AINTscience - Online User Guide
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Chapter 5: Details

5.1 Content tailoring

The different classes are all concerned with the content of files in some way, but the bond between content and class has different characteristics for each class. Form, for example only has a weak connection to the content of files. Anything can be discussed in a report, and a picture can depict anything visible or even invisible, like concepts. The figure below indicates how specifically the different classes of directories usually are tailored to fit file content.

Correlation#1: Identity#2: Function#3: Form#3: Chronology
Strong
Sherlock
#2:

Function

Action

Did






Thomas




Orville

Vitruvian man

Albert




Benjamin
Medium#1:

Identity

Name

Who






René





Weak
#3:

Form

Shape

What



Leonardo

Minimal #4:

Chronology

Time

When
This table indicates the average "strength of correlation" between typical file content and the four different AINTscience ordering classes. Function has the strongest "connection", chronology least.

We see that the function class is most explicitly tailored to fit the content of files, meaning that function directory names are more specific and generally more descriptive of the contents of files than the other classes. Most files in any one particular directory can be expected to have content that it is easy to relate to the function criteria of the directory.

Identity is less strongly linked to content. The content of files attributable to a specific identity is indirectly linked to the identity through such aspects as what the identity does for a living, and what the relationship is between the identity and the company owning the file system.

Form can be considered to be weakly or loosely specified by content. Most form class criteria are fairly unspecific about what the content is used for, concentrating on syntax rather than semantics.

Finally, Chronology is virtually unrelated to content. It is not totally unrelated, because then chronology would be useless as a class for ordering files, but it has the least correlation of the four classes, which is a main reason why it is the last of the four classes.

Example

The file WM_ProdLog200842 is located in ACME's file system in the directory

Ops/Production/WhackMaster/Logs/2008/42/

The identity Ops/Production/ indicate via the normal functions expected of this identity that these files are about production - a medium specificity.

The function specification WhackMaster/ is quite specific, as a function usually is, indicating the concrete and probably well defined product WhackMaster.

The form specification Logs/ is weakly specific, anything can be logged, but it indicates a sequential report of actions or events.

The chronology specification 2008/42/ says absolutely nothing about what is in the files beyond when the files were created. The creation date may be used to deduce something about the content, but to do so requires combination with other information.

5.2 The sequence again

Since Function has stronger content correlation than Identity, one may ask why is Identity #1 in the sequence, and Function #2? The answer is that, in business, trading values is the name of the game, and that means handling relations between identities. Identity has to be #1, just like Function has to be #2, because Function is what produces the values traded. From then on it's easy, because "Form follows function", and Chronology is a little like death and taxes. Even though you can't avoid them, they're the last things you want to dwell on.

Some identity or other
acts to produce
a presentation, a report, or a picture,
then afterwards, it is history

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

5.3 Implicity

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin said that "A lie told often enough becomes truth". This may be useful to some, but ultimately, when something is repeated often enough, both lies and truths become noise, and noise ain't very useful.

Therefore, when something is so clearly implied that it is obvious, this may be used for simplification to reduce the noise. On the other hand, one must keep in mind what Einstein said, and avoid too much simplification.

Implicity"Implicity is part of simplicity."

Example of implicity

At the top level of any AINTscience file system directory structure there will usually be an Ext/-directory which is the top directory for files related to all externals. The converse of externals is internals, which could be shortened to Int/, or some abbreviation for the company name, such as Acme/. However, having only one directory for everything outside the company and another for everything inside is a waste of the top directory level. Therefore, either Ext/ or Int/ can be omitted, and will then be considered to be implied. Usually, Int/ is omitted and implied, and so Int/Sales/ or Acme/Sales/ become just Sales/, and likewise for all the other department directories.

If the files under Ext/ are accessed more than the internal files, it would make sense to omit Ext/ instead, but usually, the internal files are used more by everyone except the sales department.

This example shows how simplification can be achieved by omitting something that people intuitively understand by implication, e.g. that the sales department is the company's own sales department and not some other company's sales department, and likewise for the other departments. Such simplification may seem obvious because it has to be based on something that is intuitively obvious, but the way it is done can have considerable consequences, and should be considered carefully.

Removing noise as in this example is usually the best way to use implicity.

5.4 The battle for ownership

Ownership is nearly as popular as eating. It's what wars are based on, and in other words dangerous territory. Definition-wise, ownership is about legal rights to doing things with or to whatever is owned.

