{
  "name": "Protocol Bicorder",
  "schema": "bicorder.schema.json",
  "version": "1.2.4",
  "description": "A diagnostic tool for the study of protocols",
  "author": "Nathan Schneider",
  "date_modified": "2025-12-02",
  "metadata": {
    "protocol": "Authority Assertions via Linguistic Precision",
    "description": "Speakers emphasize meticulous vocabulary and phraseology to assert intellectual authority and signal their mastery of the subject matter. This involves using precise terminology and avoiding ambiguity, even when simpler language might suffice. The deliberate use of complex language functions as a subtle form of signaling, indicating expertise and demanding respect from other participants. It also serves to create a sense of exclusivity and reinforce the speaker's position as a knowledgeable leader.",
    "analyst": "GPT-OSS",
    "standpoint": "A careful ethnographer and outsider aspiring to achieve a neutral stance and a high degree of precision",
    "timestamp": null,
    "shortform": false
  },
  "diagnostic": [
    {
      "set_name": "Design",
      "set_description": "How the protocol is created and remembered",
      "gradients": [
        {
          "term_left": "explicit",
          "term_left_description": "The design is stated explicitly somewhere that is accessible to participants",
          "term_right": "implicit",
          "term_right_description": "The design is not stated explicitly and is learned by use",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "precise",
          "term_left_description": "The design is specified with a high level of precision that eliminates ambiguity in implementation",
          "term_right": "interpretive",
          "term_right_description": "The design is ambiguous, allowing participants a wide range of interpretation",
          "value": 1,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "institutional",
          "term_left_description": "Design occurs through processes controlled by powerful institutions",
          "term_right": "vernacular",
          "term_right_description": "Design occurs through evolving community interactions",
          "value": 1,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "documenting",
          "term_left_description": "The primary purpose is to document or validate activity that is occurring",
          "term_right": "enabling",
          "term_right_description": "The primary purpose is to enable activity that might not happen otherwise",
          "value": 3,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "static",
          "term_left_description": "Designed to be as fixed and unchanging as possible",
          "term_right": "malleable",
          "term_right_description": "Designed to be changed by participants according to evolving needs",
          "value": 3,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "technical",
          "term_left_description": "Primarily concerned with interactions among technologies",
          "term_right": "social",
          "term_right_description": "Primarily concerned with interactions among people or groups",
          "value": 9,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "universal",
          "term_left_description": "Meant for global adoption across different communities",
          "term_right": "particular",
          "term_right_description": "Tailored for a specific community",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "durable",
          "term_left_description": "Designed to be persistently available",
          "term_right": "ephemeral",
          "term_right_description": "Designed to vanish when no longer needed",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "set_name": "Entanglement",
      "set_description": "How the protocol relates with participant agents",
      "gradients": [
        {
          "term_left": "macro",
          "term_left_description": "Operates at large scales involving many participants or broad scope",
          "term_right": "micro",
          "term_right_description": "Operates at small scales with few participants or narrow scope",
          "value": 5,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "sovereign",
          "term_left_description": "A distinctive operating logic, not subject to any other entity",
          "term_right": "subsidiary",
          "term_right_description": "An operating logic under the control of a particular entity",
          "value": 3,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "self-enforcing",
          "term_left_description": "Rules are automatically enforced through its own mechanisms",
          "term_right": "enforced",
          "term_right_description": "Rules require external enforcement by authorities or institutions",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "abstract",
          "term_left_description": "Participants learn the protocol by studying it intellectually",
          "term_right": "embodied",
          "term_right_description": "Participants learn the protocol by physically practicing it",
          "value": 4,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "obligatory",
          "term_left_description": "Participation is compulsory for a certain class of agents",
          "term_right": "voluntary",
          "term_right_description": "Participation in the protocol is optional and not coerced",
          "value": 9,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "flocking",
          "term_left_description": "Coordination occurs through centralized direction or direct mimicry",
          "term_right": "swarming",
