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Use Cases for Personal Data Operations

This document captures concrete scenarios that personal data operations infrastructure must support. Each use case identifies actors, goals, memex functions involved, and implied requirements.

Approach: Following W3C working group methodology, we begin with use cases to derive requirements, then principles, then specifications.

UC-1: Researcher Traces Conceptual Evolution

Actor: Academic researcher (Agent)

Goal: Understand how their thinking about a concept has changed over 3 years

Scenario:

  • Researcher queries for all mnemegrams related to "distributed systems"
  • System surfaces mnemegrams chronologically with context
  • Researcher observes shift from "blockchain enthusiasm" to "CRDT pragmatism"
  • System reveals which readings, conversations, experiments influenced the shift

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F4 (Retrieval)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing)
  • F5 (Relating)
  • F6 (Versioning)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T4 (To Orient)

Requirements Implied:

  • R1: System must preserve temporal ordering of mnemegrams
  • R2: System must maintain provenance chains (what influenced what)
  • R3: Retrieval must support semantic queries, not just keyword matching
  • R4: System must support "time-travel" views (what did I know when?)

UC-2: Knowledge Worker Shares Subset with Collaborators

Actor: Knowledge worker with personal memex

Goal: Share work-related mnemegrams with colleagues while keeping personal notes private

Scenario:

  • Worker has 5 years of intermingled personal and professional mnemegrams
  • Needs to grant colleagues access to "project X" related content
  • Some mnemegrams are purely professional, some are personal, some are both
  • Access must be revocable and auditable

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F8 (Transmission)
  • F9 (Protection)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T9 (To Commune)
  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)

Requirements Implied:

  • R5: System must support fine-grained access control (not just all-or-nothing)
  • R6: Access control must work at mnemegram level, not just collection level
  • R7: System must handle mnemegrams that belong to multiple contexts
  • R8: Sharing must not require duplicating or forking the memex
  • R9: Access grants must be auditable (who saw what, when)

UC-3: Individual Migrates Between Tools

Actor: Long-time note-taker

Goal: Move 10 years of knowledge from Tool A to Tool B without losing structure

Scenario:

  • Started with Evernote (2015)
  • Moved to Roam (2020)
  • Now wants to try Obsidian (2025)
  • Each tool has different primitives (notebooks vs blocks vs files)
  • Relationships between notes must be preserved
  • Doesn't want to be locked into any single tool forever

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F8 (Transmission)
  • F6 (Versioning)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T1 (To Persist)
  • T2 (To Accumulate)

Essential Properties at Risk:

  • E5 (Interpretability - schemas differ across tools)

Requirements Implied:

  • R10: Mnemegrams must have tool-independent representation
  • R11: Relations must be preserved across schema transformations
  • R12: System must support schema evolution without data loss
  • R13: Export format must be human-readable (outlive the tools)

UC-4: Writer Generates New Work from Archive

Actor: Writer with extensive personal archive

Goal: Create essay by synthesizing themes across 50+ reading notes

Scenario:

  • Writer has notes on 50 books about "attention economy"
  • Wants to find unexpected connections between texts
  • Needs to see which ideas appear repeatedly vs uniquely
  • Generated essay should reference source mnemegrams (provenance)
  • Original notes remain unchanged; essay is new generative content

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F7 (Generation)
  • F5 (Relating)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T8 (To Generate)
  • T3 (To Connect)

Requirements Implied:

  • R14: System must support graph traversal and pattern detection
  • R15: Generated content must maintain provenance to source mnemegrams
  • R16: System must distinguish captured vs generative information
  • R17: Surfacing should help discover non-obvious connections

UC-5: Family Maintains Multi-Generational Memory

Actor: Family collective (multi-agent)

Goal: Preserve and share family stories, photos, documents across generations

Scenario:

  • Grandparent contributes mnemegrams (photos, oral histories)
  • Parents add context and assertions (dates, relationships, stories)
  • Grandchildren retrieve and ask questions
  • Some mnemegrams are private (medical records), some are shared
  • System must outlast individual members (generational transmission)

