Paper Info
Title
Partially shared views: a scheme for communicating among groups that use different type hierarchies
Abstract
Many computer systems are based on various types of messages, forms, or other objects. When users of such systems need to communicate with people who use different object types, some kind of translation is necessary. In this paper, we explore the space of general solutions to this translation problem and propose a scheme that synthesizes these solutions. After first illustrating the problem in the Object Lens system, we identify two partly conflicting objectives that any translation scheme should satisfy: preservation of meaning and autonomous evolution of group languages. Then we partition the space of possible solutions to this problem in terms of the set theoretic relations between group languages and a common language. This leads to five primary solution classes and we illustrate and evaluate each one. Finally, we describe a composite scheme, called Partially Shared Views, that combines many of the best features of the other schemes. A key insight of the analysis is that partially shared type hierarchies allow “foreign” object types to be automatically translated into their nearest common “ancestor” types. The partial interoperability attained in this way makes possible flexible standards from which people can benefit from whatever agreements they do have without having to agree on everything. Even though our examples deal primarily with extensions to the Object Lens system, the analysis also suggests how other kinds of systems, such as EDI applications, might exploit specialization hierarchies of object types to simplify the translation problem.
Year
DOI
Venue
1990
10.1145/78915.78916
ACM Transactions on Information Systems
Keywords
DocType
Volume
computer supported cooperative work,translation scheme,partially shared views,translation problem,composite scheme,languages,different type hierarchy,common language,computer system,infor- mation lens,general terms: design,object lens system,different object type,group language,possible flexible standard,management,object lens,standardization additional key words and phrases: communication,object type
Journal
8
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
1046-8188
40
PageRank 
References 
Authors
36.35
17
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jintae Lee11287230.95
Thomas W. Malone246831862.38