We are the living wave of humanity; what have we learned?

At one point I entertained the domain www.SignsForCollaboration.com.
The basic idea is to standardize daily routine communications.
It sounds too simple. It should exist already!
The following are fragments:

 

THINKING ALLOWED/ALOUD

 

My interest is to discover a “natural” way to express human “work” relationships with some few simple ASCII characters.
Respectfully addressed to someone else, or to my Future Self.

Assumptions:
+ a little thinking can support the flow of things
+ our mind is not intended to be a storehouse of useless information (GTD)
+ writing things down can inspire and prepare, and is already a fun-da-mental part of the work

 

WRITING DOWN == ALLOWING A MOMENT OF INTELLIGENCE
+ what do we want?
+ where is the ball?
+ who delivers, what?

 

MACHINE-READABLE
+ simple, plain text
+ “tasks” or status entries can be automatically discovered, filtered and collected from emails, or any text
+ entries can be processed and checked for (potential) conflicts
+ errors/warnings: unconfirmed expectations, delay, oversights, contradictions, wrong priorities…
+ adding timestamps allows us to provide support, create reminders, and counteract forgetfulness…
+ lots of meta data could be collected: estimated time to complete the task, due date…
+ but, data entry needs to be as lean and quick as possible

 

AUTOMATIC LISTS
+ who expects something from me?
+ what am I expecting from others?
+ what tasks might turn stale?
+ what gets done?
+ what needs to get done?
+ who is overloaded?

 

A Basic Task

H >>> b :: project name // decide abc 1

H >>> b :: project name // decide abc 2

H >>> b :: project name // decide abc 3

 

Calendar Entries

H :: B >>> Meet @ abc // def 4

H ?: B >>> Meet @ abc // def 5

H :? B >>> Meet @ abc // def 6

H >< B // Meet @ abc // def 7

H >?< B // Meet @ abc // def 8

H >=< B // Meet @ abc // def 9

 

This document is in incubating mode; scratching on the surface. Your feedback is welcome.

  1. The one writing down the task starts with his/her initial or short-name, and is the Task Owner for his/her version/perspective.↩

  2. The one being active is capitalized.↩

  3. If there is an exchange — or delivery — the flow is pointed out; in this case b receives from H.↩

  4. Confirmed meeting about def topic↩

  5. H not 100%↩

  6. B not 100%↩

  7. Another approach (coming together): H and B being prepared ↩

  8. Maybe to meet, or decisions need to made.↩

  9. Confirm, or come to an agreement.↩