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion)
  • F8 (Transmission)
  • F9 (Protection)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T6 (To Transmit)
  • T9 (To Commune)
  • T10 (To Identify)

Requirements Implied:

  • R18: System must support multiple agents with different roles
  • R19: Mnemegrams must persist beyond creating agent's lifetime
  • R20: Assertions can be added by agents other than original creator
  • R21: Access control must support "family" as unit, not just individuals
  • R22: System must be maintainable across decades (not dependent on startup survival)

UC-6: Activist Manages Research Under Threat

Actor: Human rights activist

Goal: Document abuses while protecting sources and self

Scenario:

  • Captures sensitive mnemegrams (testimonies, evidence)
  • Needs to selectively reveal to journalists/lawyers without exposing sources
  • Must be able to prove authenticity (cryptographic verification)
  • Must be able to delete if device is seized
  • May need to share with future investigators after own death/disappearance

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F9 (Protection)
  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F8 (Transmission)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)
  • T6 (To Transmit)

Tension with:

  • T11 (To Forget - must be able to truly delete)

Requirements Implied:

  • R23: System must support cryptographic verification of mnemegrams
  • R24: Deletion must be irrevocable (not just tombstones)
  • R25: Access control must support capability-based delegation
  • R26: System must support "dead man's switch" transmission
  • R27: Protection must work offline and under duress

UC-7: Student Builds Learning Portfolio

Actor: Graduate student

Goal: Track learning journey and demonstrate growth to advisors/employers

Scenario:

  • Captures reading notes, lecture summaries, project reflections over 5 years
  • Wants to show progression from novice to competent
  • Needs to export specific collections for applications (portfolio for job)
  • Some content is exploratory/rough, some is polished
  • System should help identify knowledge gaps

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing)
  • F7 (Generation)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T2 (To Accumulate)
  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T4 (To Orient)

Requirements Implied:

  • R28: System must support annotation of mnemegrams with maturity/status
  • R29: Collections must be exportable in presentation-ready formats
  • R30: System should surface gaps (what's underexplored)
  • R31: Retrieval should support "show my progression on X"

UC-8: Organization Decommissions Employee Memex

Actor: Company IT managing employee departure

Goal: Preserve work product while respecting employee privacy

Scenario:

  • Employee leaves company, has 3 years of work in personal memex
  • Company needs access to work deliverables and decisions
  • Employee's personal thoughts/notes should remain private
  • Some mnemegrams are ambiguous (work email with personal commentary)
  • Need to cleanly separate without destroying either

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F9 (Protection)
  • F8 (Transmission)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T11 (To Forget - selective)
  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)

Requirements Implied:

  • R32: System must support context-based partitioning
  • R33: Assertions can indicate "work context" vs "personal context"
  • R34: Deletion of personal context must not break work context references
  • R35: Audit trail must show what was preserved/deleted

Status and Next Steps

Current Status: Initial use case collection (8 cases documented)

Potential Additional Use Cases:

  • Multi-device sync scenarios
  • AI-augmented annotation and surfacing
  • Cross-memex federation (multiple people's personal memexes interacting)
  • Compliance with data regulations (GDPR, etc.)
  • Performance at scale (decades of daily capture)

Next Steps:

  1. Review and refine existing use cases
  2. Extract consolidated requirements document
  3. Derive architectural principles from requirements
  4. Map existing technologies against requirements

Cross-References

  • An Ontology of Memex - Foundational ontology these use cases implement
  • requirements - (To be created: consolidated requirements extracted from use cases)
  • principles - (To be created: architectural principles derived from requirements)

UC-9: Quantified Self with Data Exhaust Capture

Actor: Individual practicing deep quantified self

Goal: Automatically capture and correlate all personal data streams for insights

Scenario:

  • System captures location data, health metrics (heart rate, sleep), digital activity
  • User wants to discover correlations ("I sleep better when I walk >10k steps")
  • Data comes from multiple sources (phone, watch, apps, browser)
  • Analysis should surface unexpected patterns
  • Must work with near-zero friction - manual logging fails