          "term_right_description": "Coordination occurs through distributed interactions without central direction",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "defensible",
          "term_left_description": "Strong boundaries and protections against external influence",
          "term_right": "exposed",
          "term_right_description": "Weak boundaries and vulnerable to external influence",
          "value": 4,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "monopolistic",
          "term_left_description": "Excludes the use of other protocols with similar purposes",
          "term_right": "pluralistic",
          "term_right_description": "Interoperates with other protocols and does not exclude their use",
          "value": 9,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "set_name": "Experience",
      "set_description": "How the protocol is perceived in the context of its implementation",
      "gradients": [
        {
          "term_left": "sufficient",
          "term_left_description": "Adequately meets the needs and goals of participants",
          "term_right": "limited",
          "term_right_description": "Does not, on its own, adequately meet the needs and goals of participants",
          "value": 7,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "crystallized",
          "term_left_description": "Content or meaning are settled and widely agreed upon",
          "term_right": "contested",
          "term_right_description": "Content or meaning are disputed or under debate",
          "value": 6,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "trust-evading",
          "term_left_description": "Minimizes the need for trust among participants",
          "term_right": "trust-inducing",
          "term_right_description": "Relies on or cultivates trust among participants",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "predictable",
          "term_left_description": "Produces expected and consistent outcomes",
          "term_right": "emergent",
          "term_right_description": "Produces unexpected or novel outcomes",
          "value": 3,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "exclusion",
          "term_left_description": "Creates barriers or excludes certain participants",
          "term_right": "inclusion",
          "term_right_description": "Reduces barriers and includes diverse participants",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": true
        },
        {
          "term_left": "restraining",
          "term_left_description": "Fosters experiences of absurd complexity, alienation, and powerlessness",
          "term_right": "liberating",
          "term_right_description": "Enables participants to carry out desired activities with less work or thought",
          "value": 2,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        },
        {
          "term_left": "dead",
          "term_left_description": "Not actively utilized by relevant participants",
          "term_right": "alive",
          "term_right_description": "Actively utilized by relevant participants",
          "value": 8,
          "notes": null,
          "shortform": false
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": [
    {
      "term_left": "hardness",
      "term_left_description": "The protocol tends toward properties characterized by hardness",
      "term_right": "softness",
      "term_right_description": "The protocol tends toward properties characterized by softness",
      "instructions": "Take all the 'value' fields in the gradients above and determine a mean. Round it to the nearest integer. That is the 'value' here.",
      "automated": true,
      "value": 4,
      "notes": null
    },
    {
      "term_left": "polarized",
      "term_left_description": "The analyst tended toward more extreme high or low readings",
      "term_right": "centrist",
      "term_right_description": "The analyst tended toward readings at the middle of the gradients",
      "instructions": "Take all the 'value' fields in the gradients above. Assess their degree of polarization. For instance, if all the values are either 1 or 9, the output would be 1, and if all of them are 5, the output would be 9.",
      "automated": true,
      "value": 4,
      "notes": null
    },
    {
      "term_left": "bureaucratic",
      "term_left_description": "The protocol exhibits institutional, formal, top-down characteristics with centralized control and external enforcement",
      "term_right": "relational",
      "term_right_description": "The protocol exhibits community-based, emergent, bottom-up characteristics with distributed coordination and voluntary participation",
      "instructions": "Based on the diagnostic readings, calculate the protocol's position using Linear Discriminant Analysis. The LDA score is scaled to the 1-9 range, where 1 represents strongly bureaucratic/institutional protocols and 9 represents strongly relational/cultural protocols. A score of 5 indicates a protocol near the boundary exhibiting characteristics of both families.",
      "automated": true,
      "value": null,
      "notes": null
    },
    {
      "term_left": "not useful",
      "term_left_description": "The bicorder was not useful or relevant for analyzing this protocol",
      "term_right": "very useful",
      "term_right_description": "The bicorder was very useful and relevant for analyzing this protocol",
      "instructions": "Evaluate the usefulness of this bicorder as a tool for analyzing this protocol, considering whether the gradient terms seemed revealing or irrelevant.",
      "automated": false,
      "value": null,
      "notes": null
    }
  ]
}
