PatternSmithing Alliance Blogs

Work has been progressing on entirely different aspects surrounding static pattern engineering outside the current scope of this site – hence this site hasn’t had much activity. Today, I want to annouce the following partner sites, activities, and organizations that as a whole comprise the current activities surrounding this emerging field:

• The PatternSmithing Alliance (http://patternsmithing.com/) is being established as a centralized organizing and guiding body for the core activities, knowledge, and applications of static pattern engineering technologies.  This site and my activities (including the book under construction) will be considered contributions to the body of work of the Alliance.
• The “ThingK” company (I am finalizing the company name so will just call it that for now) will work on several products and services that not only apply static pattern engineering technologies but also advance the field as a whole.  After research and development, I’ve seen that several viable technologies exist that can enhance people’s lives as well as the field itself – a commercial vehicle will serve the projects well throughout their lifetime to keep their growth and maintenance sustainable.
• The research and development activities on Static Pattern Engineering will still continue by interested members of the Alliance, either as a voluntary effort, projects commissioned/funded by the Alliance or government grants, and/or activities commissioned under the commercial ventures of the “ThingK” company or other participating partners.  This site will continue to track these activities that fall under the first two categories, whilst the commercial aspects will continue to drift away toward channels created by the “ThingK” company.

I wanted to make this sort of a last post that outlines the whole field (as it stands today), because  many of these aspects grew out of this research and development activity.  This blog’s posts, as well as many other posts related to these separate aspects of the field on other sites (where I’ve been busy recently), are now syndicated together at the PatternSmithing Alliance blogs at http://blogs.patternsmithing.com/.   If you are interested in monitoring the entire field and all activities —  not just the research and development aspects, I encourage you to relocate your attention there – these posts will continue to make their way there.

Also, if you are interested in the body of knowledge surrounding Static Pattern Engineering, while waiting for the publication of the first volume, you can visit the PatternSmithing Alliance wiki (link withheld until it fills up more – just created recently) which will continue to reflect the growing body of knowledge and technologies.  From the research and development side, at times the blog will preceed the wiki in terms of knowledge while at other times the wiki will preceed the blog in terms of knowledge.

To begin involvement in the activities of the field, you are encouraged to submit your information at http://patternsmithing.com/.

Finally, I want to briefly discuss the products and services of the “ThingK” company, which started as research projects here and are now in active development:

• The thingk.com web site is the site alluded to earlier surrounding the notion of ‘thingk’ as expressing a more easily graspable term for ’static pattern’.  This will be a free community web site, with a revenue model based on enhancements, that allows any person to begin working with the core tenets of static pattern engineering without any knowledge of the underlying science, research, or activities surrounding it – this was always one of my goals from the beginning.  The PatternSmithing Alliance will recommend the core standards this site will use so that user’s content will always be reusable, expandable, and exportable by them for collaboration with non-commercial interests.  This site is very central to strategy for all of the groups:
  • The research and development activities of the PatternSmithing Alliance (which this site represents) will be interested in expanding the technology and studying how user content and collaboration progresses as case studies in the state of the art of the field.
  • After creators (the users of the site) begin to see the power of persisting and ultimately creating their Thingks, the PatternSmithing Alliance may be a natural avenue for them to continue their progression into learning about the core of the field, first by simple PatternSmithing activities, and then maybe even vocationally as a PatternSmith, StaticPattern Architect, or StaticPattern Engineer.
  • The initial activities of creators (users) are hoped to lead them toward more advanced applications of Static Pattern Engineering : fluxpoints and spawned dreams.
• Whereas thingk.com is a product aimed at people already engaged in the act of creating (even if it prods them to do so) where the target is clearly identified, the DreamSpawn service works with a more nebulous concept – the dreams that begin to fascinate people but often a clearcut direction does not always manifest (sometimes for years).  By leveraging the concept of Thingks (static patterns) and the activities surrouding PatternSmithing, the service purposely guides its clients through training around the technology (and its goals) and the knowledge of PatternSmithing with the clear dedication to watching their dreams become a reality.  This is a very rational process and is only embarked on once a proper analysis and evaluation has been done.
• The FluxPoints project will eventually become a commercial product and service, but is the most advanced merging of static pattern engineering research with computer technology.  Therefore, it will be a joint venture between the research and development activity, the PatternSmithing Alliance, and the “ThingK” company for quite some time.  Essentially, it allows any Thingk (or collection of Thingks) to virtualize further by leveraging an advanced technological infrastructure for collaboration.  This ‘engine’ will be leveraged by the research and development group, the PatternSmithing Alliance, and the “ThingK” company to drive innovations and collaborations.  You can read more about it at any time at the FluxPoints blog (or via the PatternSmithing Alliance blogs which syndicate it).