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - automated)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing)
  • F5 (Relating)
  • F7 (Generation - insight creation)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T4 (To Orient)
  • T2 (To Accumulate)

Requirements Implied:

  • R36: System must support automated capture from multiple data sources
  • R37: Integration must be low-friction (ideally zero manual input)
  • R38: System must support temporal correlation analysis
  • R39: Different data types (location, biometric, behavioral) must be relatable
  • R40: Privacy-preserving local processing (sensitive health data)

Source: Workshop Round 1 (Sasha/Zoravur), use-cases/quantified self.md

UC-10: Relationship Management and Social Graph Tracking

Actor: Individual maintaining personal and professional relationships

Goal: Track relationship history, communication patterns, and maintenance needs

Scenario:

  • System captures interactions with people (meetings, messages, calls)
  • User wants reminders ("haven't talked to X in 3 months - relationship half-life expiring")
  • Should surface context before meetings ("last talked about their job search")
  • Tracks relationship categories (family, close friends, professional, acquaintances)
  • Supports "grouping" communications for efficiency
  • Private data - cannot leak to third parties

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion - relationship metadata)
  • F4 (Retrieval - pre-meeting context)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing - maintenance reminders)
  • F5 (Relating - social graph)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T9 (To Commune)
  • T4 (To Orient)
  • T6 (To Transmit - maintaining connections)

Requirements Implied:

  • R41: System must model entities (people) and their relationships
  • R42: Temporal decay functions ("relationship half-life")
  • R43: Context retrieval based on agent queries
  • R44: Privacy: relationship data is especially sensitive
  • R45: Integration with communication platforms (email, messaging)

Source: Workshop Rounds 1-3 (Erin/Paul, Alex/Subline, Dave/Zoravur)

UC-11: Social Media and Bookmark Ingestion

Actor: Individual consuming content across platforms

Goal: Preserve bookmarks, saved posts, and annotations from social platforms

Scenario:

  • User saves Twitter threads, Reddit posts, YouTube videos
  • Platforms change/die, links rot, accounts get suspended
  • Wants full-text searchable archive of saved content
  • Should preserve context (why did I save this? what was I thinking about then?)
  • Needs to work across multiple platforms

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion - personal annotations)
  • F4 (Retrieval)
  • F6 (Versioning - content may change/disappear)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T1 (To Persist)
  • T2 (To Accumulate)

Requirements Implied:

  • R46: System must ingest content from external platforms via APIs
  • R47: Content must be preserved locally (not just links)
  • R48: Capture must preserve context (thread structure, replies)
  • R49: System must handle platform shutdown gracefully
  • R50: Full-text search across heterogeneous content types

Source: use-cases/social media ingestion.md, use-cases/bookmarks.md

UC-12: AI Assistant with Personal Context

Actor: Individual with comprehensive personal memex

Goal: AI assistant that knows personal context and can act on user's behalf

Scenario:

  • AI has access to user's full memex (with permission)
  • Can answer questions using personal knowledge ("where did I read about X?")
  • Can execute tasks ("schedule meeting with person Y, avoid times when I'm low energy")
  • Must respect privacy boundaries (what AI can access/share)
  • User wants control over what AI learns and remembers

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F4 (Retrieval - AI queries memex)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing - AI proactively offers context)
  • F7 (Generation - AI creates summaries, drafts)
  • F9 (Protection - granular AI access control)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T4 (To Orient)
  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T8 (To Generate)

Requirements Implied:

  • R51: API for programmatic access to memex by agents
  • R52: Fine-grained permission model for AI access
  • R53: Audit trail of AI queries and actions
  • R54: Ability to revoke AI access to specific mnemegrams
  • R55: Clear boundary between AI-generated and human-captured content

Source: use-cases/ai assistant.md, Workshop (Erin's "hyper competent personal assistant")

