Semantic Interoperability - Part I

I've attached a link to Brian Ahier's blog and the transcript of the HIT Standards Committee meeting held on May 15, 2009. I found the meeting to be most exciting as I could feel the energy of the group amplified by the folks actually in the room, over the phone. John Halamka is simply amazing!

Brian, I appreciate you making the transcript available and plan to refer to it through out the week as I explain my views of semantic interoperability on both human and machine levels. But first, I'll talk about the technologies I use and my work space.
I mostly utilize a Toshiba tablet PC which allows me to dictate, write with a stylus, or use a keyboard for entry. My printer is an HP combination scanner, fax and printer. The USB hub that I use was given as a gift when I visited a new Team (tier 3) data center located in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, about ten miles from where I live.


I enjoy beta testing and several years ago, I tested the Microsoft software development kit (SDK) for tablet PCs which were under development. At the time, I used a Wacom tablet attached to a full size PC.

I am a registered member of Microsofts Partner Program and subscribe to the Microsoft Action Pack Toolkit. I've beta tested many Microsoft applications and enjoy programming as a recreational activity. As time permits, I am looking at Microsoft's Health Vault pre-production environment.

In order to test the many applications and operating systems that I have access to, I utilize "virtual environments". At the current time, since I am focused on HIT, I have deferred recreational programming and testing. The following picture is of the Virtual PC wizard.


To the left of my tablet PC is a dark blue covered book: The Priniciples of Mathematics by Bertrand Russell. The book was published in 1903 and reissued in paperback in 1996.

In Part I (the first 100 pages) Russell sets forth his landmark thesis that mathematics and logic are identical and explains Symbolic Logic as explication of Boole's Laws of Thought (1854).

(to be continued)