In a business, everything the company owns is split between the various departments. The interesting thing about internal ownership in a business context is that a lot of it is logical, immaterial ownership, and not just ownership of concrete resources.

Examples of immaterial ownership

Tina

Tina is an ardent believer in one-night stands. She considers it her right to eat her suitor upon termination of the mating ritual. And by making her a larger and more powerful spider than the average male, nature has made her a de-facto owner of this immaterial right. Sometimes, suitors have quick enough reflexes to temporarily revoke Tina's right, and may then return later for another amorous encounter at the end of which Tina will again be eager to convert her immaterial ownership into the more material, digestible. (This example may stretch the scope of "immaterial" somewhat, but it's more fun than the next one)

ACME

In a somewhat similar manner, the various departments of ACME have the rights to perform various different functions on behalf of the company. Accounts pay salaries, do books etc, and to do so, they have been delegated the rights by the company. Consequently, they are the owners of the information contents of files they produce, which is immaterial stuff.

File ownership

File ownership is a basic concept in AINTscience filesystems, because it determines where files belong. Altogether, AINTscience has seven special rules concerning identities, and six of them govern the battle for ownership. The politeness rule was described earlier, and says that externals rule internals, meaning that a file concerning any named external belong somewhere under Ext/, regardless of any internal department involved. The other five are used to determine where a file is or should be placed if there is more than one external contender, or no external and more than one internal.

Owners rule

I3: Owners"Owners rule borrowers."

Many processes may use the same files for some reason. A company letter template with the company letterhead may be used by all departments for various purposes. It should only be owned by one department, though, and that should be the department responsible for creating it and updating it from time to time. The same goes for all documents, the owners rule, and everybody else must go get the document in the same place when they need it.

The two owners rules (Owners and Shareholders) are applied after it has been decided whether the files belong externally or internally, and only if there is more than one place.

Example

Mktg/Templates/Letters/

This is where the template with the company's letterhead is found, providing Marketing owns it. It could also be another department, such as Legal/ or Adm/, but whoever owns it keeps it.

Shareholders rule

I4: Shareholders"Main owners rule part owners."

Sometimes there is more than one owner of some document. That could be a problem if they can't decide who should be the main owner, but if there is a main owner, that is where the document is stored and can be found.

Writers rule

I5: Writers"Writers rule readers."

If there is no main owner, or more than one, the question of who wrote the document decides where it goes.

Editors rule

I6: Editors"Editors and main writers rule other writers."

If there is no main owner, or more than one, and there is also more than one writer, it becomes a question of editors.

The last resort rule

I7: Last resort"If all else fails, discriminate alphabetically."

Finally, if none of the above rules can be used to choose a directory from more than one that fits, the directory that is alphabetically ahead of the others is the winner.

Example

The file Axe_X_2008.pdf is a product description document. Politeness does not place it externally, since it was not written for any specific customer. Therefore it is internal, where it is used in marketing and sales.

It is a general company document produced in collaboration by marketing, sales and product development. None have been given main ownership, so ownership gives three possibles.

Since they all wrote, writers does not decide, but if marketing was responsible for editing and finalizing the document, that's where it goes.

Finally, if down to the last detail, none can claim main ownership, main writer, or being the editor, Mktg/ wins over Sales/ and Prod/, but if product development's directory is named Dev/, they win.

Clearly, this example is not typical, but it illustrates the rules, and how AINTscience can reveal organizational problems. Organizations that need to depend on alphabetical discrimination between departments to find files are not well organized. If employees in a company often need to use the last resort rule, they should discuss it with their superiors. Tell them AINTscience said so (not Simon).

5.5 Employees

People employed by a company are not sub-identities of the company. This is because people are unstable elements that move around and may have many different and non-related functions. The functions are the company's business, the people are not. People do make the company tick, but they are energy, not operations. Business files should be focused on what is done, not who does it.

On the other hand, employees do have identities, and all files that contain data related to employees, such as CVs, employment contracts, performance evaluation etc should be in the employee's file folder a.k.a. directory. Nothing else goes in these directories, just stuff about each employee.

Such employee directories belong under Ext/, because employees are external identities.

To some people this is counter-intuitive, but it is very logical, and not hard to rationalize and get used to.

Employees are externals because:

Any company should be very much aware that employees are externals, and treat files and employees accordingly and with care. Both are critical resources, and getting more so every year.

Example of employee file directory:

Ext/Empl/Joe_Dane/

To the extent that data related to employees are common to all employees, like in a list of salary payments, such files naturally belong under e.g.

