semantic information relationships april 25, 2008 cecil somerton

Semantic Information Relationships

April 25, 2008Cecil Somerton

Session Summary

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

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

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.

Meaning

• Etymology:• Middle English menen, from Old English mænan; akin

to Old High German meinen to 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

Business Concepts

Sharing Meaning

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.

Sign - Form

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

An Aside InformationInformation - noun 1: the communication or reception of knowledge or

intelligence2 a (1): knowledge obtained from investigation, study,

or instruction (2): intelligence, news (3): facts, datab: the attribute inherent in and communicated by one of two or more alternative sequences or arrangements of something that produce specific effectsc (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…

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.

John Sowa Explains• From: John F. Sowa [mailto:[email protected]]• > 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

SemanticSpecifications

PragmaticSpecifications

SyntacticSpecifications

Optimized

Meaning

Semantics, Syntax, Pragmatics

Definitions

Terms

Usage

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.

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.

Overstating the Obvious

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

About the Meaning Triangle

The Business Things and Relationships

Information About The Business Things and Relationships

Business Objects

Business Concepts

Business Information

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”

Summary

Information About The Business Things and Relationships

SemanticSpecifications

PragmaticSpecifications

SyntacticSpecifications

Optimized

Meaning

The Business Things and Relationships

Business Viewpoint

InformationViewpoint

Business Objects

Business Concepts


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

Information Architecture Framework – Viewpoints & Views

Information Structures & Business Content

Business Specific Occurrences

Examples

Program Activity Architecture

Master Vendor Record

HR Data Model

Information Architecture Views

Employee Passport

CSPIN Data Dictionary

Canadian Core Subject

Thesaurus

Records Management

Metadata

GSRM

Service and Accountability

Models

SOA Reference Ontology

View Library what to build

Viewpoint Library

Information Architecture (IA)Viewpoints

Policy

Integrated Structures

Composite Structures

Basic Structures

Co

nce

pt

Nam

ing

ViewpointsSets of Instruction for how to build...

Directives

Standards

Specifications

Methodologies

Co

nce

pt

Def

init

ion

Dat

a

Met

adat

a

Do

cum

ents

On

tolo

gie

s

Mo

del

s

Information Management

Information Management Services

Information Handling & Delivery

IM Tools & Applications

Enterprise Information Architecture

Policy & Governance

People & Capacity

GC IM STRATEGY

IM Vision

Stakeholders&

Business Requirements

Stakeholder Group B

Stakeholder Group A

Sco

pe

, Co

nte

xt, R

eq

uire

me

nts

Stakeholder Group C

Stakeholder Group D

GOVERNANCE

Information Architecture Framework – Viewpoints & Views

Information Structures & Business Content

Business Specific Occurrences

Examples

Program Activity Architecture

Master Vendor Record

HR Data Model

Information Architecture Views

Employee Passport

CSPIN Data Dictionary

Canadian Core Subject

Thesaurus

Records Management

Metadata

GSRM

Service and Accountability

Models

SOA Reference Ontology

View Library what to build

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models

Information Architecture (IA)ViewPoints

Policy, Directives, Standards, Specification, Methodology, Best practice to

Sets of Instruction for how to build

Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures

· Business concept definition

· Naming business concepts

· Association definition of business concepts· Business rules definition

· rules for specification of business intent, authority, goals and objectives.

· rules for pattern construction

· rules for semantic rationalization · rules to integrate structures · rules for ontological commitments

PLUS

PLUS

Information Management

Information Management Services

Information Handling & Delivery

IM Tools & Applications

Enterprise Information Architecture

Policy & Governance

People & Capacity

GC IM STRATEGY

IM Vision

Stakeholders&


Stakeholder Group B

Stakeholder Group A

Sco

pe

, Co

nte

xt, R

eq

uire

me

nts

Stakeholder Group C

Stakeholder Group D

GOVERNANCE

Enterprise Viewpoints and Views

ARCHITECTURE Conceptual Design Implement Asset Managed to Outcome

Business

Information

Application

Technology

WH

AT

Vie

ws

WH

Y

HO

WV

iew

po

ints

Stakeholders Requirements

Stakeholders&


Stakeholder Group B

Stakeholder Group A

Scope, Context, R

equirements

Stakeholder Group C

Stakeholder Group D

• 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,

Viewpoint Design

We will be looking at design elements and the nominal services found in these three areas

Information ArchitectInformation Architect

An information architect is a person who is involved in the An information architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of the construction of planning, designing and oversight of the construction of information .information .

3. Structural Integration

2. Structural Composition

1. Structural Specification

Viewpoints

• Viewpoints - Instructions, patterns, rules for construction

Specification Composition Integration

Concept

Concept Domain CONTEXT

Concept Definition Representation SIGN

Concept Definition

Rules for choice of concepts

Rules for definitions (semantics)

Rules for building signs (syntax)

Rules to scope domain (pragmatics)



Concept



Concept Definition






Concept



Concept Definition






Concept



Concept Definition






Concept



Concept Definition





Con

cept

Con

cept

Dom

ain

CO

NT

EX

T

Con

cept

Def

initi

on R

epre

sent

atio

n S

IGN

Con

cept

Def

initi

on

Rul

es fo

r ch

oice

of c

once

pts

Rul

es fo

r de

finiti

ons

(sem

antic

s)

Rul

es fo

r bu

ildin

g si

gns

(syn

tax)

