{
  "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": null,
      "description": null,
      "analyst": null,
      "standpoint": null,
      "timestamp": null,
      "shortform": true
  },

  "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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": null,
          "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
      }
  ]
}
