Ontology of Documents (2005)

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1
The Ontology of Documents
(2005)
Barry Smith

2
Wittgenstein, Philosophical
Investigations, 11
Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a
hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a ruler,
a glue-pot, glue, nails and screw.
—The functions of words are as diverse as the
functions of these objects.

3
Speech Act Theory
Language as TOOLBOX
We tell people how things are (assertives)
We try to get them to do things (directives)
We commit ourselves to doing things
(commissives)
We express our feelings and attitudes
(expressives)
We bring about changes in the world merely
through our utterances (declarations)

4
The Searle thesis
claims and obligations and deontic powers are
brought into existence by the performance of
speech acts
(acts of promising, marrying, accusing ... )

5
appointings, marryings, promisings
change the world
if certain background conditions are satisfied:
valid formulation
legitimate authority
acceptance by addressees

6
A speech act is instantaneous
we perform a speech act
the world changes

7
Differences between document acts
and speech acts
• Speech acts can normally be classified as one
or other of the five types distinguished by
Searle; document acts typically involve
components deriving from several of these
types
• You don’t need to understand a document in
order to perform a properly constituted
document act

8
The need for a trace
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?
The memories of those involved?
Or documents? Writing creates permanent, re-usable
meaning
Documents create traceable liability

9
Documents provide a reliable way for the
social/institutional objects brought into
existence by speech acts to endure through
time
Such objects can thereby also serve as the
basis for new social objects of a higher-order
giving rise to what Searle calls a ‘huge
invisible ontology’

10
Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and
the Organization of Society (1986)
The very fact that laws exist in written form
makes a profound difference, first to the nature
of its sources, secondly to the ways of
changing the rules, thirdly to the judicial
process, and fourthly to court organization.
Indeed it touches upon the nature of rules
themselves.

11
The price system
A system of telecommunications which
enables individual producers to watch merely
the movement of a few pointers, as an engineer
might watch the hands of a few dials
(Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”)

12
The Hayek thesis:
the price system is a mechanism for
communicating, in the form of
abbreviated signals, the most essential
information relevant to our economic
behaviour

13
Hernando De Soto
Institute for Liberty and Democracy
Lima, Peru

14
Hernando de Soto
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism
Triumphs in the West and Fails
Everywhere Else
New York: Basic Books, 2000

15
The de Soto Thesis
the invisible infrastructure of asset
management upon which the astonishing
fecundity of Western capitalism rests
is both created and held together by
documents, by property records and titles,
which capture what is economically
meaningful about the corresponding assets

16
The generalized de Soto thesis
The document system is a mechanism
for creating the institutional orders of modern
societies
and for making possible the types of abbreviated
signals which provide the most essential
information relevant to our social behavior
(even price lists are documents)

17
Primacy of documents
• are the social institutions which can, as a
matter of necessity, only exist because of
documents?
• what is the force of ‘necessity’ here –
supposing we had perfect memory, for
example

18
The creative powers of documents
stock and share certificates create capital
identity documents create identities
examination documents create the various levels of the
Chinese civil service
cadastral maps create real estate parcels
marriage license creates bonds of matrimony
bankruptcy certificate creates bankrupt
statutes of incorporation create companies
title deeds create property rights and property owners
insurance certificate creates insurance coverage
create = create AND sustain

19
The creative power of documents
documents create authorities
(physicians’ license creates physician)
authorities create documents
(physician creates sick note)
Documents issued by an authority (validly,
fraudulently ...)

20
The source of extralegal law
Documents issued by an authority within the
framework of a valid legal institution
vs. issued by an authority extralegally on its own
behalf (cf. the US Declaration of Independence –
extralegal law of the Mwenyekiti)

21
Problem:
If documents create (parts of) social
reality
how cope with the fact that social reality can
involve contradictions?
(Problem for Searle’s ontology of social reality –
according to which X is Y if X counts as Y in
a given social context C)

22
Identity documents
• create identity
• and thereby create the possibility of identity
theft

23
Directions of fit between
language and reality
from word to world (words must fit world)
assertives (statements, descriptions)
from world to word (world must be made to fit word)
directives (commands, requests, entreaties)
commisives (promises): bind the speaker to
perform a certain action in the future

24
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)

25
Non-Documents
novel
textbook
newspaper
advertizing flier
timetable
recipe
map
prayer
business card
LINGUISTIC
ARTIFACTS WHICH
EXIST PRIMARILY AS
TYPES (cf. Ingarden on
the work of literature)
Documents
license
birth certificate
death certificate
degree certificate
deed
contract
will
receipt
passport
LINGUISTIC
ARTIFACTS WHICH
EXIST PRIMARILY AS
TOKENS

