Engelbart on The New Role of “Logician”

Specially trained teams will be involved to ingest the ongoing dialog. They will assist in adapting to the relevant ontological shifts, help monitor and solidify the “argument structures” involved in seeking coherence and plausibility, etc. They will also help facilitate associated “views” of the knowledge structure to facilitate learning. This might entail creating different viewing alternatives for different categories of learners. A new class of knowledge workers, Certified Public Logicians, may be required.

The Certified Public Logician’s job would require a variety of skill sets. Some of the Certified Public Logician tasks would be akin to Certified Public Accountants. The Certified Public Logicians will create sound accounting systems, but instead of accounting for money, they track and categorize data sources. Their job may also be likened to a librarian making sure the information is cataloged and placed effectively so users can easily find what they are searching for.

The Certified Public Logicians will ensure that the Dynamic Knowledge Repository represents the most complete, accurate and current picture of the domain. The Logician provides a detailed structure for integrating new data as well as accountability structures and standards for data. Just as accounting records allow for tracking of the financial state of an organization, the Dynamic Knowledge Repositories should provide the most complete and current information about a particular domain with traceable pointers to when, where, why, and who deposited the data and into what section.

Logicians may also help create multiple viewing options of relevant information. They help categorize information with multiple meta-tags so it can be assimilated into structured argumentation and fact-finding within Dynamic Knowledge Repositories (DKRs). They should be able to tag data with standardized codes that will make information in one DKR compatible and easy to integrate with other DKRs.

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