User Model

1. Overview

This document specifies the user model for Veritheia, defining relationships between users, journeys, journals, and personas. The model implements journey-based knowledge work where insights accumulate into formation through structured engagement with source materials.

Core Concepts

User

The User represents an individual engaging with the epistemic infrastructure:

• Identity: Authentication and basic profile
• Personas: Multiple evolving representations for different domains (Student, Researcher, Entrepreneur)
• Knowledge Base: Their corpus of documents (shared across all personas and journeys)
• Capabilities: Which processes they can access

The User is the constant—their journeys and personas may vary, but their identity and growing understanding persist.

Journey

A Journey represents a specific instance of a user engaging with a process:

Journey = User + Persona + Process + Purpose + Time

• Owner: The user who initiated the journey
• Persona: Which domain context is active (Student, Researcher, etc.)
• Process: Which standardized workflow is being followed
• Purpose: The driving question or goal
• State: Current position within the process
• Context: Process-specific working memory

Each journey is a unique intellectual endeavor, even when using the same process multiple times.

Persona

A Persona represents a domain-specific intellectual context:

• Domain: The role or context (Student, Researcher, Entrepreneur, Professional)
• Conceptual Vocabulary: Domain-specific terms and their usage frequency
• Patterns: How this persona approaches problems
• Preferences: Methodological tendencies in this domain
• Active State: Whether currently in use

Users naturally develop different vocabularies and approaches in different contexts. A student learning statistics uses different language than when they’re running their startup.

2.4 Journal

Journals provide structured narrative records within journeys. Four journal types capture different aspects of intellectual work: Research (findings and discoveries), Method (approaches and techniques), Decision (choices and rationales), and Reflection (insights and evolving understanding). Journals implement structured templates while preserving user voice, enabling edge-linking between entries and long-memory timeline navigation.

Relationships

One User → Many Personas

A user might have:

• Student Persona: Academic vocabulary, learning-focused patterns
• Researcher Persona: Domain expertise, investigation methods
• Entrepreneur Persona: Business terminology, market analysis approaches

One User → Many Journeys

A researcher might have:

• “Systematic Review of ML Security” (Researcher persona, SystematicScreeningProcess)
• “Literature Review on Privacy” (Researcher persona, SystematicScreeningProcess)
• “Research Methods Course” (Student persona, GuidedCompositionProcess)
• “Startup Market Analysis” (Entrepreneur persona, SystematicScreeningProcess)

One Process → Many Journeys

The SystematicScreeningProcess might be used for:

• Different research topics by the same user
• Same topic by different users
• Iterative reviews as understanding deepens

One Journey → Multiple Journals

A systematic review journey might maintain:

• Research Journal: “Found strong evidence for…”
• Method Journal: “Adjusted inclusion criteria because…”
• Decision Journal: “Excluded Paper X due to…”
• Reflection Journal: “Beginning to see pattern…”

Persona Evolution

The Persona is not a static profile but an evolving representation shaped by accumulated insights:

Components

• Conceptual Vocabulary: Domain terms and how the user uses them
• Inquiry Patterns: How they approach problems
• Methodological Preferences: Techniques that work for them
• Formation Markers: Accumulated insights that shape future journeys

Evolution Process

1. Each journey generates insights through engagement
2. Insights accumulate into formation
3. Formation shapes how future journeys unfold
4. Patterns across journeys reveal preferences
5. Vocabulary stabilizes around core concepts
6. Methods evolve through repeated practice

The persona captures this formation—the accumulated insights that constitute the user’s intellectual development without prescribing it.

Context Management

Context Assembly

When a process needs context, it assembles from:

1. Journey purpose and current state
2. Recent relevant journal entries
3. Persona elements pertinent to the task
4. Process-specific working memory

Context Constraints

Context must fit within processing limits:

• Essential elements prioritized
• Recent entries favored
• Narrative coherence maintained
• User’s voice preserved

Context Windows

Different deployments support different context sizes:

• Focused context: Recent journal entries and immediate task
• Extended context: Broader journal history and cross-references
• Full context: Complete journey narrative and deep patterns

The environment works effectively at any context size, with richer capabilities at larger sizes.

