Type Standardization

We currently have ad-hoc "types" for entities in the database, that are different for each dataset that we import. These could be unified into a simpler universal set of types, at the risk of losing some specificity for each dataset. What follows is a proposed renaming from existing specific types to more universal generic types. These could simply be changed, or maybe we could have two type fields for each entity: a generic and a specific type.

Entity	Generic type	Specific types	Criteria
Contribution	THREAD_STARTER	THREAD_STARTER, NODE_ACTIVITY, TWEET	An initial contribution meant to start a conversation
	CONTEXT_ITEM	GOAL_NOTE, LEARNING_GOAL, COMPETENCE, TARGET_LEARNING_GOAL, TARGET_COMPETENCE, GIT_COMMIT_MESSAGE, BAZAAR_IMAGE, WIKI_PAGE	An initial contribution that serves some other purpose, but can be commented on and hence start a conversation
	REPLY	POST, NODE_COMMENT, PIAZZA_FOLLOWUP, PIAZZA_STUDENT_ANSWER, GIT_COMMIT_COMMENT	Anything in the thread following a THREAD_STARTER or CONTEXT_ITEM
	PRIVATE_MESSAGE	PRIVATE_MESSAGE	A message from one person to another. 🔴 Maybe this should not exist, but instead be handled as a THREAD_STARTER with a restricted audience (we haven't really used audiences much yet, have we?). Doesn't distinguish thread starter from replies
Discourse Part	WIKI	GITHUB_WIKI	Any kind of wiki page on any wiki-like platform
	FORUM_CONTAINER	GITHUB_REPO, GITHUB_OWNER_REPOS	An area where discussion forums exist, but you have to drill down further to see them
	FORUM	THREAD, SUBFORUM, GITHUB_ISSUE, GITHUB_PUSH, PIAZZA_QUESTION, FORUM	Discussion where contributions are tied to previous ones as replies. Could be linear or a tree structure
	CHATROOM	CHATROOM, TALK_PAGE, PROSOLO_SOCIAL_ACTIVITY	Like a thread but the only organization is strict temporal sequence. Contributions are short, informal, and cannot be revised.
	TALK_PAGE	TALK_PAGE	A discussion where users edit a common shared document, so positioning, boundaries, and history of contributions may be a little informal and hard to parse.
	UNKNOWN	PROSOLO_COURSE_CREDENTIALS, PIAZZA_NOTE	🔴 I don't know what these are.
	BLOG	PROSOLO_BLOG	A sequence of contributions whose only organization is temporal sequence. Edited, long, more formal language.
Discourse Part Relation	SUBPART	SUBPART, TALK_PAGE_HAS_DISCUSSION	Used for connecting up a hierarchy of FORUM_CONTAINERS, with FORUMs as the leaves of the tree.
Discourse Relation			N.B. these are relations between contributions; they're called "DiscourseRelations" to reflect linguistics terminology
	REPLY	REPLY, COMMENT	Response to another contribution; the next one in a thread
	DESCENDENT	DESCENDENT	Ties a contribution to the top of a thread it is part of, rather than the previous contribution
	RESHARE	RESHARE	Repetition of another contribution, to a new audience (e.g. a retweet)
Discourse Part Interactions	CREATE	CREATE, GIT_PUSH	User creates a DiscoursePart
	JOIN	JOIN, WATCH	User joins a discoursePart
	LEAVE	LEAVE, UNWATCH	User leaves a discoursePart
	DELETE	DELETE	User deletes a DiscoursePart
	REFER	REFER	User refers to a DiscoursePart in the text of a contribution. That contribution should be identified somehow in an annotation attached to this DiscoursePartInteraction
	READY	READY	🔴 A user indicates they are ready to move on in a conversation (e.g. in an agent supported chat)
	UNREADY	UNREADY	🔴 A user indicates they are NOT ready to move on.
	CONTEXT_ACTION	FORK_FROM, GIT_PULL_REQUEST_MERGE, GIT_ISSUE_CLOSE	User does something domain-specific with the context of this discoursePart
Annotation	DEGENERATE		Used to tag "stub" items that are outside the dataset, but for which the relation they participate in is not. For example if a user of interest WATCHed a Github project outside the data set, we introduce that outside project as an empty, isolated DiscoursePart with a DEGENERATE annotation.
	URL		For outside web pages that we've identified as relevant to a project, and are cached as a non-database part of the project
	CROSSREF		Attached to a DiscoursePartInteraction to indicate the contribution where a participant referred to some other DiscoursePart. Also attached to the referring contribution to make the reference explicit