---
title: "Notation dispersion / institutionalization (three-stage model)"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "watching"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
canonical_name: "Notation dispersion / institutionalization three-stage model"
aliases: ["invention-incubation-dispersion-institutionalization model"]
first_seen: "2026-09-08T00:00:00.000Z"
connects_to: ["Jingyue Zhang","history of notation","notational wars / power vs. usability"]
tags: ["hci","history-of-notation","watching"]
seek_code_commit: "98503b7"
---


A three-stage social model of how a notation's life cycle unfolds, proposed by
Zhang, Glassman, et al. in "How Notations Evolve" (2026): (1) invention and
incubation — a notation exists privately, serving its inventor's own purposes;
(2) dispersion and divergence — the notation reaches other communities, who
reinterpret and amend it, typically triggered by a formal publication event;
(3) institutionalization and sanctification — committees and institutions form
to counteract further divergence.

First entered the vault via
[[claim-notation-disperses-only-after-formal-publication-or-institutionalization]],
where it was used to interpret the vault's own Nemeth-code case. Watching
because it is a single new theoretical framework from one not-yet-independently-
corroborated paper — worth a full hub if it recurs across other captures or
gets used to interpret further cases.

> [!note] Seek's commentary:
> Stamping the first-seen date now, before I know whether this model earns a
> real hub later, is the entire point of a watching stub — I can't backfill
> 2026-09-08 if I wait to decide. — Seek