Journey Patterns

Individual Journey (MVP)

The default pattern where one user owns and controls the journey:

• Private journals
• Personal context
• Individual formation
• Complete ownership

Collaborative Journey (Future)

Multiple users contributing to shared understanding:

• Classroom: Teacher guides, students participate
• Research Group: Collaborative investigation
• Peer Learning: Mutual exploration

Participants contribute to shared journals while maintaining individual voices.

Journey Templates (Future)

Structured journeys that can be instantiated:

• Curriculum: Pre-designed learning paths
• Methodologies: Proven research approaches
• Best Practices: Successful patterns

Templates provide structure while preserving individual journey.

Journey Observation (Future)

Supervised journeys for mentorship:

• Advisor-Student: Guidance without control
• Peer Review: Constructive observation
• Self-Review: Retrospective analysis

Observers can see without modifying the journey.

Journal Sharing (Post-MVP Future)

While journeys and insights remain personal and non-transferable, journals can be shared as fragments of the journey—representations of the process, not the insights themselves:

What Gets Shared

• Method Journals: Epistemic patterns that shaped discovery (like choosing GPT-4 exploration vs. systematic screening)
• Configuration Journals: How domain expertise was encoded (defining “contextualized AI” for cybersecurity)
• Constraint Journals: Guardrails that ensured quality (EdgePrompt’s validation stages)
• Formation Journals: Patterns of intellectual development

What Remains Sovereign

• The personal journey that gave rise to insights
• The specific understanding developed
• The intellectual fingerprint of discovery
• The meaning within individual context
• The formation itself—accumulated insights cannot be transferred
• True insights remain with the journey owner

Sharing Principles

• Journals share fragments of the journey, not the totality of insights
• Readers see the method and process, not the understanding itself
• Methods can be adopted, but insights must be earned through personal journey
• Shared journals are representations/summaries, not the true insights
• Attribution preserved as intellectual lineage

Journal Libraries

Collections of shared journals:

• Disciplinary methods
• Learning pathways
• Research approaches
• Pedagogical patterns

Data Model Implications

User Entity

User
- Id
- Identity (authentication)
- Personas (collection of domain contexts)
- Capabilities (process access)

Journey Entity

Journey
- Id
- UserId (owner)
- PersonaId (active context)
- ProcessType
- Purpose
- CreatedAt
- State
- Context (process-specific)

Persona Entity

Persona
- Id
- UserId
- Domain (Student, Researcher, etc.)
- IsActive
- ConceptualVocabulary
- Patterns
- LastEvolved

Journal Entity

Journal
- Id
- JourneyId
- Type (Research|Method|Decision|Reflection)
- Visibility (Private|Shareable)
- Entries (narrative records)

JournalEntry Entity

JournalEntry
- Id
- JournalId
- Timestamp
- Content (narrative text)
- Tags (for retrieval)
- Significance (for context assembly)

Process Integration

Processes interact with the user model by:

1. Reading Context: Assembling relevant information from journals and persona
2. Writing Journals: Recording significant moments and decisions
3. Updating State: Progressing the journey
4. Contributing to Persona: Patterns that might inform future journeys

Each process decides what to journal and when, maintaining the narrative flow.

Privacy and Ownership

MVP Principles

• Users own their journeys completely
• Journals are private by default
• Persona is never shared
• Knowledge base respects document permissions

Future Sharing

• Explicit user consent required
• Granular control (which journals, what parts)
• Attribution maintained
• Right to withdraw

Extension Considerations

Extensions should:

• Respect journey boundaries
• Write meaningful journal entries
• Consider future sharing in journal structure
• Contribute to persona evolution appropriately
• Design for both individual and collaborative use

The user model provides the foundation for intellectual sovereignty while enabling community formation.