This paper introduces a socio-technical infrastructure, described as a boundary infrastructure, based on improvements to existing and emerging Issue-based Information Systems (IBIS) conversation platforms.

1. Jack Park
The Open University, UK
TMRA 2010
Leipzig, Germany
© 2010 Jack Park; License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

2.  Motivation
 Federation
 Federating Conversations
 Scenarios
 Set-Union Merge
 Virtual Merge
 TopicSpaces Merge Architecture

3. Joe is in Medical
School studying to
be a doctor
Joe is preparing for a
test on Bacterial
Infections

4. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
Bookmark page
with these tags
Immune Response
Bacterial Infection
macrophages use
free radicals to Macrophage
kill bacteria
Free Radical
Reactive Oxygen
Annotate page
with this idea

5. Sarah lives a healthy
lifestyle
Sarah read that
free radicals
can cause cancer

6. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
Bookmark page
with these tags
antioxidants Antioxidant
kill
free radicals Free Radical
Annotate page
with this idea

7. Angel is a cancer
patient with
recurring bacterial
infections
Angel visits a
collective intelligence
portal to research
bacterial infections

8. Angel becomes
curious about free
radicals—a new
concept to him

9. Angel makes a
discovery
macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to kill
kill bacteria free radicals
¡Ay, caramba!
What’s this all
about?

10. Angel makes a
decision
Sounds like I
should not take any
more antioxidant
pills!

11. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to Must Avoid kill
kill bacteria free radicals
Add a new
Connection
between the two
ideas

12. Olivia is a Medical
Doctor interested in
immune system
subjects

13. macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to Must Avoid kill
kill bacteria free radicals
“Must Avoid” Need to restate
doesn’t really this information
convey a proper
sense of reality

14. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
Bacterial Infection Contraindicates Antioxidants
Because
macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to kill
kill bacteria free radicals
Create a new set of
representations by Olivia gets bonus
connecting the two points for justifying
core concepts and her assertion.
explaining the
connection

15. Bacterial Infection Contraindicates Antioxidants

16. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
“Compromised host” as a new
concept to be represented in
the knowledge base

17. Use Collective Intelligence
tools to record discoveries
Compromised Host
Appropriate For
Bacterial Infection Contraindicates Antioxidants
Because
macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to kill
kill bacteria free radicals

18.  As a Noun:
 A collection of people, information resources, and
boundary infrastructures (portals) together with
many related boundary objects (user interface
widgets, …)
 As a Verb:
 Topic maps merging without filters

19. "In every deliberation, we must consider
the impact on the seventh generation...”
—Great Law of the Iroquois
Structured Conversation

21.  Transparency
 Need to know why a merge was performed
 Contestability
 Need to be able to contest a merge
 Need to be able to unwind a merge
 User accessibility
 Users must be able to
 Propose a merge
 Debate a merge

22. Installations for:
Global Climate Change Situation Room, Gimcheon South Korea
Government of Kuwait
Planned: Universiti Sains Malaysia

23. Non-redundant resources are
copied from one proxy to
another

24. Proxies remain
separate, but
linked through
merge Merge
associations Association can
be contested

25. Topic Map
Applications provide Merge Proxy
merge rules Agent Queue
Topic Map Merge Merge agent can be
Applications Rules distributed, remote,
threaded, operating
on proxies added to
the queue