AAT ICAS 1010 ✧ state of the art

• general description
• emerging chronological standards
• incentives for ICAS metrication
• ICAS methodologies

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general description

Integrated Chronological Applications System (ICAS) develops a metric paradigm for representing calendar and clock formats for more practicable representations of time data. because ICAS scale formats are easy to write and clear to read, ICAS standards can accommodate usable improvements in ways that people can process time and date information.

ICAS is developed to advance standards for metrication, usability, and communication. ICAS standards are promoted as voluntary preferred standards of measure with reference to claims of 'ICAS in use' as a fundamental principle. AAT does not pursue the 'reform' of pre-ICAS calendars and clocks.

as an emerging development in the use of metric scales of measure, ICAS also represents a state of the art in the design and use of calendar and clock applications, incorporating multiple schemes of uniformity and a scrupulous commitment to matters of learning and use.

ICAS specifies a Uniform Calendar (UC), an Inter-Dial Clock (IDC) system, a New Calendar (NC), and other standards that can be accessed from the AAT ICAS web site at https://www.aatideas.org/icas via Internet. Alliance for the Advancement of Technology (AAT) administers and promotes the applicable use of ICAS in accordance with its mission as an educational organization. AAT has approved the use of ICAS by AAT for purposes of programming and quality management.

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emerging chronological standards

Ben Shneiderman in 2003 describes a transformation to new computing that is driven by a focus on personal values in the use of technologies. personal values relating to the use of calendar and clock technologies might be seen to encompass notions of ease of use or cultural familiarity. yet personal values can also be recognized in terms of enhanced performance relating to an increased precision and calculability that is accommodated by a decimalized scale of time.

development of ICAS standards has largely focused on the determination of uniform schemes for the formatting of calendar and clock scales. a principle of uniformity is determined in relation to a principle of reducing exceptions to a scheme. ICAS calendar and clock scales are derived primarily from a solar-ecliptic calendar year and the UTC day, and from a system of solar-ecliptic calendar year months approximating the lunar cycle.

an emerging development such as ICAS is likely not regarded in terms of cultural familiarity, at least not if the systems are not used. however a linguistic review of ICAS usage and style finds that ICAS can be used fluently and practicably for purposes of communicating a wide range of calendar and clock information. and a usability analysis of ICAS formats continues to find that applications of ICAS calendar and clock units can empower workflows and productivity as a result of improved clarity, consision, and coherence.

the promise of a system representing an exceptional opportunity for an upgrade of calendar and clock technologies also calls for a careful consideration of a number of training and transition issues. recent ICAS developments have also focused on creating user-centered support for the use of multiple scales including traditional calendar and clock systems. users of ICAS may find more ease of use involved in the practicable use of a Uniform Calendar or an Inter-Dial Clock. yet the pre-existing use of traditional scales of calendar and clock imposes a steep infrastructural curve on an ICAS feature set that may be otherwise comparatively more practicable. ICAS anticipates strategies for reducing the infrastructure curve based on recent developments in software development and localization support.

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incentives for ICAS metrication

economic comparisons of the use of metric and pre-metric systems of measure may concern a number of issues. some first-level issues such as ease of use, ease of comparison, and the time needed to complete a variety of scale-related tasks suggest some quantifiable incentives for the metrication of calendar and clock scales. some second-level issues may concern how the metrication of calendar and clock scales can enhance the quality and productivity of user efforts. a model of the economic incentives corresponding to a general use of ICAS is difficult to fix during times of rapid technological and economic development. preliminary studies of the use of ICAS indicate that forecasts for an economic return on investments in metrication are probably more subject to underestimation than to overestimation. these claims however assume a scenario of 'best practices' concerning some critical issues of training and support for the use of metric scales during times of rapid technological and economic development, in contexts which include the use of pre-existing scales of measure.

ICAS standards are developed in preparation for a voluntary set of user-centered metrological standards suitable for use among the scientific community, areas of industry, and the general public. ICAS standards strive to anticipate the development of emerging best practices for the systematic expression of times and dates, while accommodating flexibility with regard to the use of particular formats for the expression of dates and times. although there remains more to learn about the development and use of chronological interfaces, readers can find that ICAS standards outline an upgrade of calendar and clock interfaces.

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ICAS methodologies

ICAS features are developed in pursuit of best practices to anticipate issues of transition and use. AAT is reviewing a number of standards and practices including the International System of Units (SI), ISO 8601, Council of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), W3C's Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standards, the W3C WAI web accessibility initiative, W3C's XML standards, TimeML.org, Y2K, and language style guides for the development of Integrated Chronological Applications System (ICAS) standards. the AAT ICAS Basilicum standards are presently organized for use by specialists, and are being prepared for eventual use as international standards for the usable use of uniform scales of date and time.

AAT experience is that apart from the effort of SI and ICAS metrication (which for AAT has also involved developing ICAS standards), that the scales are in certain ways remarkably more practicable. ICAS project findings so far suggest approaches to calendar and clock usability that may be of interest to a number of organizations. leveraging the application of various uniform schemes, uses of ICAS may hold advantages that parallel those recognized in the application of SI measures.

ICAS process review is structured to anticipate a harmonization and transfer of ICAS standards for the review and use of other standards organizations. an AAT review of the present version of ICAS shows that it is possible and plausible to extend metric principles to uniform scales of calendar and clock, and that it is possible to accommodate a coherent system of the SI and ICAS systems of metric measure. the review also suggests some plausible provisions for limiting exceptions to the common expression of metric reference units for a possible future specification of an integrated module of metric systems of measure. the adoption of these provisions would accommodate usable improvements in ways that metric systems of measure can be learned and used.

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