LEAP describing things

Belongs to LEAP 2.0

This is a note about describing things in LEAP. It is particularly about the predicates content, description, presented by.

What kind of thing is being described?
Things relevant to portfolios and LEAP are generally one of three kinds (see the concepts underlying the LEAP classes): Each of these relate somewhat differently to text that is related to them, and these deserve different predicates to describe those different relationships.
 * embodied things of the world, such as achievements, activities, agents and physical resources ;
 * records and information resources: things that have information content, e.g. written notes or works;
 * patterns and concepts.

Embodiments
Embodied things of the world can be described, often in many ways. Their essence, as real, is not exhausted by the words that describe them. There is always more that could be written or said. Because they can never be fully described, how they are described for different purposes is a matter of intentional choice. For example, how you describe one of your achievements will vary according to the audience. What "actually" happened (in physical, space-time reality) remains the same; how it is described varies. Also, how the same thing is perceived or interpreted may well vary, and this will result in its social reality differing. (But note that you cannot describe what actually happened. Any description, no matter on whose authority, is still only a description. What actually happened will always be beyond description.)

In the LEAP way of doing things, this is approached in two ways. Firstly, every embodied thing can have just one description, which serves for the portfolio holder to record what it is or was, and which can also be used in general for presenting it to others. Secondly, for any particular purpose, or for the general purpose of public presentation, each varied description can be represented as a LEAP entry. The nice thing about this is that a LEAP entry has its own intent, which can be used to record the purpose and intended audience of that particular description.

Records
At one level, everything stored in a portfolio system is a record; but some records are just themselves, and of their essence represent neither an embodiment nor a pattern. These include digital LEAP resources of information, which may talk about or describe other things, but whose essence is their content.

In LEAP, these have content, but giving them a description might be rather confusing, as they themselves might be serving as descriptions. A summary can, however, be given without any confusion, to serve as an internal description for the portfolio holder.

All other descriptions are best done in LEAP again through being presented by a LEAP entry. A note of the personal significance of an information resource can be a LEAP entry with the explicit intent of noting its significance. Descriptions for other people may have an intent related to the audience.

Because of the nature and function of a LEAP entry as a record used in the further description of records as well as embodiments, it makes sense to restrict the way that they are described themselves. A LEAP entry should only have content; should certainly not have a description; and preferably should not be presented by anything. If we allowed a LEAP entry to be presented by another LEAP entry, there might be no end to trying to decide which content was to be used for which purpose or audience.

Patterns
Concepts and patterns are fundamentally different from embodiments and resources. There is no one "content" to a pattern, as they can be described in several ways. Described is not the key word either, as in essence patterns and concepts are the kinds of things that need definitions. Definitions can be private for patterns that are only used by oneself; but shared meaning, helped by shared definitions, is necessary for any communication.

If a pattern or concept cannot be defined explicitly, people often resort to giving examples. In LEAP, an example of a pattern is simply noted with the predicates is pattern of and has pattern

In LEAP, a personal definition could reasonably be called a description, though certainly not "content". The importance of a shared definition, in the context of a portfolio, is whether the holder shares it. That can be represented by the four predicates which are designed to relate personal portfolio patterns to external definitions:
 * equivalent - the holder's concept is a good enough match for practical purposes
 * overlap - the holder's concept has some overlap, but is not the same

See also the LEAP references.