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National Knowledge Project
3/9/2004 8:22 AM
Proposal to Ignite The Northern Virginia Knowledge
Technology Corridor
Introduction
Information Technology companies located in the State of Virginia have enjoyed contracting opportunities supporting National Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. Contributions to defense and security continue to be made by our area universities. The current challenges are being meet with increased awareness that information technology itself is often a limiting factor in how the Nation responds to defense and security requirements.
A national project to establish the knowledge sciences has its origin from a small research institute that existed from 1989 – 1994 at Georgetown University. Beginning during that time a discussion was joined about the circumstances that characterize the application of computer science to human communication and human use of information. For the remainder of the decade the discussion remained primarily one involving academic issues. Many senior members of Academia have engaged in parts of this discussion, often in private conversations. The discussion has its roots in history and can be most easily seen as a discussion about the relationship between the natures of natural systems and formal systems, mathematics and computer programming languages.
The causes of failures in software design and information technology may not be well understood by the public, but the public is concerned about the high cost of information systems and the absence of complete outcome metrics on their performance. Themes in discourse occurring within the Academia question trends our society has experienced regarding the use of computer technology by military and business.
The scholar’s discussion is about the relationship between computer science and natural systems. In very mechanical context, the current generation of information technology works exceedingly well. In business and in military use the class of tasks characterized, as being mechanical is significant but not exhaustive. Databases have become ubiquitous. Computer operating systems are unstable and support malicious code.
Often, information systems based on databases fails in those tasks where the outcomes are not precisely known from inputs and mechanisms. Natural language understanding appears to be an important illustration of the limitation of the current information systems. That specific failure lies in the scholar’s discussion.
This proposal provides a unique opportunity for the Northern Virginia region to lead in the development and deployment a new generation of communication technology.
The Objectives
The first objective is the support of an innovator incubation process governed by a set of principles and guided by a latent semantic map of the relevant patent and copyright space. The latent semantic map is to be developed based on tools that are well known, and which have been privately applied to a similar but not public purpose. A corresponding technology can be developed easily to make available an opportunity assessment using tools now deployed in the development of treat assessments in cyber security and risk analysis. Again, these information resources will be made available in a public fashion so that innovative minds can work directly on solutions. The incubator process will provide micro-investments that are to be used primarily in the development of software and hardware systems.
The second objective is the development of a knowledge science distance-learning curriculum consisting of video modules and interactive knowledge bases. A distance learning curriculum development program has been developed by a professional organization located in Northern Virginia, KMPro Inc. A judgment has been made that this organization provides low-cost high-value resource for the development of a K-12 plus university curriculum in the foundations of the knowledge sciences. These foundations are outlined but are yet to be finalized by leading scholars. A series of conferences will bring a national spotlight on our efforts in Northern Virginia.
The third objective is the development of a peer-to-peer knowledge operating system based on the concept of a Knowledge Sharing Foundation. The Python programming language is in popular use within the open source community and currently runs on all computer platforms. When used with a minimal Linux distribution one can develop software systems that are peer-to-peer, will run on wireless devices such as pocket PCs and telephones, as well as older generation computers such as Intell 386 processors. The Knowledge Sharing Foundation concept is well developed and can first be implemented as a Knowledge Technology Toolkit for Kids. This implementation will show case the knowledge technologies.
Distinguishing characteristic
of Knowledge Technology
The analogy is made between the current IT paradigms and the electrical technology based on direct current (DC). Human-centric Information Production (HIP) requires that the processing power of human mental experience act in a short time scale closed loop with a computer processor and informational stores in bit structures. Knowledge technology is by definition HIP. HIP is an alternating circuit type technology that depends on the on the computer structure data and on human cognitive priming and acuity to provide meaningful interpretation. The current IT-DC paradigm is not HIP; it is one way at its core. Human are considered to be part of a hopefully mechanical system that serves the design of the IT-DC structure. The assumptions about the role of the human are flipped in the IT-AC paradigm. The machine provides structure only, and humans are free to manipulate data in a schema independent fashion and to be responsible for decision and interpretations.