UC-13: Task and Project Management with Context

Actor: Individual managing multiple projects and commitments

Goal: Todo lists that integrate with broader personal knowledge context

Scenario:

  • Tasks are not isolated - they connect to notes, research, decisions
  • "Write blog post" task should link to research notes, drafts, references
  • System should surface relevant context when working on task
  • Tasks evolve - what started as "research X" becomes "write paper on X"
  • Needs to integrate with calendar, energy levels, deadlines

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - task creation)
  • F2 (Assertion - task metadata: priority, status, context)
  • F4 (Retrieval - context for task)
  • F5 (Relating - tasks to mnemegrams)
  • F6 (Versioning - task evolution)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T4 (To Orient)
  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)

Requirements Implied:

  • R56: Tasks are first-class entities with rich context
  • R57: Bidirectional links between tasks and knowledge
  • R58: Task queries should surface relevant mnemegrams
  • R59: Support for task transformation (research → draft → publish)
  • R60: Integration with temporal data (deadlines, schedules)

Source: use-cases/todo lists.md, Workshop (Ryan: "task and project management")

UC-14: Collaborative Knowledge Building

Actor: Study group or research collective

Goal: Shared knowledge space with individual contributions and attribution

Scenario:

  • Multiple people contribute mnemegrams to shared space
  • Each person's contributions remain attributable
  • Can distinguish "consensus knowledge" from "individual interpretation"
  • Some content is shared, some remains private
  • Group can build on each other's work
  • Social accountability: "group members can see if you're not contributing"

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - multi-agent)
  • F2 (Assertion - attribution, consensus)
  • F8 (Transmission - controlled sharing)
  • F9 (Protection - hybrid private/shared)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T2 (To Accumulate - collective)
  • T9 (To Commune)
  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)

Requirements Implied:

  • R61: Multi-agent authorship with clear attribution
  • R62: Distinction between personal and shared mnemegrams
  • R63: Consensus mechanisms (this claim is accepted by group)
  • R64: Activity visibility for social accountability
  • R65: Merge/fork operations for diverging interpretations

Source: Workshop Round 3 (Dave/Alex: "collaborative accountable research management")

UC-15: News and Information Provenance Tracking

Actor: Individual consuming news and analysis

Goal: Track source and evolution of claims across information ecosystem

Scenario:

  • Sees claim repeated across multiple outlets
  • Wants to trace back to original source
  • Documents how claim evolved/mutated as it spread
  • Distinguishes primary sources from commentary
  • Can query "who else reported on this? how did framing differ?"

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion - provenance metadata)
  • F5 (Relating - claim genealogy)
  • F6 (Versioning - claim evolution)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T3 (To Connect - tracing relationships)
  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)
  • T7 (To Reflect - media literacy)

Requirements Implied:

  • R66: Graph queries for provenance chains
  • R67: Support for "same claim, different framings"
  • R68: Temporal ordering of claim appearance
  • R69: Distinction between primary and secondary sources
  • R70: Integration with web archive/preservation

Source: Workshop Round 3 (Sasha/Ryan F: "news information provenance system")

UC-16: Event and Location Context Logging

Actor: Individual tracking lived experience spatially and temporally

Goal: Automatic capture of where/when/with-whom for life events

Scenario:

  • System logs location, time, people present
  • User adds annotations ("had great conversation about X")
  • Can query "where was I when Y happened?"
  • Can query "who was I with when we discussed Z?"
  • Location data enables serendipity discovery ("I was near that place before")
  • Privacy: location history is sensitive

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - automated)
  • F2 (Assertion - context annotations)
  • F4 (Retrieval - spatiotemporal queries)
  • F5 (Relating - events, people, places)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T1 (To Persist - memory preservation)
  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T10 (To Identify - life continuity)

Requirements Implied:

  • R71: Geospatial indexing and query support
  • R72: Temporal indexing (when)
  • R73: Entity tracking (people, places)
  • R74: Privacy-preserving location storage
  • R75: Automated capture with manual annotation

