe firmly that knowledge workers are motivated to grow in knowledge and skill and that provisions in system design should support this. As the rest of the paper reveals, this approach translates into a rich set of AUGMENT provisions, aimed at providing speed and flexibility for skilled workers in organizing and pursuing their core knowledge work — in which "authorship" is a primary activity. 3d An explicit sub-goal in AUGMENT'S development was to "augment" the development, production and control of complex technical documentation — through the whole cycle of gathering information, planning, creating, collaborating, reviewing, editing, controlling versions, designing layout, and producing the final documents. 3e This paper concentrates upon the development phase of this cycle. AUGMENT has well-developed tools to support the later, production phase, but their discussion is not included here. 3f Studying another's work provides a well-recognized challenge, but one of the toughest jobs is to study one's own work during its development: to see what it really says about Issue X; to see if it does provide for Concept Y; to see if it is reasonably organized and structured -- and to do these over a body of material before it is "polished", i.e., before it is well structured, coherently worded, non- redundant and consistently termed. 3g SOME BACKGROUND 4 HISTORY 4a AUGMENT is an integrated system of knowledge-worker tools that is marketed by Tymshare's Office Automation Division. The system was developed at SRI International over an extended period under the sponsorship of NASA, DARPA, and RADC. Commercial rights were transferred to Tymshare in 1978 (where the system has since been renamed from NLS to AUGMENT) and its evolution continued. A short history of AUGMENT'S development may be foiind in , along with a summary of system characteristics and features. The general R&D philosophy and the design principles behind AUGMENT'S development are laid out in . 4al The system evolved on time-shared, mainframe computers, and in a packet- switched network environment. In 1970 our computer was the second to be Page 2 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD,2250, attached to the ARPANET, and since 1978 we have also operated extensively in the TYMNET environment. We have benefited directly fi-om both the time- sharing and the network environments in matters that are important to the authorship process -- especially in dealing with large docmnents and multi- party documentation activities. In 1976-77 we conducted some applied studies for the Air Force, as reported in and , which concentrated upon this latter application. 4a2 RELEVANT ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES 4b Perhaps AUGMENT'S most unique architectural feature is its User Interface System (UIS), a special software module, which handles the human/computer interfaces to all interactive programs. It takes care of all command-language dialog and connection protocols, and provides a framework for building a coherent and integrated user environment while supporting flexible evolution on both sides: on the user's side, with evolution of command function and terminology; and on the technology side, with evolving hardware and software. (Design details are outlined in ; rationale and utilization in .) 4bl The UIS provides a reach- through service to non- AUGMENT systems, and can optionally translate back and forth to a foreign program's command language. It also supports the shared-screen, remote collaboration capability discussed below. ^32 augment's architecture provides for open-ended expansion and flexible evolution of system functionality and worker command languages. 4t3 It is assumed that for any class of knowledge workers, specialized application systems developed by other parties, perhaps running on other computers, will provide services worth integrating. The "author class" of worker should be no exception. Continuing evolution toward the "author workshop of the future" will certainly depend upon some such features in workshop architecture. 4tA It provides adaptation for different terminal characteristics, enabling application programers to work as though with a virtual terminal. 4>5 FILE CHARACTERISTICS 4c AUGMENT employs explicitly structured files, with hierarchically organized nodes; each node can contain either or all of: up to 2,000 characters of text, a graphic structure, or other forms of useful data (e.g., digitized speech). The worker has a definite model in mind for the structuring of any file that he works with; in composing and modifying it he can organize and modify structure using the same verbs as for working with text strings (e.g. Insert, Replace, Move, Copy, Delete), with appropriate structural-entity nouns (e.g.. Statement, Branch, Group, Flex). For any existing hierarchical structure, he Pages Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT 1 )(:!■: 'J Dec -83 17:43-PST GAD. 2250 has many flexible alternatives for addressing its entities, modifying its organization, jumping around within it, and viewing it in a most beneficial manner. 