The Instrumentation Road-map

Thou hast seen nothing yet.
-- Miguel de Cervantes

This is my current plan for developing Instrumentation into the world devouring monster that I believe it will inevitably become (when you dream, dream big). Of course, the past is subject to my vague memory; the present is a matter of interpretation and the future is even less certain, so these milestones should be taken with a grain of salt and a large dose of snake oil.

The Past

Start with an ergonomic keypad
Design a suitable semiotic symbol (the Glyph)
Pick a suitable ontology (the I Ching)
Create a scheme for tying the two together (the Instrumentation Design Document)
Create a prototype vocabulary to demonstrate the potential of the language
Create a prototype (java) web application to demonstrate the potential of the language
Create a website with tutorials and other educational material
Create a prototype web application to permit vocabulary updates
Develop a free smart phone application with minimal functionality

Create and change glyphs
Bare-bones vocabulary search function
Save one set of glyphs as a message
Send and receive one message or one glyph at a time
Communicate with one friend at a time

Publish the free smart phone application

The Present

Stabilize and publicize the free smart phone application

Build a 'community' of casual interest in the potential of the language
Develop more tools for term discovery
Expand and refine the vocabulary

Develop an inexpensive smart phone application with desirable functionality

Advanced glyph creation and search functions
Save multiple messages for quicker responses in common situations
Insert and delete single glyphs within a message
Communicate with multiple friends
Add an audible 'Speak Instrumentation' option

The Future

Publish the Non-free (yet very inexpensive) smart phone application
Generate a modest revenue stream

Sell the desirable application with the promise of free updates
The free application will remain free (and unfashionable) forever

(The following three 'Invest' bullets should happen mostly simultaneously)
Invest the money into improvement of the vocabulary

Hire "Subject Matter Experts" to improve the Articulation layer
Finance a computer generated selection of words to fill out the 'basic vocabulary'
Finance translations from the reference language (English?) to other languages

Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese

Make these vocabularies available to other developers
(the glyph and language must be free to succeed)

Invest the money into expansion of the non-free smart phone application

Hire "Subject Matter Experts" for each platform
Simplify loading of vocabulary updates for all languages
Enable downloading of term definition, term rationale, etc. from a central repository
The free application will be improved just enough to remain useable

Invest the money into improvement of the web site for education and language evolution

Create tutorials for math and logic using the improved vocabulary
Create interactive applications for learning the vocabulary
Enable advanced 'collaborative filtering' for public development of the vocabulary

Finance an industry supported task force to define the Specialization layer

Enable downloading of Specialized definitions for current languages

The Far Future

Finance an industry supported task force to define an RFC for glyphic transmission and storage protocols
Finance an industry supported task force to create an ISO standard for the Instrumentation language specification
Finance an international task force to maintain the reference vocabulary
Develop a 'Deluxe' Instrumentation platform with advanced functionality

Use chording keyboards and other wearable hardware
Take advantage of Specialized (command) functionality
Define user interface for 'universal remote' capability
Implement voice recognition and response

Rest on my laurels and descend into depravity with style and grace

back to the home page.