Source: Workshop Round 2 (Jordy/Erin: "event log, GIS")

UC-17: Algorithmic Reflection and Usage Analysis

Actor: Individual concerned about digital behavior patterns

Goal: Understand and control own usage patterns and algorithmic influences

Scenario:

  • Track screen time, app usage, content consumption
  • Identify patterns ("I doom-scroll when anxious")
  • Set interventions ("remind me if I've been on Twitter >30 min")
  • Understand algorithmic influence ("am I in a filter bubble?")
  • Want agency over attention and behavior

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - usage tracking)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing - pattern alerts)
  • F7 (Generation - insight creation)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T4 (To Orient - behavioral awareness)

Requirements Implied:

  • R76: Behavioral data capture (usage logs)
  • R77: Pattern detection and anomaly alerts
  • R78: Intervention system (notifications, blocks)
  • R79: Privacy: usage data stays local
  • R80: Visualization of patterns over time

Source: Workshop (Sasha: "algorithmic reflection"), 2025-01-29 Notes

UC-18: Decision and Product Management Log

Actor: Product manager or decision-maker

Goal: Document decisions, rationale, and outcomes over time

Scenario:

  • Records decision made, options considered, reasoning
  • Months later: review what was decided and why
  • Can query "what decisions did we make about feature X?"
  • Links decisions to outcomes (was it the right call?)
  • Organizational memory: survives personnel changes

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription)
  • F2 (Assertion - decision metadata)
  • F4 (Retrieval - decision history)
  • F5 (Relating - decisions to outcomes)
  • F6 (Versioning - evolution of thinking)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T5 (To Hold Accountable)
  • T7 (To Reflect - learning from decisions)
  • T2 (To Accumulate - organizational knowledge)

Requirements Implied:

  • R81: Structured decision documentation format
  • R82: Link decisions to outcomes (retroactive evaluation)
  • R83: Multi-agent access (team decision logs)
  • R84: Temporal queries ("what did we decide when?")
  • R85: Export for handoff/transitions

Source: Workshop Round 3 (Ryan K/Erin: "Product Management / Decision logs")

UC-19: Personal Meta-Management and Life Conditioning

Actor: Individual managing mental/emotional states

Goal: System adapts to user's current state and provides appropriate support

Scenario:

  • System detects emotional state (via self-report, biometrics, patterns)
  • Surfaces appropriate content ("feeling down? here are mnemegrams that help")
  • Proactive suggestions ("you usually feel better after a walk")
  • Can condition future self ("what do I want to read when I wake up feeling anxious?")
  • Mementos: positive memories surfaced when needed

Memex Functions Involved:

  • F1 (Inscription - state logging)
  • F4.1 (Surfacing - context-aware)
  • F5 (Relating - states to interventions)
  • F7 (Generation - personalized recommendations)

Teleological Orientation:

  • T4 (To Orient - self-knowledge)
  • T7 (To Reflect)
  • T9 (To Commune - with future/past self)

Requirements Implied:

  • R86: Emotional/mental state as first-class data
  • R87: Context-aware surfacing rules
  • R88: Pattern matching: state → helpful intervention
  • R89: Time-based triggers (reminders, scheduled surfacing)
  • R90: Privacy: deeply personal mental health data

Source: Workshop Round 3 (Paul/Jordy: "conditioning, mementos"), Workshop (Subline/Paul^n/Zoravur: "personal meta management")

Updated Status

Current Status: Expanded use case collection (19 cases documented)

Cases Added from Workshop and Existing Use Cases:

  • UC-9: Quantified Self
  • UC-10: Relationship Management (CRM)
  • UC-11: Social Media Ingestion
  • UC-12: AI Assistant
  • UC-13: Task Management
  • UC-14: Collaborative Knowledge
  • UC-15: News Provenance
  • UC-16: Location Logging
  • UC-17: Algorithmic Reflection
  • UC-18: Decision Logs
  • UC-19: Life Conditioning

Requirements Count: R1-R90 (90 distinct requirements identified)