4ci (Note: AUGMENT workers generally use the term "statement" to refer to a file node, which is natural enough since the terminology became established before we added the graphic capability. Now an AUGMENT "statement" can contain either or both a text statement and a graphic diagram.) 4c2 CONTROLLING THE TOOLS 5 Many of AUGMENT'S unique author-support provisions address basic operations common to almost every task, things done over and over again. These operations, executed with speed and flexibility, provide for composing and modifying one's working material, and for studying what is there over a wide range of substantive levels - from a single text passage to a collection of end-product draft documents and their associated set of working notes, reference material, and recorded-message dialog (assuming all to be on line). 5a In the early stages of our program at SRI, we did a great deal of detailed work on what we called the "control interface" - how users control the functional application of their tools. These details can be very important to "low-level" interactions which are done hundreds of times during a working day. Some of these details are quite relevant to bringing high performance to the authorship process. 5b AUGMENT commands are expressed with verbs, nouns, and appropriate qualifier words; every conmiand word is designated by entering one or more characters. The UIS recognizes the command word from these characters according to the command-recognition options designated in each individual's "profile file." Users seem to migrate fairly rapidly to "expert" recognition modes, where a minimum number of characters will elicit recognition of command words. The fully spelled-out command words are presented in the Command Feedback Window as soon as they are recognized. The Backspace Key will cause backup, one command word at a time. 5c Of the system requirements behind our choice of this noun-verb command form, two are particularly relevant here: (1) The "vocabulary" of the functions of the tools, and of the entities they operate upon, must be as extensible as is a natural language; (2) Textual lists of commands must conveniently lend themselves to writing, documenting, and executing as "macro" commands. 5d Screen selection is done with a mouse. If the command's noun is a single, defined text or structure entity, e.g., a "word", then there is only one selection needed (e.g., to pick any character in the designated word). 5e Page 4 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST PAD, 2250, Besides using a standard keyboard for character entry, an AUGMENT user may optionally use a five-key, one-hand, chord keyset. Remarkably little practice is required in order to enter alphabetic characters, one hand-stroke per character. With less than five hours practice, a person can begin profitably working in a two-handed, concurrent mode - operating the mouse with one hand and simultaneously entering command characters and short literal strings with the other hand. 5f Here is an example of a low-level action which reveals some basic characteristics of high-performance execution. It is a very simple situation, but representative of what is met over and over and over again in doing hard knowledge work. The worker is composing or modifying something in one area of the screen, when his eye catches a one-character typo in another area. For a skilled AUGMENT worker, the typo could be corrected in less time than it would take someone to point it out to him — with three quick strokes of the keyset hand during a casual flick of the mouse hand, and an absolute minimum of visual and mental attention taken from the other ongoing task. 5g Fast, flexible, gracefiil, low effort - these are important to all high-fi-equency, low-level, knowledge- work actions. This same kind of speed and flexibility are achieved by skilled AUGMENT workers in executing all of the other functional features described below. Description of mouse and keyset, and their concurrent employment, may be found in . Si ADDRESSING THE WORKING MATERIALS 6 There is a consistent set of addressing features that a worker may use in any command to designate a particular structural node or some element of text or graphics attached to that node. It adds appreciably to the power and flexibility of the system commands to have a rich, universally applicable vocabulary for directly addressing particular entities within the working files. Below are some examples. 6a EXPLICIT STATEMENT ADDRESSES 6b There are four "handles" by which a given statement may be directly addressed: 6bl Structural Statement Number. This designates the current "structural location" of the statement. It is assigned by the system, depending upon where the worker installs or moves a statement within an existing structure, or how that structure might have been re-organized subsequently. It is usually expressed as an alternating sequence of number-letter fields - e.g. "1", "la", "lal", "la2", and "lb". At a worker's option, these same statement numbers could be shown as "1", "1.1", "1.1.1", "1.1.2", or "1.2", but this bulkier alternative is seldom chosen. 