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Semantic Information Relationships

Semantic Information Relationships. April 25, 2008 Cecil Somerton. Session Summary. The session summary empathizes organizing, finding and managing information by meaning - semantically. semantic relationships. Learning Objective. A look at semantics

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Semantic Information Relationships

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  1. Semantic Information Relationships April 25, 2008 Cecil Somerton

  2. Session Summary The session summary empathizes • organizing, • finding and • managing information • by meaning - semantically. • semantic relationships

  3. Learning Objective • A look at semantics • Relationships between semantics and information • A little Information Architecture • Viewpoints and Views • Meaning Exposed • Relationship to other Architectures • Relationship to Business Outcomes • Semantic Relationships

  4. Semantics – What do we mean? • the study of meanings • the study of meaning in communication • the study of meaning in language. See also formal semantics, pragmatics, syntax. • the relation between the signs and the objects to which they apply.

  5. Business Concepts Meaning • Etymology: • Middle English menen, from Old English mǣnan; akin to Old High German meinento have in mind, Old Church Slavic měniti to mention • to have in the mind as a purpose • to serve or intend to convey, show, or indicate

  6. Sharing Meaning

  7. Syntax •  the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses) • Syntax studies the interrelation of the signs, without regard to meaning. • "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." • A systematic, orderly arrangement.

  8. Sign - Form

  9. Sign - Form • a fundamental linguistic unit that designates an object or relation or has a purely syntactic function • "something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity" • all of the ways in which information can be communicated

  10. An Aside Information Information - noun 1: the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence 2 a (1): knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction (2):intelligence, news (3):facts, data b: the attribute inherent in and communicated by one of two or more alternative sequences or arrangements of something that produce specific effects c (1): a signal or character (as in a communication system or computer) representing data (2): something (as a message, experimental data, or a picture) which justifies change in a construct (as a plan or theory) that represents physical or mental experience or another construct …

  11. Pragmatics • the study of language use in particular situations • the relation between the sign system and its human user. • the study of relations between language and context.

  12. John Sowa Explains • From: John F. Sowa [mailto:sowa@bestweb.net] • > Sent: 30 August 2007 03:55 • > To: Barker, Sean (UK) • I'm glad that you found the 3-way distinction helpful, but I want to • > emphasize three very important points: • > • > 1. It is possible to have syntax by itself without semantics or • > pragmatics. That would be a purely uninterrupted notation • > with no meaning other than to create strings of symbols. • > • > 2. It is possible to have syntax and semantics without pragmatics. • > That would be a pure description of something, such as a list • > of observed data with no indication of what to do. • > • > 3. For any practical language of any use in engineering, it is • > essential to have all three: syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. ……… • > It's impossible to say anything without syntax. It's impossible to • > refer to anything without semantics. And it's impossible to do • > anything pragmatically without being able to make statements • > (syntax) that refer to something (semantics). • > • > John

  13. OptimizedMeaning Semantics, Syntax, Pragmatics Semantic Specifications Definitions Usage Pragmatic Specifications Syntactic Specifications Terms

  14. Semiotics Charles Sanders Peirce 1839 – 1914 • Semantics: Relation between signs and the things they refer to, their denotata. • Syntactics: Relation of signs to each other in formal structures. • Pragmatics: Relation of signs to their impacts on those who use them.

  15. Semiotics Charles Morris (1903 – 1979) Concerned with the study of the science of signs, which he called semiotic; Distinguished 3 branches of semiotics: syntactics (or syntax), which studies the formal relation among different signs; semantics, the study of the relation between the signs and the objects they denote; and pragmatics, the study of the relation of signs to their interpreters, i.e. people.

  16. Overstating the Obvious The Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) painted La Trahison des Images (The Treachery of Images) in 1936.

