IEML

Information Economy Meta-Language (IEML)

Original author(s)	Pierre Lévy
License	GPL-3.0 license
Website	https://intlekt.io

IEML (Information Economy Meta-Language) is an Open source artificial method to represent the semantic content of a linguistic sign. It was designed by Pierre Lévy as an Open collaboration project as part of his works on Collective intelligence[1][2][3] in order to encode meaning in a computer readable way. Its design is based on mathematics and logic abstractions but with a clear inspiration from the organic structure of natural languages.[4]

Overview

The goal of the IEML system is to make real-world data machine-readable. It proposes a standard representation that enables the mapping of semantic representations with the data in a computer-friendly way.[5][6]

IEML's design starts with a small amount of primary concepts are arranged in a matrix and composed together in order to create new and slightly more complex concepts, which can be arranged in a new matrix and composed to form even more complex ones, and so on.[7] The arrangement in the form of a matrix and its fractal design make the representation easy to manipulate, quick when calculating the distance between concepts and simple to encode.[8] Each element in each matrix has a unique representation that easily indicates both its location and content.[9] To maintain the integrity of the system, every public submission must pass an automatic analogical verification and must be reviewed by a reliable reviewer before being incorporated or updated into the system.

Challenges

IEML bypasses important challenges of the Semantic web and other semantic representation systems such as vagueness, uncertainty, inconsistency.[10][11] Some of the challenges for IEML include readability, annotation and adoption. Systems that use IEML must deal with these issues in order to work as intended.[12]

• Readability: In order to be computer-readable and semantically connected the system cannot use any one natural language as a representation, which makes it more difficult to be read by a human. Still, the metadata of each element allows user-suggested translations from the IEML concept to any given natural language.
• Annotation: Until more advanced tools are implemented, annotation must be made manually.
• Adoption: In order to grow and improve, the system depends on having an increasing number of users and submitters.

References

1. Le Deuff, Olivier (2018). Digital humanities: History and development. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781786300164.
2. Szoniecky, Samuel; Hachour, Hakim; Bouhaï, Nasreddine (2011), "Générateur hypertextuel pour l'interprétation des médias sociaux dans une topologie sémantique", Les Cahiers du numérique (in French), 7 (3–4), Lavoisier: 93–121, doi:10.3166/lcn.7.3-4.93-121
3. Schoder, Detlef; Gloor, Peter A.; Lévy, Panagiotis Takis (2013). "Social media and collective intelligence — ongoing and future research streams". KI-Künstliche Intelligenz. 27 (1): 9–15. doi:10.1007/s13218-012-0228-x. S2CID 16083888.
4. "The Linguistic Roots of IEML". intlekt.io. 20 January 2021.
5. Guignard Legros, Virginie (4 March 2019). "L'IEML, le langage universel du futur". cursus.edu. Thot Cursus. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
6. Szoniecky, Samuel (13 December 2012). Évaluation et conception d'un langage symbolique pour l'intelligence collective :Vers un langage allégorique pour le Web (PhD) (in French). Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
7. "Semantic primitives" (in French). intlekt.io. 18 January 2021.
8. Lévy, Pierre (26 March 2014). "IEML: A Project for a New Humanism. An interview with Pierre Lévy". CCCBLAB (Interview). Interviewed by Sandra Álvaro. Spain: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
9. Séminaire IEML - 2e séance, première partie [IEML seminar - 2nd session, first part] (digital recording) (in French). Canada: Internet Archive. October 9, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
10. "A linguagem que conecta humanos e máquinas". inteligencia.rockcontent.com. Inteligência Corporativa. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
11. Lévy, Pierre (26 May 2015). "How the Internet's Collective Human Intelligence Could Outsmart AI" (Interview). Interviewed by Jordan Pearson. United States: Vice. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
12. "IEML Grammar" (in French). 23 February 2021.