6b2 Page 5 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD,2250, Statement Identifiery or SID. This is a unique integer, assigned in sequential order by the system as each statement is first inserted, and which stays with a statement no matter how much its content may be altered or where it may be moved in its file structure. To make it uniquely recognizable for what it ir, a SID is always displayed, printed, or designated with a prefixed "0" -- e.g., 012", "0417", etc. SIDs are particularly usefiil for referencing passages in a document while it is evolving. 6b3 A Worker-Assigned Statement Name (or label). For any statement or part of the file structure, an author can designate as "name delimiters" a pair of characters that indicate to the system when the first word of a statement is to be treated as a name for that statement. For instance, if "(" and ")" are set by the author as name delimiters for a specified part of the file, any parenthesized first word in a statement would be recognized by the system as that statement's name. 6b4 (Note: It is optional whether to have any of the above three identifiers displayed or printed with the statements' text.) 6b5 A Direct Screen Selection, When a statement to be designated is displayed in a window, usually the best way to "address" it is to use the mouse to position the cursor anywhere on the statement and depress the mouse's "Select" key (indicated below by "" would designate that a word located somewhere in the file and marked with an "x" is to be copiec to follow the cursor-selected word. There are many unique ways in which markers may be employed by an author who has integrated their artful use into her working methodology. 6c2 As a comparative example of some of the foregoing addressing forms, consider a statement whose SID is "069", whose statement number is "3b5", that has Page 6 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD,2250, statement-name delimiters designated for it as "NULL" and ":", that starts with the text "Capacity: For every ...", and that has a marker named "x" positioned on one of its characters. A command to move this statement could optionally be expressed as: 6c3 "Move Statement within any editing command.) 7b2 User-adjustable parameters are used to control the view presented on the display. Adjusting one's view parameters is a constantly used AUGMENT feature that has solidly proved its value. To facilitate their quick and flexible Page 9 Authorship Prnvisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:-i:iPST OAD,2250, use, the view-specification actions evolved into cryptic, single-character codes, called "viewspecs. " The syntax of all Jump commands (used for traveling) includes the option of designating new viewspecs, and a special combination of mouse buttons enables quick, concurrent, keyset action to change the viewspecs for a given window. Here are a few of the frequently used view controls: 7b3 WINDOW VIEWS 7c Structure Cutoff. Show only the statements that lie "below" this statement in the structure (i.e., this "branch"); or show only those following statements that are at this level or deeper; or show all of the following statements that will fit in this window. 7cl Level Clipping. For the designated structure cutoff, show only the statements down to a specified level. Lower-level statements are "clipped" from the view; the worker can thus view just a selected number of the upper levels of his document/file. 7c2 Statement Truncation. For those statements brought into view (as selected by other view specifications), show only their first n lines. Truncation to one line is often used, along with level clipping, in order to get an effective overview. 7c3 Inter-Statement Separation. For viewing ease -- blank lines can be optionally installed between statements. 7c4 (Note: The foregoing view controls are extremely helpful when studying and modifying a document's structural organization.) 7c5 Statement Numbers and Names. Optionally, for a given window, show the Statement Number (or the SID) of each statement - with an option for showing them at either the right or at the left margin. Independently, the showing of statement names may be turned on or off. 7c6 Frozen Statements. A worker may select a number of statements, in random order, and designate them as "frozen." One of the view-specification options is to have the frozen statements appear at the top of the frame, with the rest of that window left for normal viewing and editing. The frozen statements may be edited, or even cross-edited between any other displayed (or addressable) statements. 