Seattle Method

This blog post summarizes information related to what many people refer to as "triple-entry accounting" (TEA), "triple-entry bookkeeping" (TEB), shared public ledgers, public databases, and such. First, it is important to understand the difference between recordkeeping, bookkeeping, and accounting which is: Recordkeeping : Recordkeeping relates to the mechanical process of preservation of documentary evidence of a particular event. Bookkeeping :  Bookkeeping is a specialized type of recordkeeping which relates to the mechanical process of preserving documentary evidence of particular business events in the form of financial transactions into a bookkeeping system. Accounting : Accounting builds on top of bookkeeping adding additional refinements of financial summarization and a control function added. Accounting is the language used by bookkeeping. Accounting is a communications tool. Accounting is a classification system. The "book" in bookkeeping relates ...

(Note that on this page, the term "framework" means digital financial reporting framework as contrast to the term regulatory framework and standards or financial reporting framework .) * * * A framework is stabilizing scaffolding or essential supporting structure which provides leverage and scalability. A framework is a structured set of guidelines, libraries, conventions, components, best practices, and tools that provides a foundation for building and stabilizing applications or systems. Frameworks are useful because they save time, enforce consistency, and avoid reinventing solutions to common problems. Think of a framework like the foundation of a house. Instead of starting with raw materials every time, you begin with a solid base and predefined structures that make construction faster and more reliable. Frameworks save time because you avoid having to start from scratch when solving common problems.  Frameworks provide consistency and structure by enforcing standard ...

The core idea of XBRL is global open industry standard for information exchange  that is machine-interpretable that is also interpretable by humans (i.e. one version of information, usable by both humans and machines). This is achieved using the notion of the " information block ". The meaning conveyed by that information block is expressed using the XBRL global open industry standard format. An information block is a structural insight of an XBRL-based report. An information block is an exploitable regularity. An information block is a logical pattern. Having one version of information that is readable by both a machine and a human means that a common shared cognitive understanding and mutual knowledge provided by the information block is usable by both machine and human. An information block is a holon . An information block is an organism . A digital information organism .  An information block is a semantic unit which is stable and structurally sound. An information block...

Imagine a system that combines a software application used for performing some task, a knowledge management system that contains knowledge related to performing that task, and a reasoner which understands how to interact with the knowledge based within the knowledge management system, the software application, and the user of that software system. A subject matter expert (SME) and a software application agree on a common representation of knowledge , a conceptualization , using global open standard technical formats such as XBRL, RDF+OWL+SHACL, or GQL. That means that rather than embedding subject matter logic within the code of a software application; that logic can be separated from the software application.  This makes both that common representation of knowledge more useful and modifications to the software easier. This distinction (i.e. separating knowledge and code) makes knowledge based systems very different from typical software applications. The architecture of a knowledg...

Conceptualization , which is part of the triangle of meaning , is the process of identifying, abstracting, and organizing a coherent set of concepts and relationships that represent the essential important elements, relationships, and possible states of affairs within a given subject domain (a.k.a. area of knowledge , field, universe of discourse). It transforms the complexity of reality into structured ideas that can be shared, discussed, analyzed, and modeled. A conceptualization (a.k.a. conceptual framework) is a shared mental or collective understanding of what exists and how what exists hangs together in some area of knowledge (a.k.a. domain). A conceptualization is like a blueprint. A conceptualization is intended to be understandable by humans (the community of subject domain stakeholders) but can also be represented in machine interpretable form. Conceptualizations are social artifacts, sociotechnical tools. A domain of understanding is the territory in which a commun...

A model is an informative, intentional, well-defined, clear, complete, and correct representation of the set of things and relations between those things defined within an axiomatic system . A model enables a community of stakeholders trying to achieve a specific goal or objective or a range of goals/objectives to agree on important details related to capturing meaning or representing a shared understanding of and knowledge in some system of interest. In her book An Introduction to Ontology Engineering (PDF page 23), C. Maria Keet, PhD, provides discussion about what constitutes a good and perhaps a not-so-good ontology.  There are three categories of errors she discusses and these three ideas are applicable to models: Syntax errors (syntactic quality) : If the expression of the model is of some specific machine-readable language, having a syntax error is similar to computer code not being able to compile. Logic errors (semantic quality) : If the expression of the model has an e...

One of the original authors of the Scientific American article, The Semantic Web , Dr. Ora Lassila gave what amounts to an "after action report" regarding the vision of the Semantic Web and where we are in terms of realizing that vision. I find the video of that after action report quite helpful in understanding where the Semantic Web and artificial intelligence are going: Semantic Web and AI: Can we finally realize the original vision? That video is excellent including the question and answer session at the end. The vision has matured into the "enterprise knowledge graph". The state of the art is " RDF Star " or now referred to as RDF 1.2 , RDF Schema 1.1 ,  SHACL 1.2 Core , SHACL 1.2 Rules , SPARQL 1.2 Query Language , OWL Web Ontology Language Document (Second Addition) , Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) . Additional Information : Atomic Design Methodology Implementation The Semantic Web is Dead - Long Live the Semantic Web! Semantic Web Laye...