  17. Business Concepts Business Information Business Objects About the Meaning Triangle The Business Things and Relationships Information About The Business Things and Relationships

  18. A Shout of RecognitionUnderstanding is paramount – “What I mean is … “ The philosopher John Locke pointed out three centuries ago that; the achievement of human knowledge is often hampered by the use of words without fixed signification. Timothy Findlay’s fictional Irish essayist Nicholas Fagan wrote, “the space between the perceiver and the thing perceived can … be closed with a shout of recognition”

  19. Semantic Specifications Business Concepts Pragmatic Specifications Business Viewpoint Information Viewpoint The Business Things and Relationships OptimizedMeaning Business Information Business Objects Syntactic Specifications Summary Information About The Business Things and Relationships

  20. Put Another Way “Any meaningful exchange of utterances depends upon the prior existence of an agreed upon set of semantic and syntactic rules.” The recipients of the utterances must use only these rules to interpret the received utterances, if it is to mean the same as that which was meant by the utterer ISO TR9007:1987 Information processing systems - Concepts and terminology for the conceptual schema and the information base

  21. Enterprise Viewpoints and Views HOW Viewpoints WHAT Views WHY

  22. Stakeholders Requirements • identify stakeholders like • Enterprise business owners • Local business owners • Information architects • Application architects • identify requirements for • meeting business outcomes • effectiveness of existing information construction • lowering cost of structural design and integration • aligning information structures within the enterprise • methodologies for specifying, composing and integrating information structures • aligning information with business, applications and technical architectures • an enterprise reference set of generic information structures, • identifying skill sets for integrated architectural service delivery, • publishing information architecture knowledge,

  23. Structural Specification • Structural Composition • Structural Integration Viewpoint Design We will be looking at design elements and the nominal services found in these three areas Information Architect An information architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of the construction of information .

  24. Concept Definition Concept Definition Concept Definition Representation SIGN Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Definition Representation SIGN Concept Definition Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Definition Representation SIGN Concept Definition Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Definition Representation SIGN Concept Definition Concept Definition Representation SIGN Rules for choice of concepts Rules for choice of concepts Rules for choice of concepts Rules for choice of concepts Rules for choice of concepts Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Rules for definitions (semantics) Rules for definitions (semantics) Rules for definitions (semantics) Rules for definitions (semantics) Rules for definitions (semantics) Rules for building signs (syntax) Rules for building signs (syntax) Rules for building signs (syntax) Rules for building signs (syntax) Rules for building signs (syntax) Business Information Business Information Business Information Business Information Business Information Rules to scope domain (pragmatics) Rules to scope domain (pragmatics) Rules to scope domain (pragmatics) Rules to scope domain (pragmatics) Rules to scope domain (pragmatics) Viewpoints • Viewpoints - Instructions, patterns, rules for construction Specification Composition Integration Enumerated List (structured lists and encoding schemes) Metadata (information about information or data, declarative or descriptive) Data (semantic definition or rationalization to integrate structures) Models (ontology, reference, logical, physical) Document Standards (specification of semi-structured information) Warehouses Common Warehouse Model Ontology Semantic Rationalization Model Driven Engineering

  25. Specification Composition Integration • • • ISO/IEC 704:2000, Terminology - Principles and Terminology - ISO/IEC 704:2000, Terminology - Prin ciples ISO/IEC 704:2000, methods Principles and methods and methods • • • ISO/IEC 1087 - 1:2000, Terminology – Theory and ISO/IEC 1087 - 1:2000, Terminology – ISO/IEC 1087 - 1:2000, Terminology – Theory application and application Theory and application • • ISO 5964 1985 Guidelines for the establishment - ISO 5964 1985 Guidelines for the establishment - and development of multilingual thesauri and development of multilingual thesauri • • ISO/IEC DIS 19501 - 1, Information technology - ISO/IEC DIS 19501 - 1, Information technology - Unified Modeling Language (UML) - Part 1: Unified Modeling Language (UML) - Part 1: Specification NISO S pecification NISO • • ISO/IEC 19502 - 1: Information technology - Meta ISO/IEC 19502 - 1: Information technology – Object Facility (MOF): Specification Meta Object Facility (MOF): Specification • • ISO/IEC 19503 - 1: Information technology – ISO/IEC 19503 - 1: Information technology – XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) • • ISO/IEC 24707, Information technology — ISO/IEC 24707, Information technology — Common Logic (CL) — A framework for a family Common Logic (CL) — A framework for a fa mily of logic based languages 1) of logicbased languages 1) • ISO/IEC 19763 1:2007 Information technology - -- Metamodel framework for interoperability • Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) Specification: OMG, 20 00, ad/01 - 02 - 01 ISO/IEC 11179 (all parts)1, Information technology Metadata Registries (MDR)2 - ISO/IEC TR 20943 1:2003, Information technology - Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency — — Part 1: Data Management elements ISO/IEC TR 20943 - 3:20 04, Information technology Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency — — Part 3: Value domains ISO/IEC 20944, Information Technology Metadata Registry Interoperability and Bindings (MDRIB) - Standards