7c7 User-Specified Content Filters. A simple content-analysis language may be used in a "Set Content Pattern" command, which compiles a little content- checking program. One of the view-specification options will cause the system to display only those statements which satisfy both the structure and level conditions imposed by other viewspecs, and which also pass the content- analysis test applied by this program. Where desired, very sophisticated Page 10 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 17:43-PST OAD,2250, content-analysis programs may be written, using a full-blown programming language, and placed on call for any user. 7c8 USER-SPECIFIED SEQUENCE GENERATORS 7d In the foregoing, a "view" is created by beginning at a designated location in a docimient (file) and selecting certain of the the "following" statements for display, according to the viewing parameters ~ possibly suppressing statements that don't pass the test of a content-analysis program. This is essentially a "parameterized sequence generator," and provides very useful options for selectively viewing statements within a docimaent; however, it works only by selectively discarding statements from a sequence provided in standard order. 7dl Application programmers can provide alternate sequence-generator programs, which any user can invoke in a straightforward manner. In such a case, the apparent structure being presented to the user could be generated from a sequence of candidate statements according to any rules one may invent — and the actual views could be further controlled by the above-described viewspecs for level clipping, truncation, content filtering, etc. 7d2 Perhaps the most commonly used, special sequence generator is one that provides an "Include" feature, where specially tagged links embedded in the text will cause their cited passages to be "included" in place of the Include- Link statements, as though they were part of this file. This provision enables arbitrary assemblage of text and formatting directives, from a wide collection of files, to represent a virtual, one-document, super file. For instance, the whole assemblage could be passed to the formatter, by means of a single user action, to generate a composite, photo-typeset document. 7d3 TRAVELING THROUGH THE WORKING FILES 8 An important provision in AUGMENT enables an author to freely "travel around" in his on-line file space to reach a particular "view point" of his choice ~ i.e., the position within a file fi-om which the system develops the desired form of "view" according to the currently invoked view specifications. 8a Traveling from one view point to another is accomplished by Jump commands, of which the simplest perhaps is a direct Jump to a statement designated by a screen selection. Then, for a worker grown used to employing address strings, a next form would be a Jump on an embedded link, or to a statement designated by a typed-in address string — using any combination of the addressing elements and viewspecs described above. For example, the link "<4b:ml>" points to the Statement 4b, while invoking viewspecs "m" and "I" which cause the statements' SIDs to be displayed. The link "" points to the document referenced by the link in the statement named "Ref-1", Page 11 Authorship Provisions in AUGMENT DCE 9-Dec-83 }7:43PST GAP. 2250. invoking viewspec "i" for user content filtering, and sets the filter to "LL" to show only those statements beginning with a lower-case letter. The applications are effectively endless. 8b MODIFYING THE DOCUMENT STRUCTURES 9 Given the array of capabilities described above, it is very simple also to provide for very flexible manipulation of the file structure. For operating on a small, basic set of structure-entity nouns, essentially the same basic verbs may be used as for text manipulation -- i.e. Insert, Delete, Move, Copy, Replace, and Transpose are quite sufficient for most cases. For instance, "Move Branch 2b (to follow) 3c" immediately moves Statement 2b and all of its substatements to follow Statement 3c -- and their statement numbers are automatically changed fix)m 2b, 2bl, etc., to 3d, 3dl, etc. 9a A few extra verbs are useful for structure manipulation. For instance, a "Break" command will break a given statement off at a designated point in its text string, and establish the rest of the text as a new, separate statement. And an "Append" command does the reverse — i.e., it appends the text of one or more existing statements to the end of a designated statement. 9b A major source of structure-modification capability derives from the associated "studying" capabilities. For example, if an author can view a file (document) with specifications that show him only one line each of just those statements in the top two levels, he gets an overview of the high-level organization that helps immensely to study his current structure or outline. 9c Concurrent use of mouse and keyset also provide considerable gains in speed and flexibility for studying and modifying document structure. For example, if when studying the overview described in the previous paragraph, the author perceives that Statement 2b really belongs in Section 3, following Statement 3c, he can execute the necessary move command in a very quick, deft manner: 9d Keyset hand strikes "m" and "b" (for Move Branch), while the mouse hand is positioning the cursor anywhere in the text line of Statement 2b. [Two chord strokes.] 9dl The mouse hand depresses the