Conceptual information processing: A robust approach to KBS-DBMS integration

Integrating the respective functionality and architectural features of knowledge base and data base management systems is a topic of considerable interest. Several aspects of this topic and associated issues are addressed. The significance of integration and the problems associated with accomplishing that integration are discussed. The shortcomings of current approaches to integration and the need to fuse the capabilities of both knowledge base and data base management systems motivates the investigation of information processing paradigms. One such paradigm is concept based processing, i.e., processing based on concepts and conceptual relations. An approach to robust knowledge and data base system integration is discussed by addressing progress made in the development of an experimental model for conceptual information processing

From Infology to Artificial Science

This paper studies the ideas of two actors in the Scandinavian field of Information Systems development. It analyzes the writings of Börje Langefors and Bo Dahlbom in the 1980s and 1990s, and focuses on their collaboration resulting in the publication of Langefors’ Essays on Infology. Langefors was at that time honored as the founder of the information systems discipline in Scandinavia, but had also been criticized by several authors in the field. Dahlbom was a philosopher who had ventured into information systems development in the late 1980s. At the brink of the 1980s significant changes in both computer technology and Western society were evident. Computer technology saw a development from mainframe computing towards networked computing, as well as the advent of the home computer and the beginnings of the internet. Western societies changed significantly in the same period. I analyze the writings of Langefors using Paul N. Edwards concept of the cybernetic paradigm as a framework. Taking this as my starting point, I investigate whether the two writers can be said to operate within the cybernetic paradigm. Furthermore I interpret their theories along two axes. One seeing a shift from modernity to post-modernity, and one seeing a shift from humanism to post-humanism. I argue that both Langefors and Dahlbom can be understood as part of a cybernetic paradigm, although not univocally. Langefors can largely be interpreted as a product of Swedish post-war modernity, while Dahlbom related to a “postmodern condition” in Lyotard’s terms. As well as investigating the two authors as actors in the information systems development field, I investigate whether their theories also could be read as philosophy. I take Louis Althusser's notion of “the spontaneous philosophy of scientists” as my starting point for this discussion. I argue that Langefors and Dahlbom can be understood as philosophers from two different perspectives. Langefors took his experiences as a practitioner and generalized them into philosophy, while Dahlbom wanted to bring philosophical reflection to the practice of systems development. Finally, I ask what motivated Dahlbom and Langefors, two very different theorists with very different backgrounds, to collaborate. My findings indicate that Dahlbom was partly motivated by his intention of developing a “new informatics” in Sweden, and saw Langefors as an inspiration for this project. Both of the authors were motivated by seeing common adversaries in the information systems development field

A System Architecture for Temporally Oriented Data Management

Attention to the temporal aspects of data management has intensified in recent years,focusing on data models and related systems that are sensitive to the ubiquitous temporal aspects of data. Both the growing need for easier access to historical data, as well as the imminent availability of mass storage devices, are makingthis apromisingbranchof database research, both practically and theoretically. In this paper we summarize the main results of recent research on temporally sensitive data models, discuss the lessons learned in their development, and assess the prospects and dimculties involved in incorporating a temporal dimension into database management systems (TODBs). Inparticular, three system levels are identified: the external userview of the database; an intermediate view closer to the structure of an existing data model; and an internal or implementation view defined interms of low level data structures. This general architecture coherently incorporates a variety of related research results and development experiences, and serves as the framework for theoretical and implementation research into such system

Philosophy of Blockchain Technology - Ontologies

About the necessity and usefulness of developing a philosophy specific to the blockchain technology, emphasizing on the ontological aspects. After an Introduction that highlights the main philosophical directions for this emerging technology, in Blockchain Technology I explain the way the blockchain works, discussing ontological development directions of this technology in Designing and Modeling. The next section is dedicated to the main application of blockchain technology, Bitcoin, with the social implications of this cryptocurrency. There follows a section of Philosophy in which I identify the blockchain technology with the concept of heterotopia developed by Michel Foucault and I interpret it in the light of the notational technology developed by Nelson Goodman as a notational system. In the Ontology section, I present two developmental paths that I consider important: Narrative Ontology, based on the idea of order and structure of history transmitted through Paul Ricoeur's narrative history, and the Enterprise Ontology system based on concepts and models of an enterprise, specific to the semantic web, and which I consider to be the most well developed and which will probably become the formal ontological system, at least in terms of the economic and legal aspects of blockchain technology. In Conclusions I am talking about the future directions of developing the blockchain technology philosophy in general as an explanatory and robust theory from a phenomenologically consistent point of view, which allows testability and ontologies in particular, arguing for the need of a global adoption of an ontological system for develop cross-cutting solutions and to make this technology profitable. CONTENTS: Abstract Introducere Tehnologia blockchain - Proiectare - Modele Bitcoin Filosofia Ontologii - Ontologii narative - Ontologii de intreprindere Concluzii Note Bibliografie DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24510.3360