Acc/Salaries/

but any file that is specific to each employee, such as employment contract, work evaluations, CVs, resignation letters etc belong in the employee's directory under Ext/. Sometimes it is impractical for reasons of confidentiality to keep such files under Ext/. If they are placed elsewhere for any reason, though, they should still

  1. be considered to be part of Ext/ if they are part of AINTscience, and
  2. only contain files or directories relevant for the employee personally, and not related to any function the employee performs for the company.

5.6 Skip

Skip"If it ain't useful, skip it."

The skipping rule exists to simplify things by allowing removal of that which serves no purpose. As the word "skip" also implies, one may avoid creating the fruitless altogether by moving on to more fertile land directly.

By this is meant that it is not necessary to create a full sequence of the four classes before starting to place files. Any one, or even all three of the classes Function, Form and Chronology may be skipped.

Of the four meta-criteria, only Identity is absolutely necessary, and even this may not exist if it is implicit. (See Implicity in chapter 5.3). It is possible to have any number of directory-levels in an AINTscience file system, and none of the meta-criteria have to be present in any branch of the directory tree.

Skipping can be dangerous if the ground is slippery, so skip carefully.

Examples

Ext/ABC/Frying_Pans/

Ext/ABC/

The company ABC (American Blunts Company) is a supplier of blunt instruments. They have specialized in heavy, well balanced frying pans with impact protection handles, but also deliver some odd products, e.g. frozen legs of lamb (popularized by Roald Dahl).

Assuming the Frying_Pans-directory is the only sub-directory under ABC, a file ABC_Odd_products.pdf, describing ABC's current odd products that are not frying pans would have to be placed directly in Ext/ABC/. Since it is does not describe frying pans, it can't go in the Ext/ABC/Frying_Pans/-directory, and that only leaves Ext/ABC/.

If this is for some reason an unsatisfactory solution, one may also create

Ext/ABC/Other/

as a catch-all for everything not frying-pans, but the directory "Other" is not very useful, and is therefore a prime candidate for applying the skipping rule.

5.7 Overlap creates ambiguity

Overlap"Overlap ain't good."

Example

.../HRM/Recruiting/...

.../HRM/Personnel/...

These two directories are obviously overlapping, meaning that they could both contain sub-directories and files that concern recruiting personnel, and it is not obvious what goes where. Having such overlapping directories is called ambiguous classification.

Determining how to remove the ambiguity may be difficult. The best procedure is to first to decide on precisely what should go in each directory and how they should differ, and after that is resolved, decide on labels that make it easy to understand what goes where.

Some instances of criteria only overlap sometimes, and those are the most treacherous, because they make it more difficult for people to see problems coming.

Example (relationship oriented)

../Customers/...

../Potential_customers/...

The problem here is that any customer can also be a potential customer for other products so where do you look for a company that has received a special offer if you don't know whether the company is already a customer?

The recommended solution for this particular example is to avoid classifying external identities by type altogether and treating them all as externals. A consequence of this solution is that the directory tree can't be used to view all suppliers, all customers, all potentials etc. This is acceptable, since the point of the classification is to make it quick and easy to find files and not to build irrelevant functions into the directory tree. Alphabetically based groups of externals are much easier to use than having to consider whether a company is a supplier, a customer, a potential, a partner or a drinking buddy.

5.8 Combination

Combination"Combinations ain't good either."

There are many ways of combining criteria, but it is usually better not to.

Example 1

.../sales2004/ should be .../sales/2004/

sales2004/ may seem like a reasonable combination, but where does it go?

The correct way is to create .../sales/, and the subdirectory .../sales/2004/, even if there is nothing else in .../sales/ . Like not taking action is a decision, emptiness can be useful. On the other hand, if there is nothing else in sales, maybe 2004/ is redundant?

Example 2

.../agreementsYeOldeComputers1985/ should be Ext/YeOldeComputers/Agreements/1985/

This example illustrates how combinations can be the cause of invalid criteria sequencing. It is simpler to avoid combinations altogether. Hierarchies may become deeper without combinations, but they are easier to create and to understand, and far less prone to becoming ambiguous and muddled.

5.9 AINTscience's file finding procedure

Finding a file in an AINTscience file system is easy, and doesn't have to be taught. An AINTscience file system is as simple as any other, and much more systematic than most. Therefore, users looking for files will through normal use gradually get used to AINTscience, and find files efficiently.

The following procedure is offered for those who want to understand what is going on when AINTscience is used optimally. This can save some time doing unnecessary searching.

