Semantics in Business Systems (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Semantics in Business Systems 6
Copyright Page 7
Contents 8
CHAPTER 1. Semantics: A Trillion-Dollar Cottage Industry 26
The Semantic Era of Information Systems 28
The Plan of this Book 29
A Brief History of Semantics 30
Putting Semantics in its Place 32
A Semantic Solution to a Semantic Problem 34
CHAPTER 2. Business Semantics 36
Widespread Abuse of Language 36
Naming Things Creates the Chance for Misunderstanding 37
The Semantics of the Past Are about Categorization 39
The Semantics of the Future Are about Commitment 40
Summary 45
CHAPTER 3. The Process Side of Business Systems 46
Semantics in Business Systems 46
A Business Systems Deals with Humans and Applications 47
Some Applications Are More Semantic than Others 54
The System Is Made Up of Processes 58
The Flexibility of the Process Is a Semantic Property 60
Summary on the Process Side of Business Systems 65
CHAPTER 4. Terms: Vocabulary, Taxonomy, and Ontology 66
The Range of Possible Terms and Meanings Is Vast 67
Definitions Are Not Enough 74
Taxonomies: Ordering a Vocabulary 76
Ontology: A Web of Meaning 81
How Categorization Informs Us 82
Dynamic Categorization 85
Summary 89
CHAPTER 5. Data and Object Modeling 90
Semantic Differences between a Database and a Document 90
Where Are the Semantics in a Database Application? 94
Clues to Understanding the Meaning in Programs 97
Multiple Accessors = Multiple Semantic Interpretations 99
How Was the Schema Defined? 101
Object Modeling: Data Models with Behavior 105
Summary 110
CHAPTER 6. Metadata 112
A Brief History of Metadata 112
Levels and Types of Metadata 118
Most Semantics Live in Metadata 119
Some Developments in the Use of Metadata-Driven Architectures 121
A Case Study on Metadata Application Design 122
Metadata-Driven Systems Are More Flexible 131
Summary 132
CHAPTER 7. Interpreting Meaning 134
Interpretation: Clues from How Humans Interpret Unstructured Information 134
Interpreting a Foreign Language 139
Why Interpret Documents? 142
Some Current Approaches to Document Interpretation 145
Natural Language Processing 148
Projects and Products that Embody Some Aspects of Interpretation 150
Summary 152
CHAPTER 8. Business Rules and Creating Meaning 154
Business Systems as Semantic Factories 154
How Applications Create Meaning 159
Interpretation versus Imposition of Meaning 162
How Business Rules Improve Systems Maintenance 164
Semantics and Business Rules 170
How Semantics and Business Rules Amplify Each Other 175
Constraint Rules 176
Generative Rules 177
Triggering the Execution of Rules 178
Business Rules and Scope 179
Summary 181
CHAPTER 9. Semantic Elicitation: Uncovering Meaning 182
Semantic Elicitation—Where to Look 182
Semantic Elicitation and the Development Process—When to Analyze 185
Variations for Package Implementation 189
Variations for Iterative Development 191
Semantic Elicitation Techniques—How to Uncover the Meaning 192
Anthropology—Part 1: Organizing Semantic Modeling Meetings 192
Anthropology—Part 2: Conducting the Meeting 194
Archaeology—Part 1: Data Mining 197
Archaeology—Part 2: Metadata and Legacy Understanding 200
Anthropology—Part 3: Uncovering the Semantics in Work Flow 201
Semantic Scope 204
Summary 205
CHAPTER 10. Understanding and Communicating Meaning 208
Capturing the Semantics 208
Tools and Approaches for Cataloging the Semantics 214
Graphically Oriented Approaches 220
Unified Modeling Language 224
Formal Methods and Semantics 226
Conclusion 227
CHAPTER 11. Extensible Markup Language (XML) 230
What Is XML? 230
Where XML Came From 231
XML’s Popularity 232
The Stability of XML 237
Syntax and Semantics 238
Schemas and Namespaces 239
XML’s Many Dependents 242
Adding Behavior to XML 245
Summary 245
CHAPTER 12. Semantic-Based Enterprise Application Integration and Systems Integration 248
What Is Integration? 249
Integration Is Harder than It Looks 251
Strategies for Coping with Integration 254
Issues with Internal Integration 257
The Semantics of Integration between Enterprises 258
Why the Implementation Level Makes Things So Much Harder 260
Enterprise Message Model 261
Semantic Brokers 262
Summary 264
CHAPTER 13. Web Services 266
Web Services: Definition and Implications 266
Web Services Mechanics 271
Service-Oriented Architectures 275
Composite Applications 277
Finding a Service 280
Work Flow and Collaboration 281
Service Contracts 283
Web Service Management 285
Voting 285
Conclusion 286
CHAPTER 14. The Semantic Web 288
Killer Apps for the Semantic Web 289
What Is the Semantic Web? 291
A Brief Example 295
Semantic Web Adoption 295
Everyone Doesn’t Have to Agree to the Same “Über-Ontology” 298
A More Elaborate Example 300
What Else Is Needed 303
Summary 304
CHAPTER 15. Getting Started 306
Build Skills 306
Experiment 307
Rethink Everything that Is in Flight 307
Concluding Thoughts 311
APPENDIX A Quick Reference 314
APPENDIX B Resources for Further Investigation 326
Glossary 358
Index 402