Pieter Wisse, Information Dynamics
The intended readership of Metapattern, handbook of societal information exchange consists of designers of facilities for information exchange at any scale of (digital) interconnectivity. They may want to draw the attention of principals to pertinent parts of this handbook.
The largest scale imaginable for exchange is the increasingly international information society. For already some time, both people and private or public organizations with their division of work, relationships with an environment, et cetera, participate in this open-scaled world of information exchange.
Information exchange beyond the most specific purpose and task requires management of differences in meaning, while providing cohesion, too. Metapattern is the method/language for modeling the pragmatic conceptual variety typical of an integrated infrastructure facilitating information exchange regardless of interactional scope.
In many respects this handbook is a widely enlarged successor to Metapattern: context and time in information models (P.E. Wisse, Addison-Wesley, 2001). Its structure is different, though; see below the outlines for each chapter of this handbook.
Yet, with English-language contents, only, this edition is also relatively limited. (Many) more relevant documents have so far been compiled in Dutch. The comprehensive edition therefore offers content in both Dutch and English; see — with its title in Dutch — Metapatroon, handbook stelselmatig informatieverkeer.
At the scale of societal variety, semantic interoperability demands
priority. With varied information exchange, a corresponding discipline
needs to become established: information exchange engineering. An
alternative label is: civil information science. The recognition of its
infrastructural scope is critical.
It doesn't make sense to try and use Metapattern without a thorough
knowledge of the variety of information that is exchanged in our
information society. On the other hand, mastering Metapattern helps to
learn about modern society with informatin exchange in all its variety.
Such interaction explains why this handbook includes an overview of
information exchange engineering.
From the nature of exchange at societal scale follows the need for
infrastructure. Persons and organizations are participants in exchange and
as such occupy a common information space. Please note that our common
space should facilitate information variety. The generalized perspective of
exchange directs attention to all kinds of facilities that deserve to be
labeled infrastructural, from rules and regulations up to and including
accessible information bases and federal, subsidiary governance.
The very idea with infrastructure is that more specialized facilities
(previously known as: applications) can remain (relatively) more simple as
general service aspects are 'taken care of' by generally available
facilities. As a modeling method/language for managing semantic variety,
Metapattern is indispensable for design and implementation of optimally
balancing semantic interoperability.
Metapattern supports interdependence through information exchange. Such
variety orientation calls for especially robust theoretical considerations,
et cetera. It is to be found in a semiotics that integrates ontology and
epistemology, vice versa.
A designer of information exchange facilities can only be said to really
master Metapattern through combining disciplines. This handbook provides
many pointers.
Metapattern guides the designer achieving both rigor and relevance with conceptual models. It helps to consistently aim for real variety in meanings, thereby removing whatever limits to scale and scope of information exchange. Yet, Metapattern remains a tool. It needs a designer, that is, a real human being, to make the differences into a comprehensive, coherent structure. Critical qualities of the designer are outlined.
Variety of meaning increases with scale and scope of information
exchange. It follows from logic of interdependence, period. As a corollary,
differences between meaning must be made accordingly specific and detailed,
while how they are mutually determined, i.e., interrelate, must be
unambiguously established, too.
Metapattern provides the structural solution. This handbook describes its
— minimalistic — building blocks and how to simply configure
them to facilitate indefinite variety. Metapattern?s preferred visual
notation is explained in the process.
Applying Metapattern for modeling for open variety is both art and
science. For our varied world and therefore equally varied information
exchange, there are no fixed rules, let alone fixed meanings following
one-dimensional structure. That is why design is called for. The designer
should know how to make explicit real — and often changing —
meanings, both how they differ and combine.
From experience with designing for variety of meaning some guidelines may
be distilled. They mostly come as suggestions: it might help to try this
… This handbook offers a small collection. In order to appreciate
them, the designer must have advanced beyond merely Metapattern?s
syntax.
First of all, the models on display here serve the purpose of learning.
The designer may study them to get some concrete ideas about Metapattern?s
potential as a tool for ordering variety. At the same time, s/he can
experience how the notation is handled.
Secondly, the designer may find some example partly useful as a reference
model. In terms of infrastructure for information exchange, development
from reference model to model as such lies in fact in the nature of
infrastructure (of which there should only be one at the relevant
scale/scope).
In its capacity as a method and language for conceptual modeling, Metapattern is different. It is, however, a mistake to conclude that everything about facilitating information exchange must be radically altered. On the contrary, there is no better guarantee for extending the lifecycle of existing resources than systematically recognizing differences in meaning. Adding a so-called contextual layer should serve to position previously separate resources, one after another, for mutual interconnection. The metaphor of roundabout helps: information roundabout. From such a start with quick benefits, interdependence of varied meanings can be gradually optimized.
Designers making relevant publications available are the handbook?s correspondents. References to their work is made. Other activities pertinent to promoting facilities for variety in information exchange are also mentioned.
Translated from a text originally in Dutch. This introduction, 2016 © Pieter Wisse / Information Dynamics
Unless permission is clearly withheld for some item, reuse of material from Metapattern, handbook of societal information exchange is greatly appreciated; however, sufficient explicit reference should be included.