Thanks.

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The FluxPoints project is a direct application of Static Pattern Engineering theory to the Internet — it is tightly coupled to the Thingk project.  Whereas the Thingk project allows anyone to express a static pattern into the virtual domain as a combined expression of an idea (think) someone pursued/is pursuing and the manifestation (thing) it was/is becoming, the FluxPoints project takes the expressed Thingk further with a technology infrastructure that adds the following:

• The Thingk is now embeddable and transportable via a comprehensive API that allows it to be composed into larger bodies of work (for an example, see the DreamSpawn project).
• Once properly qualified with further metadata, the Thingk can be used to expand an ontology and/or represent itself as an instance of an existing ontology in the Semantic web.  The FluxPoint enables full partipication of the Thingk in (most) semantic web technologies.
• The Thingk now acts a web service endpoint (with standard behaviors defined in the API), a linked data endpoint (according to semantic web standards), and a web resource renderable in multiple formats (including those supported by the NeoReQuest project).
• While creators (of Thingks) can collaborate with other creators and Thingks via the Thingk project website, this technology infrastructure allows collaboration of Thingks and creators by a more automated process — this is a combination of an agent API that leverages both the standard API and the semantic web technology to use inferencing and categorization to find unexpected connections.
• The FluxPoint now gathers data as it is exposed to the Ambient Flux — a new technology exposed via the FluxPoints hosting platform (and further enabled by NeoRequest project).  As requests are issued for the web service, semantic, and web resource interfaces for this technology, the surrounding context is also made available to the hosting fluxpoint.  The automated agents run random and targeted permutations across all fluxpoints on the hosting platform in an effort to find collaborations of Thingks and FluxPoints.  This is an intense collaboration of all the associated technologies above and is one of many planned.

Essentially, on a structural level, both the Thingk and FluxPoints projects follow a semantic web ontology established and maintained by the PatternSmithing Alliance; therefore, any Thingk is easily upgradable to a FluxPoint (and later, other entities) – the FluxPoint is a Thingk with added meta-data not applicable to an ordinary Thingk.  On a behavioral level, a FluxPoint is a container that wraps the Thingk with added functionality that operates on this extra meta-data.  For the hosting aspect, it is envisioned that a FluxPoint can eventually be hosted anywhere; however, as the API and behaviors continue to evolve in the beginning phases, it will be mandatory that all FluxPoints be hosted on our servers (to receive automatic upgrades in behavior).

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I’m happy to announce the “launch” of DreamSpawn, which effectively gives an overview of this company’s overarching strategy for the next few years, as well as how all of the products and initiatives will work together.  Essentially, the concept of ThingKs and the practice of patternsmithing (crafting ThingKs, whether they are your own or others,  into physical or virtual reality using your innate talents) are central to everything.

Thingk.com will be a free community product; however, we are looking to encourage a revenue stream by offering premium tools for crafting the representation of the Thingks on the site and for patternsmithing them into the world.  I have neither the delusion that this company will be capable of inventing all of the possible ways of expressing or creating representations into the world nor the desire to corner that, so we will be looking to offer partners the ability to sell their tools on this site.  Now that brings up a few questions and all of them relate to if the site will immediately become littered with commercialism and the answer is a firm no.  That means the following things outright:

• The desire to give the web community an incredible free basic toolset for persisting, discovering, and using thingks will be fully realized — this base functionality will always be available for free.
• Opportunities to buy more powerful tools will be non-intrusive – the screen real estate will not be littered with it.  It will only be available when you really seek it out, tucked away neatly in the user interface.  Also there won’t be annoying intrusions on experience, trying to prod a user into upgrading – people are quite intelligent enough to seek out things they want.  This is not to imply that it will be difficult to find what you want or that there won’t be a good user interface once you begin seeking out premium tools.
• Users with premium tools will not have an obvious advantage over others, its just a matter of preference.  As a physical analogy, think of an art community where everyone is given a sketchpad, a basic set of pencils, brushes, and paint – the refined artist may choose to purchase an easel, premium paper, brushes, oil paint, etc; however, this doesn’t imply that either will produce better art – it is up to the artist to use the tools given or purchases along with their creativity.

The intention for DreamSpawn is to give the clients who use this service the full array of premium tools as they are made available — which brings up another point: companies and individuals who choose to do so may purchase the full array of tools available (with royalties paid to each of the partners who are represented as well).  This will be done for DreamSpawn for a reason that is explained below:

DreamSpawn is a concept I’ve been trying to tackle for years – probably since I was a teenager.  I wanted people to unlock their full potential but it would take me a long time to see the pieces of the puzzle and even more time to put them together.  I believe that once people reorient their mind toward viewing their larger dreams (which might span a large problem/solution domain) as a set of ThingKs, or thoughts on their way to becoming things, they have a whole new way of tackling the problem — this is typical analysis; however, there is a new spin on it:  By giving the dream itself (and thingks in general) value once persisted, people will begin to move forward with bringing their dreams about.

