Subject: Fuzzy Logic

From: "greg fizpatrick" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 08:29:21 PDT

At this moment I am working on several simultaneous threads.  Opening  
times,  scheduling times and overall calendar object management 
clarification.  I will post individual emails to the list for each subject.  
  This note concerns  a new thread introduced by Frank in his mail from  
19990818

...afterall this same "fuzzy" scheduling can apply to both VTODO and 
VJOURNAL calendar components also --Frank.

Though I do not believe that our proposals for scheduling times  truly  
qualify as being fuzzy, I do believe that if we are going to initiate an 
experimental working group to address the issues raised by SKi, as Pat has 
suggested,  it is high time we developed the Fuzzy logic thread.

Ironically perhaps, it is the business meeting calendar community, as 
represented by Frank, Lisa and Doug etc.,  that  has the most to gain by the 
use of Fuzzy Logic.  The public events which the SKi WG are focusing on are 
decidedly more crisp in their nature.  (at least from the calendar 
publisher's POV)

-----

Within a business system, there is a potential for meetings that will add 
value to the success and well being of the system and its projects.   This 
potential is realized through the management of possibilities.

Possibility management is necessitated by conflicting resource demands 
since:

human resources  are normally engaged in more than one activity
hence
human resources are often shared

material resources  are normally used in more than one activity
hence
material resources are often shared.

times and spaces of external human and material resources are often not 
alterable by internal organisms seeking interactivity.

Possibility management implies prioritization.

ex.

"Our parking problems - the final solution" meeting
might have relatively less importance for Emma Brown than the "Strategy 
planning with our most important customers" meeting.

Tom Smith might have more to offer the "Ergonomics in the office" meeting 
than the "Launching Foobar" meeting, or visa-versa.

The "Office party review" meeting might have more need of the Barco video 
projector than the "Presenting the Acme campaign for the Acme Corporation"  
meeting.

There might be advantages in holding the board meeting one week earlier.   
San Francisco might suit the kickoff better than Los Angeles.

All the above examples are typical of the sort of value judgements 
management and workers are making daily. These judgements are not restricted 
to Boolean logic outcomes  and neither should the Calendar and scheduling 
apps that are meant to facilitate them.

Some examples of possible  fuzzy sets with in Calendar scheduling are:

ex 1.

			Domain = 	The resources value to the project or
				         The projects importance to the resource

degree	|										x
of		|									x
membership								x
		|
		|						x
		|					x
		|				x
		|		x
		|______________________________________________

	ex 2.

			        Domain  = The optimal times for knowledge retention  as     
expressed in hours

degree	|
of		|
membership	xx	x
		|      x     xx    x
		|    x		       x		   xxx			  xx
		|			  x				   xxx	x    x
		|  x				x		        x	xx
		|x				     x xx 	xxxx
		|______________________________________________
		7		9		11		13		15		17

ex. 3

			Domain  = The optimal times for planning the Dorax
					campaign,  measured from Monday on.

degree	|
of		|	    x x
membership	xx	x
		|      x             x
		|    x		       x
		|			  x
		|  x				x
		|x				     x
		|______________________________________________
		tues		wed  	thur		fri

I will rest my case here, by saying that the calendar and scheduling 
application that can utilize fuzzy logic will be superior to the application 
which can not do so.

And therefore, future iCalendar standards work within the experimental 
workgroup should take a good look at Fuzzy Logic, making it natural for 
Fuzzy logic enabled systems to use iCal.

Greg

PS I am sending a copy of this email to Earl Cox, the author of the Fuzzy 
Systems Handbook (Academic Press) to see if he would like to share some 
comments with us.

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