StartStart at the top directory of the AINTscience file system
1:IdentityWhile any identity criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
While more than one identity criterion fits, (do) apply identity-rules one by one to eliminate the wrong identities and find the one that rules them all
Open the identity directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Function
1:IdentityWhile any functional criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the function directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Form
3: FormWhile any form criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the form directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Chronology
4: ChronologyWhile any chronology criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the chronology directory decided on and examine what's there
EndIf the file is here: "File found" else "File not found". Stop.

Note that the above procedure is written in a form closely resembling a computer program. If this form is foreign or confusing to you, maybe the flow chart version below is better.

5.10 Flow chart of file finding procedure

This figure is a flow chart view of the same procedure as described above.


5.11 AINTscience's file placing procedure

Placing a file in an AINTscience file system is also simple, but there is no getting away from that the rules of AINTscience must be followed. If they are not, files can easily end up in a wrong place. The procedure below makes it easier to apply rules as needed.

StartStart at the top directory of the AINTscience file system
1:IdentityWhile any identity criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
While more than one identity criterion fits, (do) apply identity-rules one by one to eliminate the wrong identities and find the one that rules them all
Open the identity directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Function
1:IdentityWhile any functional criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the function directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Form
3: FormWhile any form criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the form directory decided on and examine what's there
Continue to Chronology
4: ChronologyWhile any chronology criteria at the current level fits the file do this:
Open the chronology directory decided on and examine what's there
EndPlace the file here.

5.12 ACME Ltd, selected directories

Acc/Accounting/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Books/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Budgets/SpreadsheetsYearQuarterMonth
Finance/<Form>YearQuarterMonth
Invoicing/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Payment/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Salaries/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Corp/, HRM/, Legal/, Pur/, Sales/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Dev/Sharp_n_Blunt/AccuAxe/SlimJoe/Specs/V1/
V2000/
Reports/V1/
V2000/
WhackMaster/Specs/
Reports/
New_Ideas/Plans/Current, History, Future/
Ext/Cust/A_G/Crippen_H_H/, Gunnes_B/, ...
H_M/Murder_Inc/, ...QuickFire/, ...
N_Z/Roylott_G/, Siegel_B/, ...
Gov/HMRC/, Scotland_Yard/, ...<Functions>Year
Other/CIA/, Holmes_S/, MI6/, ...
Suppliers/BASF/, Bayer,/ Estwing/, GlaxoSK/, Glock/, Ruger/, SigSauer/, Stanley/, ...<Functions>Year
Mktg/Advertising/<Sub-Functions><Quant. Form><Form><Chronology>
Brochures/Current/
History/
PR/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Website/<Sub-Functions><Form><Chronology>
Ops/Transportation/Orders/, Reports/, ...YearMonth
HW_Maintenance/Schedules/, Logs/, ...YearMonth
Production/SlimJoe/Schedules/, Logs/, ...YearWeek
WhackMaster/Schedules/, Logs/, ...YearWeek
Services/NoTraceVanish/Orders,/ Reports/, ...Year
Gangland/Orders,/ Reports/, ...Year
NaturalCauses/Orders,/ Reports/, ...Year
Other/Orders,/ Reports/, ...Year

5.13 List of all AINTscience's rules

All of AINTscience's 10 general and 13 special rules
Rule nameRule text
Ain't Simon"AINTscience says: Do everything AINTscience says."
Copy right"Never place a copy in AINTscience, and copy only from AINTscience."
Simplicity"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Identity"Identity is #1."
Function"Function is #2."
Form"Form is #3."
Chronology"Chronology is #4."
Class"#1 is not below #2 is not below #3 is not below #4, and never forget it."
Sub-level"Divide and rule."
Grouping"General is above special, whole is above part, and main is above branch."
Implicity"Implicity is part of simplicity."
Skip"If it ain't useful, skip it."
Overlap"Overlap ain't good."
Combination"Combinations ain't good either."
I2: Politeness"Externals rule internals."
I3: Owners"Owners rule borrowers."
I4: Shareholders"Main owners rule part owners."
I5: Writers"Writers rule readers."
I6: Editors"Editors and main writers rule other writers."
I7: Last resort"If all else fails, discriminate alphabetically."
Fu2: Theme"Theme-likes are functions, or they ain't AINTscience's business."
FO2: Format"Abstract form is above adjective form is above format."
C2: Succession"Succession is above time."

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