26
Non-Documents
Documents
Made of paper Not made of paper
novel
textbook
newspaper
advertizing flier
timetable
recipe
map
business card
Leonardo cartoon
license
degree certificate
deed
contract
will
receipt
road sign
advertizing
hoarding
car badging
gravestone
silver hallmark
clay tablet
e-document
electronic health record
movie clapper
credit card

27
declarative/descriptive documents
plus something more
title/deed/cadastral map (gives rights)
price tag/pricelist (makes commitments)
patent (gives rights)
license/degree certificate (gives rights)
statement of accounts (?)
identity card/passport (gives rights)
membership card (gives rights)
birth certificate (?)
death certificate (? connected to other documents/e.g. voting records)
marriage license (gives rights and obligations)
divorce decree (gives rights and obligations)

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Other kinds of documents
partnership agreement/ statute of
incorporation
proxy form/representation
agreement
tax form
minutes of a meeting
ballot form
residence permit
census report
stock certificate
insurance claim form
insurance policy
visa/immigration document
insurance card/health insurance
card
health certificate
consent form (for medical
procedure)
medical record
criminal record
Führungszeugnis
pension book
rent book
accident report/theft
report/police report/charge
bankruptcy certificate

29
More examples
architects plan
urban plan
engineering drawing
city survey
census form
lab note
medical progress note
discharge summary
insurance certificate
marriage license, letter of credit

30
Further distinctions
documents which need to be displayed (e.g. a
price list)
documents which need to be filled in vs.
documents which are self-contained
documents filled in
completely/partially
correctly/incorrectly
validly/invalidly

31
What you can do to and with a document
[DOCUMENT EVENTS]
Sign it
Stamp it
Witness it
Fill it in Revise it
Nullify it
Realize (interrupt, abort ...) actions mandated by it
Deliver it (de facto, de jure)
Declare it active/inactive
Register it
Archive it
Destroy it

32
DOCUMENT EVENTS
All the mentioned event-types are independent
of the document content and purpose a
Easily trasferrable to new applications (e.g.
credit approval).
They are about human interaction via a
document in the abstract.
They are essentially several lists of names
attached to document portions that are also
linked into whole documents.

33
Ontology of document registries
• If you have a company registry with 600
names, but only 150 companies actually exist,
the registry is useless

34
identification
Marks used to identify
ownership of the cattle at
an auction market in
Dodoma.
The cattle identification by
branding serves as the
basis for a formal pledge
system.

35
fingerprint
official stamp
photograph
bar code, cow brand
car license plate
numbered plot for street trader
allow cross-referencing to documents
knowledge by acquaintance
knowledge by description
knowledge by comparison

36
Anchoring
• How photographs, maps, fingerprints, unique
IDs anchor documents to corresponding
entities in reality ?

37
Epistemological use of documents
• I use my passport to prove my identity
• You use my passport to check my identity
– Knowledge by acquaintance
– Knowledge by description
– Knowledge by comparison

38
anchoring
documents
to reality
how will the
ontology of
documents
look when e-
documents are
incorporated?

39
Attachment
• One document attached to another (documents
can talk to each other; they can be filed with
each other)
• The relations between documents then map
corresponding relations between the realities
documented

40
Splitting
• documents can be split
(hat check, torn dollar bill)
• documents can have a firework style history of
initiating new actions ... (Kanban)

42
Documents and their addressees
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. Who else?

43
Bundling documents to create
networks
• One document attached to a copy of another
document
• The relations between documents then map
corresponding relations between the realities
documented

44
Good documents vs. bad documents
Problem with Goody and the literature on literacy
They say: massive documentation created the
conditions of modern civilization
they neglect the degree to which totalitarian
societies, too, were made possible by
documentation

45
Standardized forms
Template followed by filling in
First step towards standardized products is a
plan, a description, a template, which can be
filled in (brand identity))

46
Document vs. standardized
form/template
documents filled in
completely/partially
correctly/incorrectly
validly/invalidly

47
Standardized documents
• allow networking
• across time (documents can accumulate
through attachment)
• across space (different groups can orientate
themselves around the same document forms)

48
Good documents vs. bad documents
Good documents must be well-designed
1. they must map the corresponding reality in a
perspicuous way – cf. maps as document
2. 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)

49
Documents which depend on other
documents
Car insurance document
depends on residence permit
depends on employment contract
depends on health certificate
depends on physician’s license to practice
depends on degree certificate
depends on examination document
depends on examination script
...