The other pieces of the puzzle attempt to solve three other problems:

• Dreams and thingks are often kept internal – and often get buried or forgotten.
• People don’t always find the right connections with other individuals and concepts – when this ‘serindipitous event’ happens in life we usually witness the great events (company foundings, product launches, etc) that we all have come to celebrate.
• We all constantly work on skills to complete our vocational work, but all too often we don’t have the general skills or specific schools to create the dreams (set of thingks) that inspire us from time to time.

These needs are addressed by thingk.com, fluxpoints.com, and patternsmithing.com – not respectively or exclusively, but overlapping in interesting ways.  DreamSpawn brings all of this together by flipping it around to one individual – giving incredible attention to that client (and forcing them in turn to give attention to their dreams) to ensure no impedances keep that from happening.  As individuals choose to invest in time, attention, and money into their dreams, I want to give them a literal arsenal of tools to obliterate potential impedances.  I want their creativity to flow and want a full support network to wipe those three bullet points above off the table for reasons why they may look back and regret not creating this or that dream.

This blog entry is not a sales pitch to get you to sign up as a dreamspawn client – in fact, we’re not ready for you – that’s why this is an announcement of the “launch” of the sister site.  This is meant to only give a larger perspective of what’s going on behind the scenes, and I’m choosing to do what future users of this site may or may not choose to do – I am persisting out publicly a set of Thingks I am actively working on to bring about as a reality.  That is, I am releasing the concepts out there to spark interest, keep myself accountable, and get the dream in front of myself and others.  Collaborators, angel investors, future partners, volunteers, and future employees, as always, are always welcome.  Contact me at http://xri.net/=joel.kotarski or on the contact form on DreamSpawn if interested (also, feedback in general is welcome).

Finally, the PatternSmithing alliance — anyone interested in joining this alliance or learning more, contact me as well.

jdk

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As the core infrastructure is being put together for the site, I have made an initial technical decision that will also enable a (future) marketing campaign.  Without being able to seek his permission, I am tweaking one of René Descartes‘s most famous expressions ‘I think, therefore I am‘ to signify what I want to represent a fundamental shift in our relationship to thoughts and creativity.  Admittedly, I think that the term ‘thingk’ is catchy – it finally came to me after six years of using a far more technical term in other work; therefore, I am anticipating that it may give us a useful way to describe  both an expanded approach to the creative process as well as more coherent and reusable artifacts of the creative process.

Once the framework is in place, I want people to be able to exclaim:

I thingk; therefore, I am creating…

as a representation that they are participating in being intentionally connected to the entire process from thought => think => thing or from thing => think and by expressing the entire process they are likewise engaged in inspiring others to create as well.

In order to express that notion across the web, I want people to have an online identity that succinctly expresses that.  I am a big advocate of OpenID and am building provider support for OpenID into the site in the beginning.  Therefore, anyone who has an account will be able to use this URL as an authentication mechanism for OpenID-enabled sites:

http://i.thingk.com/UserName

This URL will also correspond to the user’s public profile which will expose out any Thingks they have released to the public (or if an authenticated thingk.com user lands there, any Thingks they have exposed out to the appropriate group(s) that individual is in or uniquely to them).

Also, as aggregated identities centered around intention become more commonplace — tightly knit groups would be able to appoint delegates who could authenticate under the identity:

http://we.thingk.com/IntentionName

The intention for this is not to simply add to the growing list of URLs that a person uses to identify themselves* in the current internet ecosystem (though in a way it will do that and unfortunately add to that list); instead, it is a way to identify that which is being created by them beyond the current internet ecosystem – which as a whole other dimension we all now participate in to varying degrees is interesting in itself.  This identity represents not only them, but the thoughts which activated them enough to become thinks and have received intention enough that they will on their way to becoming things (or the opposite case things which they have created which have received intention to be expressed as thinks).  In essence, this represents not just the person (in an abstract way), but their intentions being manifested (thingks-in-formation) and the creations they have accomplished (thingks-as-artifact).

* Current examples span blog URLs, social networking for fun sites, feed aggregation sites, professional networking sites, etc.