Rul

es t

o sc

ope

dom

ain

(pra

gmat

ics)

Bu

sin

ess

Info

rmat

ion

Con

cept

Con

cept

Dom

ain

CO

NT

EX

T

Con

cept

Def

initi

on R

epre

sent

atio

n S

IGN

Con

cept

Def

initi

on

Rul

es fo

r ch

oice

of c

once

pts

Rul

es fo

r de

finiti

ons

(sem

antic

s)

Rul

es fo

r bu

ildin

g si

gns

(syn

tax)

Rul

es t

o sc

ope

dom

ain

(pra

gmat

ics)

Bu

sin

ess

Info

rmat

ion

Con

cept

Con

cept

Dom

ain

CO

NT

EX

T

Con

cept

Def

initi

on R

epre

sent

atio

n S

IGN

Con

cept

Def

initi

on

Rul

es fo

r ch

oice

of c

once

pts

Rul

es fo

r de

finiti

ons

(sem

antic

s)

Rul

es fo

r bu

ildin

g si

gns

(syn

tax)

Rul

es t

o sc

ope

dom

ain

(pra

gmat

ics)

Bu

sin

ess

Info

rmat

ion

Con

cept

Con

cept

Dom

ain

CO

NT

EX

T

Con

cept

Def

initi

on R

epre

sent

atio

n S

IGN

Con

cept

Def

initi

on

Rul

es fo

r ch

oice

of c

once

pts

Rul

es fo

r de

finiti

ons

(sem

antic

s)

Rul

es fo

r bu

ildin

g si

gns

(syn

tax)

Rul

es t

o sc

ope

dom

ain

(pra

gmat

ics)

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

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models




Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures







PLUS

PLUS

Standards

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models




Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures







PLUS

PLUS

Specification

Composition

Integration

•ISO/IEC 704:2000, Terminology - Principles and methods

•ISO/IEC 1087-1:2000, Terminology – Theory and application

•ISO/IEC 704:2000, Terminology - Principles and methods •ISO/IEC 1087-1:2000, Terminology – Theory

and application

•ISO/IEC 704:2000, Terminology - Principles and methods •ISO/IEC 1087-1:2000, Terminology – Theory and application

•ISO 5964-1985 Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri

•ISO/IEC DIS 19501-1, Information technology - Unified Modeling Language (UML) - Part 1: Specification NISO •ISO/IEC 19502-1: Information technology –

Meta Object Facility (MOF): Specification •ISO/IEC 19503-1: Information technology –

XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) •ISO/IEC 24707, Information technology —

Common Logic (CL) — A framework for a family of logicbased languages1)

•ISO 5964-1985 Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri

•ISO/IEC DIS 19501-1, Information technology - Unified Modeling Language (UML) - Part 1: Specification NISO •ISO/IEC 19502-1: Information technology - Meta

Object Facility (MOF): Specification •ISO/IEC 19503-1: Information technology –

XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) •ISO/IEC 24707, Information technology —

Common Logic (CL) — A framework for a family of logic based languages1)

•ISO/IEC 19763-1:2007 Information technology -- Metamodel framework for interoperability

•Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) Specification: OMG, 2000, 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 elements ISO/IEC TR 20943-3:2004, Information technology — Procedures for achieving metadata registry content consistency — Part 3: Value domains

ISO/IEC 20944, Information Technology -Metadata Registry Interoperability and Bindings (MDRIB)

Management

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.

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models




Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures







PLUS

PLUS


Concept



Concept Definition






Business Concepts




Concept Definition

YojoMinnouGeorge

PuffButchSiamese

SphynxHimalayanDevon Rex

Manx

Concept

Concept

Concept Domain

Concept Definition Representation

Concept Definition

Concept Definition Representation Value

Concept Definition Representation Value Constraint

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).

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models




Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures







PLUS

PLUS


refers to

Source Association

Source

Term Usage ConceptTerm

1.

1. 1.

1. 1.

1.

1.

2.

refers to

AssociationCross-reference

ReferenceSpecialization

refers to

inverse to

fromfrom

from to

toto

is used to communicate a

is specialized to sub

is specialized from super

pays the role of a

includes

(can have)

Business Definitions Pattern (BDP)


refers to

Source Association

Source

Term Usage ConceptTerm

1.

1. 1.

1. 1.

1.

1.

2.

refers to

AssociationCross-reference

ReferenceSpecialization

refers to

inverse to

fromfrom

from to

toto

is used to communicate a

is specialized to sub

is specialized from super

pays the role of a

includes

(can have)

Business Definitions Pattern (BDP)

Authority/Provenance

Abstraction/ Granularity

Mapping Concept Equivalency

Models/ Ontologies

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.

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.)

ExamplesStructures

Data

MetadataDocuments

Models




Vocabulary

VIEWPOINT LIBRARY



Ontology

Basic Structures







PLUS

PLUS

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.

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.

This and That

Here to There

The Semantic Continuum

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

Contact Information

Cecil E. SomertonInformation Analyst | Analyste de l'information IM

Strategies | Stratégies de la gestion de l'informationChief 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 0R5613 946-5053 | [email protected]

facsimile/télécopieur 613 946-9342

semantic information relationships april 25, 2008 cecil somerton

Documents

construct slide

sharing meaning slide

semantics relationships

sign form slide

cecil somerton slide

study of language use

formal semantics

study of relations