Rosanne Price

A semiotic information quality framework : development and comparative analysis

An organization depends on quality information for effective operations and decision-making. However, there is still no agreement as to how quality should be defined in terms of specific quality categories and criteria. Proposed information quality frameworks have limitations with respect to either consistency, resulting from a non-theoretical approach to framework development, or scope, considering only objective but not subjective information quality perspectives. In this paper, we describe a unique research approach to framework development that addresses these problems and compare it to those used previously for other frameworks. Semiotic theory, the philosophical theory of signs, is used to ensure rigor and scope. It provides a theoretical basis for framework structure – quality categories and their criteria – and for integrating objective and subjective quality views. Empirical refinement based on academic, practitioner, and end-user focus groups is then used to ensure relevance.

Extended Spatiotemporal UML: Motivations, Requirements and Constructs

This paper presents a conceptual modeling language for spatiotemporal applications that offers built-in support for capturing spatially referenced, time-varying information. More specifically, the well-known object-oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML) is extended to capture the semantics of spatiotemporal data. The extension, Extended Spatiotemporal UML, maintains language clarity and simplicity by introducing a small base set of fundamental modeling constructs: spatial, temporal, and thematic. These constructs can then be combined and applied at attribute, attribute group, association, and/or class levels of the object-oriented model; where the attribute group is an additional construct introduced for attributes with the same spatiotemporal properties. A formal functional specification of the semantic modeling constructs and their symbolic combinations is given and an example is used to illustrate the simplicity and flexibility of this approach.

Empirical Refinement of a Semiotic Information Quality Framework

This paper presents the refinement of a semiotic information quality framework based on the analysis of practitioner and academic focus group feedback. The initial information quality framework was developed to address the question of what criteria should be used to define and assess quality. Semiotic theory, the philosophical theory of signs, provided a theoretical foundation for defining the framework structure (i.e. quality categories and their criteria) and for integrating objective, product-based and subjective, service-based quality perspectives, thus addressing problems observed in other proposed quality schemes with respect to scope and inconsistency. Following on from the initial theoretical work, empirical methods were used to refine the framework, especially the subjective components related to consumer quality perceptions. Specifically, focus group feedback served to (1) further clarify the scope and boundaries of the research and (2) to identify inter-dependencies, ambiguities, and gaps in the initial set of quality criteria.

Modeling Topological Constraints in Spatial Part-Whole Relationships

To facilitate development of spatial applications, we investigate the problem of modeling topological constraints in part-whole relationships between spatial objects, where the related objects may themselves be composite. An example would be countries that belong to a supranational organization, where the countries are themselves composed of states. Current topological classification schemes are restricted to simple, bounded, regular, and/or 0-2D spatial data types; do not support the set-based topological constraints required to describe inter-part relationships such as those between members of a supranational organization; and focus primarily on query rather than design. We propose an approach to modeling topological relationships that allows specification of binary and set-based topological constraints on composite spatial objects. This approach does not depend on restricting the type of spatial objects, can be used to describe part-whole and inter-part relationships, and is at a level of detail suitable for use in conceptual modeling.

UML documentation support for XML schema

With the proliferation of XML as the lingua franca of Internet information exchange, engineering XML documents and maintaining their databases becomes a major challenge. In this context, the use of XML schema to constrain and validate XML document content is becoming a standard part of web information production. However, adoption of XML Schema poses new problems; specifically, the difficulty in understanding even a relatively small schema due to its textual nature and XML syntax. This problem can be addressed by use of a graphical modelling language such as UML to document XML schema and conforming XML document structure. We discuss the issues involved in representing XML Schema using UML and present a transformation approach which is both comprehensive and thorough.

Chapter 3: Conceptual Models for Spatio-temporal Applications

Improved support for modeling information systems involving time-varying, georeferenced information, termed spatio-temporal information, has been a longterm user requirement in a variety of areas, such as cadastral systems that capture the histories of landparcels, routing systems computing possible routes of vehicles, and weather forecasting systems. This chapter concerns the conceptual database design phase for such spatio-temporal information systems and presents two models, namely the spatio-temporal Entity Relationship (ER) Model and the Extended spatio-temporal Unified Modeling Language (UML) as proposed in [33,34] and [26], respectively.

Graphical Representation of XML Schema

XML is becoming the de-facto standard for exchanging information in distributed applications and services. This has resulted in the development of a large number of XML documents with their associated schemas, such as DTD and XML Schema. A major challenge in using XML Schema is the difficulty in reading and understanding even a relatively small XML Schema because of its textual nature and its XML syntax. In this paper, we present transformations from textual XML Schema to graphical UML to facilitate understanding of XML Schema. Our transformation approach is unique in that we focus on all thirteen building blocks of XML Schema and is based on existing UML notation without introducing new stereotypes that would require additional user training. Keywords: XML Schema, UML, transformation, graphical modelling, conceptual, reverse engineering.

Modeling part-whole relationships for spatial data

Spatial applications must manage partwhole (PW) relationships between spatial objects, for example, the division of an administrative region into zones based on land use. Support for conceptual modeling of relationships between parts and whole, such as aggregation and membership, has been well researched in the object oriented (OO) community; however, spatial data has generally not been considered. We propose here a practical approach to integrating support for spatial PW relationships into conceptual modeling languages. Three different types of relationships—spatial part, spatial membership, and spatial inclusion—that are of general utility in spatial applications are identified and formally defined using a consistent classification framework based on spatial derivation and constraint relationships. An extension of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for spatiotemporal data, namely Extended Spatiotemporal UML, is used to demonstrate the feasibility of using such an approach to define modeling constructs supporting spatial PW relationships.

Ontology-Based Agent Mobility Modelling

There is increasing recognition of the potential benefits of mobile agent technology for distributed and mobile applications. However, thus far there has been only very limited consideration of the specific requirements for conceptual level modeling of agent mobility to support analysis and design of such applications. Furthermore, the fragmented nature and inconsistent terminology characterizing such research to date complicates the effort to understand and compare the work. An ontology describing the abstract concepts and inter-relationships required to model agent mobility is presented in this paper, intended to serve as the necessary first step to providing conceptual level support for mobile agent applications and as a cogent means of comparing existing work in the area.

Data Quality and Decision Making

Decision-makers often rely on data to support their decision-making processes. There is strong evidence, however, that data quality problems are widespread in practice and that reliance on data of poor or uncertain quality leads to less-effective decision-making. Addressing this issue requires first a means of understanding data quality and then techniques both for improving data quality and for improving decision-making based on data quality information. This paper presents a semiotic-based framework for understanding data quality that consists of three categories: syntactic (form), semantic (meaning) and pragmatic (use). This framework is then used as a basis for discussing data quality problems, improvement, and tags, where tags are used to provide data quality information to decisionmakers.