Film 1 of 7 · Language and meaning
What's in a word
Four offices, four numbers, one word. Before you can count anything, you have to agree what it is.
Topics › Data modelling › From words to data
From words to data
Seven short films on data modelling, from how minds turn the world into words, to how AI can help keep meaning true. They follow one idea, older than any system: the credential, how people prove what they know.
The films
Watch them in order: each film stands alone, and each builds on the ones before it. They make most sense after The Inner Life of Data and A Sharper Sketch.
Film 2 of 7 · Models and systems
Older than the systems
Clay, wax, paper, a digital key: the materials changed, the idea didn't. Model it once, and hold every system up to that.
Film 3 of 7 · Shapes for data
Built to write, built to read
One set of facts, two shapes: one built to write each award, one built to read ten years of them.
Film 4 of 7 · Shapes for reading
Many ways to read
Star, vault or one wide table? Each shape has a job and a place. Choose per question, not per fashion.
Film 5 of 7 · Hybrid databases
Both at once
One database that writes and reads. It removes the copy, not the model.
Film 6 of 7 · Meaning and AI
Meaning machines can read
An assistant answers from the meaning it can read. Glossary, taxonomy, ontology and semantic layer stack.
Film 7 of 7 · Keeping meaning current
Keeping it true
Three dashboards, three numbers for one measure. The agent recommends, people approve, and everything is versioned.
One thread: the credential
People have always needed to show what they know to someone who wasn't there to see them learn it. The answer has barely changed in centuries: someone trusted makes a claim about someone, in a way that others can check. The university's new microcredentials are its newest form, and each film takes them one step further.
Every film starts in the past
| Film | Opens with | Still true today |
|---|---|---|
| What's in a word | Vervet monkeys' alarm calls | A signal can stand for a kind of thing. |
| Older than the systems | A guild's masterpiece, a sealed licence to teach | Someone trusted makes a claim about someone, in a way others can check. |
| Built to write, built to read | Pacioli's journal and ledger, 1494 | One set of facts: a shape for writing, a shape for reading. |
| Many ways to read | A library's card catalogue | The same thing, reached many ways. |
| Both at once | The cash register, 1879 | Recording and counting in one place. |
| Meaning machines can read | Linnaeus, Wilkins and Nightingale | Shared definitions let strangers compare. Universal ones fail. |
| Keeping it true | Johnson's dictionary, 1755 | Meaning moves. Someone has to keep up. |
Four sides of every word
Cyan outlines are technical; gold outlines are business.
Owns a word
Mei, registrar's office: award and student
Brings a new word
Tom, short courses: microcredential
Owns the model
Noor, data architect, the series' guide
Asks the questions
Ana, Head of School, and David, Deputy Vice-Chancellor