An Inductive Approach to Documenting the Core and Evolution of the IS Field

This article inductively examines the question of the IS field\u27s core. We argue that as a socially constructed field, the core aspects of IS can be identified from the work conducted and published by members of IS community. The abstracts (including titles) of 1,197 IS studies in three premier IS journals for the past 26 years were examined to identify the core of the field and explore its evolving nature with help of a neural network software as the analysis tool. The field, contextual, transitory, and evolving core of IS are identified through the analysis of 267,034 words in the knowledge base constructed. The results show both stability and evolution of the core of IS field. The three journals examined show sufficient commonality on core of the field, with slightly different preferences for research topics and methods. Given the diverse nature of the IS field, we believe that such a retrospective and descriptive study can document evidence of the core and facilitate a better understanding of the evolution of the field

Conceptual modelling of Work Systems using ABC notation

This paper seeks to extend the Work System Method WSM of Steven Alter by means of a modelling notation and mechanism called ABC. It does so because it is often necessary to know (or at least to conjecture) how things, processes and events interrelate. Our contention, which we support by literature primarily derived from cybernetics, is that we must discern conceptual models, so as to understand and, potentially, to improve by design, active models – specifically, the information systems which support work systems. We do this in order to regulate work systems, whether actively by explicit control or implicitly by aiding learning, understanding and self-control by modellers and participants. This paper is not a definitive statement concerning ABC. Instead, it sufficiently introduces the modelling approach to enable the reader to understand some examples of the approach as applied to work systems. It can also serve in a tutorial approach to the ABC modelling of work systems

Structured Reflection In Information Systems Teaching and Research

This paper contends that improved teaching and the emergence of research questions may be based on reflective self-observation, structured by means of personal knowledge management tools, often between and after cycles of action research. The paper revisits the concepts of data, information, knowledge, meaning and action. It proposes that knowledge be enacted in engaged teaching and research. It discusses how reflection on teaching and research can be structured as self-observation made visual in the form of concept maps. Concept maps are used both to illustrate learning and as a means of making initially personal knowledge more explicit, particularly in the early stages of inquiry and learning and particularly as part of an abductive logic of enquiry. Structured self-observation is distinguished from merely descriptive auto-ethnography by means of explicit model building informed by Ashby’s law of Requisite Variety and Conant and Ashby’s Good Regulator theorem. The method used to illustrate the paper’s propositions is case-based reflection on a teaching situation. Similar reflection in the research context is additionally informed by a discussion of Checkland’s LUMAS (Learning for a User by a Methodology-informed Approach to a problem Situation). We conclude by suggesting that enquiry may initially be informed by structured self-observation and then proceed by further learning, informed by theory and enacted in practic

Complex methods of inquiry: structuring uncertainty

Organizational problem spaces can be viewed as complex, uncertain and ambiguous. They can also be understood as open problem spaces. As such, any engagement with them, and any effort to intervene in order to pursue desirable change, cannot be assumed to be just a matter of ‘complicatedness’. The issue is not just a need to cope with dynamics of system. It is also the perceptual ‘boundedness’ of multitudes of assumptions about scope of whole and limitations of organization as system. Furthermore, explicit attention to complexities of feedback loops is an extremely important aspect of any systemic discussion. How can we help teams of competent professionals to engage purposefully with such uncertain and ambiguous problem domains? The author suggests that we can only address this effectively through pragmatic efforts to incorporate a multitude of boundary-setting assumptions, explored as part of active (self-) reflection and practical engagement. This must be undertaken without resorting to an overly simplistic application of convergent thinking in our efforts to support problem solving. Instead, we need to pursue divergent thinking and ‘complexification’ in our effort to support problem resolving. The main contribution of this thesis is to present a collection of principles that taken together, provide support for this engagement ntervention. A core feature of this result is the framework for Strategic Systemic Thinking, which includes examples of pragmatically useful methods and tools