Using quiddities for detecting semantic conflicts in information systems

Abstract

When multiple people are involved in designing an information systems application, there can be conflicts in terminologies used by them for various elements represented in the application. These problems are recognized in database design, federated databases, knowledge‐based systems, mathematical modeling systems, and cooperative work systems. A computer‐based method for detecting such naming conflicts, once the users have declared certain additional information for all of the represented elements, is presented. The approach extends earlier work by Bhargava, Kimbrough, and Krishnan in the context of model integration. There is a description of how this additional information (called quiddity) is to be formulated and represented, and several automated procedures are presented that detect naming conflicts on the basis of this information. The practical utility of this approach is also discussed.

Keywords:

• schema integration
• quiddities
• semantic conflicts
• collaborative computing