  26. Structural Specification • Contextualizes business concepts and their relationships in consistent, complete and repeatable expressions. • Generally deals with the standardization, rules and methodology for optimizing concept specifications. • Optimization as determined by the extent of the union of the set of semantic, syntactic and pragmatics used to produce the concept specification.

  27. Structural Specification Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Definition Representation SIGN Concept Definition Rules for choice of concepts Concept Rules for definitions (semantics) Business Concepts Rules for building signs (syntax) Business Information Rules to scope domain (pragmatics)

  28. Structural Specification Concept Concept Domain Concept Definition Representation Concept Definition Concept Definition Representation Value Concept Definition Representation Value Constraint Concept Concept Domain CONTEXT Concept Definition Concept Definition Representation SIGN Yojo Minnou George Puff Butch Siamese Sphynx Himalayan Devon Rex Manx

  29. Structural Composition • Information composition generally extends the pragmatics of basic information specification to include business intent, authority, goals and objectives. • Addresses the construction and standardization of optimized information patterns, products used by a business that extends the value proposition associated with information specification. • Information products are represented by such structures as models, or business documents/patterns (information instruments such as cheques, invoices, reports, statistics, etc).

  30. from Source Association to Source refers to refers to Reference Specialization 1. 2. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. is specialized to sub is specialized from super refers to is used to communicate a (can have) Term Term Usage Concept from from to pays the role of a to inverse to Cross-reference Association includes Structural Composition Business Definitions Pattern (BDP)

  31. from Source Association to Source refers to refers to Reference Specialization 2. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. is specialized to sub is specialized from super refers to is used to communicate a (can have) Term Term Usage Concept from from to pays the role of a to inverse to Cross-reference Association includes Structural Composition Authority /Provenance Abstraction/ Granularity Business Definitions Pattern (BDP) Models/ Ontologies Mapping Concept Equivalency

  32. Business Intelligence • Business intelligence is the use of an organization's disparate data to provide meaningful information and analysis to employees, customers, suppliers, and partners for more effective decision making.

  33. Structural Integration • Includes mechanisms for semantic rationalization and alignment of information structures. • Leverages and integrates existing information structures (concept mapping across models and terminology, concept system integration) • Develops ontological commitments within and across communities to facilitate information interchange. (ontological comparisons, sufficient equivalency determinations etc.)

  34. Ontology (1): What it is • An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization (Gruber 1994) • An ontology is a formal specification of a shared conceptualization (Borst 1997) Ontological commitment: • Stakeholders using conceptual models should have a shared understanding of the modeling constructs to create a common understanding of the Universe of Discourse at hand.

  35. Semantic Relationships • Between the pointer and the object • Between the pointer and the sign • Between the whole and its parts • Between the general and the specialized • Between this and that • Between explicit and inferred.

  36. This and That

  37. Here to There

  38. The Semantic Continuum

  39. More to Come ? Questions? Open discussion of how information architecture these enables; • GUI development • Path finding and Navigation • Namespaces Meaning Exposed • Managing the specifications. • Business integration RDF and OWL • Semantic rationalization SOA • Model Driven Engineering • Shifts in Thinking

  40. Contact Information Cecil E. Somerton Information Analyst | Analyste de l'information IM Strategies | Stratégies de la gestion de l'information Chief Information Officer Branch | Direction du dirigeant principal de l'information Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat | Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor du Canada Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R5 613 946-5053 | Cecil.Somerton@tbs-sct.gc.ca facsimile/télécopieur 613 946-9342

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