So, depending on context, it may or may not be appropriate to use this provided online identity.  There are two lines to draw where it will or may be appropriate to use this online identity and a third class where it is up to the discretion of the user:

• The intentional web+ - a grassroots initiative started around this about four years ago and hasn’t gained a significant amount of momentum; however, this project embodies one aspect of the spirit of this movement.  Where people are using technology to actively aid in carrying out intentions (e.g., aggregating information based around a certain intention, or using technology to carry out an intention).  As these sort of sites begin to multiply again, it will absolutely make sense to use this sort of identity as those who see the URL will be able to use it to intentionally aggregate information or use it to find inspiration for their own intentions.  [This will be further amplified by the FluxPoints project later]
• The semantic web - an initiative that is slowly but surely gaining a lot of ground and I believe will soon cause a groundswell of potential on the web.  Due to the fact that semantic web technology is being built-in to Thingk.com from the ground up, semantic information will be exposed at this identity endpoint – so if a user chooses to express this online identity at sites which are likewise rich in semantic markup or have active semantic agents, the mutual information exchange available by simply exercising the identity depending on the context may bring benefit to multiple parties. [This will be further amplified by the FluxPoints project later]
• The third class I spoke about is the myriad places where someone can express identity on the web currently via OpenID- posting a comment on a blog entry, setting up an account on a forum, etc.  Depending on context, it might make sense to use one of several options available for authentication (several are shown below if you comment on this post) instead of this identity and it might make absolutely no sense to use this new identity at all (except of course to spread awareness of the new initiative).

+ Here is the homepage for the intentional web initiative established in 2005: http://intentionalweb.org/

Another post is forthcoming about the place for a site centered around Thingks in the current web ecosystem, as well as long term discussions about where Thingks will be hosted in the future if all goes well (that is, will they have to be hosted at thingk.com forever or like web sites, blogs, etc. can they be eventually decentralized).  Until then, if you’re ready to start wearing the T-shirts or hats, let me know. 

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I am excited to announce the commencement of active development on Thingk.com, which will be the first of several partner sites centered around the activity of bringing ‘thingks’ into reality.  This site is for the community with the intention of inspiring people from all backgrounds and walks of life to engage in creative activity.  Ultimately, it is hoped that as people create ‘thingks’, meaningful patterns will emerge to give new discoveries for life’s works, lifelong endeavours, and previously unimagined collaborations between individuals.

A thingk, quite simply, is both an idea that someone passionately pursued/is pursuing and the thing which it was/is becoming when manifested.  Since someone (we will call them the creator of the idea) is passionate about the idea, we can’t just call it a thought, but instead borrow a present-tense term from David Bohm and call it a think.  Since it existed/exists/will exist somewhere, we also call it a thing.  Combining the two words into a portmanteau, we call it a Thingk.

In order to qualify as a thingk, the following must happen to a person’s creation (whether it starts as a thought or a thing in the beginning is irrelevant) in any order:

• A burst of inspiration or a careful design process must bring a thing into the world* whose existence can be confirmed by a resource identifier.
• A thought or thoughts become so activated in the person’s consciousness so as to be qualified as a think or thinks.
• The intention to create something from an activated think or thinks or the intention to express the thinks behind a created thing must be present.

* The thing can exist physically or virtually but must have a computer-accessible and verifiable international resource identifier.

Thus, once the intention, the thing (whether existent or not), and the activated thought (whether expressed or not) come together we have a Thingk.   Stated another way:

think(s) + intention to create something= thingk

or

thing + intention to express underlying think(s) = thingk

When the think- or thing- component(s) of the thingk is partially or fully intention it is a Thingk-in-formation; once intention becomes reality, and there exists both thinks and a thing, it is now considered a Thingk.

The purpose of this site will be as follows:

• By providing a framework to organize the creative process (with associated tools, privacy mechanisms, and attribution), it is believed that the site will increase the quality of all participants’ creative endeavours.
• By allowing someone to release their work to selected individual(s), group(s), or the public at large, valuable feedback mechanisms will increase the quality of work as well as inspire others to new work.
• Both technology and community are expected to further enhance and encourage the creative process for all participants.
• By getting to the kernel of the creative process, it is desired that things we see in the world are matched with the thinks that inspired them or the thinks we hear in the world are seen manifesting into actual things.
• By allowing individuals to catalog the creative process in (hopefully) painless ways with minimal effort, new interconnections can be found between ideas (thinks), creations (things), people (creators), and the thingks which inspired it all.  In other words, we expect lots of new discoveries in terms of collaborations, career paths, and systems effects we were not even aware of.
• Finally, this site intends to lead all users into deeper exploration with their created Thingks, the Thingks that inspire them, and the resonances they imply.  This is meant to span the lifetime of both Thingk(s) and their creator(s).  It is envisioned that initial thingk(s) [prototypes are encouraged] may expand far beyond the scope originally envisioned.

This site is an application of Static Pattern Engineering technology as well as a member of the PatternSmithing Alliance.  It will be based on Semantic Web technology.

I am actively seeking collaborators, founders, research associates, future users, and future employees.  All feedback is welcome.  Contact me at =Joel.Kotarski.

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