On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Stephen Hearn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
> ... The complexity arises from the way organizations
> constantly alter their internal and external organizational structures and
> relationships. That's not something that a short retrospective horizon can
> dispense with, unless the intent is to describe only a snapshot of
> organizations. If the intent is to build a registry of lasting value, then
> policies for coping with the changes organizations undergo and the complex
> relationships those changes entail will need to be developed by the
> openPIIR initiative...


I totally get the motivation -- we struggle with this exact problem since
we continually need to demonstrate the impact of departments, institutes,
specific grants, etc.

The trick is that enormous percentage of the data must be
provided/maintained manually and the staggering amount of missing/filthy
info is a problem that won't go away with time.

Even in an ideal world where all the individuals, entities, and
relationships are tracked perfectly, there is still the issue of exposing
these identifiers in the already huge and growing number of forms of
significant activity. I believe that precision is a pipe dream and would
hope that modeling is simple enough to allow more accurate estimation of
error factors based on well-understood and transparent weaknesses.
Otherwise, the likely result is what I like to call, "Measure with
micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with axe...."

kyle