I've had an idea for a design and/or analytical tool: a map of all the component interfaces that define a machine, in terms of both dimensional definitions and performance requirements as determined by adjacent components. I propose the term "desmogram" for this, from the Greek for link or ligament, plus -gram.

I see this as primarily an aid to thinking, as it would encourage one to think of an assembly as a collection of interfaces rather than a collection of parts. I see this as of especial usefulness in a stigmergic context in which participants are encouraged to pick up (clusters of) component interpretations spontaneously and without an ongoing overarching management structure. Creating desmograms of existing designs can be useful for understanding what characteristics fit a design for stigmergic assimilation and what characteristics cause a design to resist such a process. It can also help one to understand the process itself, as I think a lot of us are very much in a "multi-disciplinary consortium" mind-set, with its requirement for project-management, rather than a spontaneous/enthusiast-community-oriented mind-set. It should be fairly obvious that the former approach might have little use for desmograms; I think someone working in the latter might just find them useful.

I haven't begun to develop any proposed graphic conventions, etc. though. Any ideas?