Semiotics in Information Systems Engineering

by Kecheng Liu

• ISBN13: 9780521593359
• ISBN10: 0521593352
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Semiotics, the science of signs, has long been recognised as an important discipline for understanding information and communications. Moreover it has found wide application in other areas of computer science, as it offers an effective insight into organisations and the computer systems that support them. An organisation may be viewed as a system of information and communication in which human actors, with the assistance of information technology, are able to process, represent, store and consume information. Computer systems that fit into an organisation and that support and enhance its performance and competitiveness, can be better delivered if semiotic principles are understood and applied. In this book semiotic methods are introduced and illustrated through three major case studies, which demonstrate how information systems can be developed to meet business requirements and support business objectives. It will appeal to academics, systems developers and analysts.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
Information and information systems	1	(1)
Problems and challenges in information systems	2	(3)
Approaches and methods for information systems development	5	(2)
MEASUR: a semiotic approach to information systems	7	(1)
About this book	8	(3)
Part one Semiotic framework and methods	11	(106)
Understanding semiotics	13	(8)
Signs and their functions	13	(2)
Semiosis and learning	15	(2)
Semiotics in computing	17	(2)
Semiotics in organisations and information systems	19	(2)
A semiotic framework for information systems	21	(16)
Philosophical stance	21	(5)
Objectivist paradigm	21	(3)
Subjectivist paradigm	24	(2)
Radical subjectivist paradigm	26	(1)
The semiotic framework	26	(9)
Physics	27	(1)
Empirics	28	(1)
Syntactics	29	(1)
Semantics	30	(1)
Pragmatics	31	(2)
The social level	33	(2)
An example of semiotic analysis	35	(2)
A semiotic approach to information systems development	37	(12)
MEASUR	37	(2)
How MEASUR can help in information systems development	39	(8)
Infrastructure analysis	40	(6)
Systems analysis, design and implementation	46	(1)
Summary	47	(2)
Knowledge representation and information analysis	49	(12)
Some basic considerations in knowledge representation	50	(2)
Expressive adequacy and notional efficiency	50	(1)
Semantic primitives	50	(1)
Types of knowledge	51	(1)
Representation approaches	52	(4)
Typical examples	52	(2)
Conceptual graphs	54	(2)
Some fundamental issues of information analysis	56	(2)
The role of information analysis	58	(3)
Semantic Analysis	61	(21)
Theoretical aspects of Semantic Analysis	61	(3)
Affordances	61	(2)
Ontology and some other fundamental notions	63	(1)
NORMA	64	(7)
Well-formed formula	65	(1)
Affordance and ontological dependency	65	(2)
Semiotic behavior	67	(1)
Time	67	(1)
Determiner and identity	68	(1)
Generic-specific relationship	68	(1)
Defining authority and responsibility	69	(1)
Graphic representation-ontology chart	69	(2)
Using LEGOL to specify Norms	71	(2)
Conducting a Semantic Analysis	73	(7)
Understand the problem domain	74	(1)
Generating candidate affordances	75	(1)
Candidate grouping	76	(2)
Ontology charting	78	(1)
Norm Analysis	79	(1)
Commentary on Semantic Analysis	80	(2)
Pragmatics and communication	82	(26)
Human communication	82	(1)
Other approaches to communication	83	(11)
Speech Act Theory	83	(3)
Functional approach	86	(3)
Deontic logic for communication	89	(5)
Pragmatic aspect of human communication	94	(4)
The Norm Analysis method	98	(10)
The concept of norms	98	(2)
Norms in business organisations	100	(2)
Norm Analysis	102	(4)
Norms in computer systems	106	(2)
The social layer: modelling organisations as information systems	108	(9)
Organisations as information systems	109	(2)
The notion of responsibility	111	(1)
An organisational morphology	112	(1)
Modelling the organisation	113	(1)
Summary: requirements for an effective information modelling method	114	(3)
Part two Applications	117	(79)
From semiotic analysis to systems design	119	(14)
The semantic aspect of databases	119	(1)
Capturing the semantic aspect	120	(1)
Capturing the time aspect	121	(2)
Ontological modelling for conceptualisation	123	(1)
Intentions, propositional attitudes and consequent operations	124	(1)
Other aspects of databases: facts, beliefs, and knowledge	125	(8)
Semantic temporal databases	133	(17)
Databases	133	(5)
Developments in database management systems	133	(3)
Semantic temporal databases	136	(2)
The semantic templates	138	(4)
Defining a semantic template	138	(1)
ST for database design	139	(3)
Systems construction	142	(1)
LEGOL	143	(7)
Basic syntactic structure	143	(2)
Some important operations	145	(5)
Normbase: a new approach to information management	150	(14)
The Normbase concept	150	(2)
The Normbase system	152	(4)
The Normbase engine	152	(2)
The semantic temporal database	154	(1)
The norm store	155	(1)
Information management with the Normbase system	156	(1)
Using semiotic methods with other approaches	157	(7)
Relational database for implementation	158	(1)
Object-oriented methods for design and implementation	159	(5)
Case study: development of a land resources information system	164	(16)
Background	164	(1)
Semantic Analysis for requirements modelling	165	(6)
Norm Analysis	171	(3)
System design and implementation in the Normbase approach	174	(5)
Discussions and conclusions	179	(1)
Case study: development of a test construction system	180	(16)
Background	180	(6)
CONTEST project	180	(1)
User requirements	181	(3)
Why choose Semantic Analysis?	184	(2)
System analysis	186	(4)
System design	190	(4)
System construction	194	(1)
Discussion and conclusions	194	(2)
Appendix A Semantic templates and surrogate specification	196	(5)
A.1 Definition of ST	196	(1)
A.2 Examples of using ST in discourse modelling	197	(2)
A.3 Examples of surrogates	199	(2)
Appendix B LEGOL applications in the CRIS case	201	(7)
B.1 Questions and Legol statements	201	(2)
B.2 Output from the Normbase	203	(5)
Bibliography	208	(9)
Index	217