50
Documents which depend on other
documents
Permission to return damaged goods
depends on delivery confirmation document
depends on shipment document
depends on receipt
depends on bill
depends on order
depends on price-list

51
The ontology of names
• a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of
cultural object called a name
• 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)

52
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

53
Countersignatures

54
The document system is more than just documents
Here too background conditions must be satisfied
Hence, too, a document –
a baptismal certificate
a marriage license ...
– is more than just a piece of paper
– may need to be registered, archived, stamped

55
Each document has a jurisdiction
issue of enforceability
documents create actionable liability
collections
expense of resort to district courts ...

56
How to define documents
• First: create a list of types:
car license plates
novels
birth certificates
certificate of correctness of a translation
...
Now specify which items on this list are types of
documents in the sense relevant here:

57
Definition
x is a document =def
x is a (potentially permanent) record of time-
sensitive information*,
and is of a type instances of which are reliably
used as constituents of instances of
corresponding types of complex social actions
*true or false?

59
Definition
x is a document=def
(1) x is a permanent record representing or
expressing one or more deontically or
institutionally relevant acts
and (2) is of a type instances of which are
reliably used (and produced to be used?) to
achieve deontic ends in complex social actions

60
What Do We Mean by Authentic? What's the Real
McCoy? By H.M. Gladney and J.L. Bennett

61

62

63
Pre-history and history
• History = since documents
• Imagine applying the methods of social
science to the entire corpus of credit card
transactions
• Imagine doing something similar to the entire
corpus of human history

64
Different types of legality
legality through and through
legality which incorporates (good) extralegality on the side
legality solely for the purposes of allowing (good)
extralegality
legality which masks (bad) illegality (again in various
ways) (corruption)
DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANSWER TO THE
QUESTION: WHAT DOCUMENTS ARE
MISSING?

65
Groupware (from Robert Johnson)
Factory system to authorise new product developments, which went to about
20 peaple sequentially (R&D, production costing etc.). – a system that
allowed creation, viewing and updating a digital document by multiple
parties.
Aspects of authorship which we had to build in
Owner of document
Current owner
Viewers
Updaters
Approvers
Signers (who signed off parts eg. a costing)
Parts of a document
Updatable parts vs. parts now unchangeable (for audit reasons – you should
not be able to retrospectively unapprove something you previously approved)
Closure
Lotus Notes does this?

66
•
• >
• >Activities are extended episodes of action. Routines are a special case
• >of activities in general. A routine is an activity where in each
• >situation there is no choice between possible actions (there is a
• >single affordance relevent to the activity). So we can formulate an
• >information system that support routine activity as that set of
• >resources that eliminate the need for choices at each stage of the
• >activity. That is, it converts and choiceful activity into a routine
• >activity. One possibility is to structure the environment - to engineer
• >constraints and affordances that reduce choice. The other is to provide
• >information resources that provide the extra information cues that
• >resolve the choice.
• >

67
• >For instance if we are faced with two doorways that afford exit, a sign
• >with an arrow would resolve the choice (given the actor has suitable
• >enculturatyion). Alternatively, a rule such as "always take the left
• >door" would resolce the choice. Again a list of the choices to be
• >encoutered and the correct choice could be prepared before the journey.
• >Finally, blocking one doorway physically would resolve the choice. All
• >of these things would be information resources. As in Shannon
• >information theory their information content is their ability to reduce
• >choice (in this case choice for actions).
• >

68
• >So in relation to your question, you can view stereotyped documents
• >this way. They express resolutions to choices (perhaps for the
• >institutional receiver). The simplest case is when in an activity there
• >is one choice with two options. Then only one bit of information is
• >required, and this can be provided by a single sign such as a kanban
• >card or a stop light or an arrow or a door handle. We can build from
• >this case to sequences of simple signs for multi-situation activities,
• >or to more complex sign structure requiring deeper cultural embedding
• >(perhaps language).
• >

69
• >The signs are themselves affordances but they work in a more subtle way
• >than the blocked doorway. It is our cultural practices that atune us to
• >the sign whereas it is out innate perceptual abilities that atune us to
• >the opening as an affordance for exit.
• >
• >There is another difference which I cannot quite articulate. In a
• >natural affordance the pattern that can be perceived that gives away
• >the oportunity for action provided by some physical structure is
• >actually part of the "surface" of that structure. For instance, for the
• >climbing affordance of steps, the physical part is the vertical and
• >horozontal surfaces that recur in different settings. We percive them
• >through an invariant pattern of parallel lines in the visual field that
• >invariably accompanies the physical structure.
• >
• >For signs we seem to have abstracted way the signifier of the presence
• >of an affording structure from the structure itself. So a sign saying
• >pull does not "enable" you to pull to gain exit in that same way that a
• >handle both signifies the pullability and also allows it to be effected
• >at the same time.
• >
• >I think the idea that signs (and more complex styalised physical
• >communications) are just affordances is an exciting one. What do you
• >think?
• >

Ontology of Documents (2005)

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