Schema Interoperability

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Schema Interoperability Liam Magee Global Cities
Institute RMIT University Melbourne, Australia
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Background

• ARC involving RMIT, FujiXerox Australia, Common
  Ground Publishing
• The impact of the Semantic Web on Document
  Management and Print Industries
• 3 years 2006 2009
• Focus on
• Standards and interoperability in publishing
  supply chain
• Evolving business models
• Challenges of customer engagement
• PhD (part of project)
• The Commensurability of Semantic Web Ontologies

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The Semantic Web

• Proposal for interconnected web of data
• Began circa 1998
• Facts in formal, logic-based languages
• Related to XML, relational databases also AI
  research
• Built on formal semantics, existing WWW
  infrastructure
• Inferences over one or many ontologies (formal
  schemas)?
• Necessary and sufficient conditions for class
  membership
• URI's as global unique naming scheme
• But
• Complex to use in practice
• Simpler approaches available
• Problem of conflicting paradigms or
  perspectives

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Semantic Web Linked Data
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Schemas as Perspectives...

• Thesis developed framework and software
• To discover background (tacit) knowledge
• Applied social science methods to examine what
  perspectives underpin schemas?
• How to discover this for any schema?
• Look at online sources debates in forums,
  mailing lists
• Examine cultures...
• Schemas treated as cultural artefacts
• Trying to discover underlying conceptual
  paradigms
• Framework, software apparatus for doing this...

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Schemas as Perspectives...
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Commensurability of Schemas

• Schemas, standards interoperability depend on
  context - no silver bullet solutions
• Schema matching algorithms available
• Translation of schema meanings
• Interpretating schema terms, concepts
• Understanding background cultures
• Analysing purpose, context of translation
• So frameworks can supplement
• Help evaluate feasibility, cost, scope of work

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Schema Translation Scenario
Context of Translation
Problem for Translation
Translator
Estimate of work
Culture
Culture
Schema 2
Schema 1
Degree of Commensurability
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Results so far...

• Challenges with constructing standards
• Rival standards
• case study on document formats
• Microsoft and the world OOXML vs ODF)?
• Clearly vested economic, political interests on
  both sides
• Other reasons
• Methodological different approaches to
  classifying...
• Teleological different purposes to
  classifying...
• Operational different uses of classifications,
  data...
• Semantic different terminologies, language
  games
• Theoretical differing paradigms, perspectives

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Community Sector Example

• Service paradigm
• Service provider
• Client
• Client relationship
• Community development paradigm
• Facilitator
• Community
• Community engagement relationship
• Not always interchangeable
• reflect different underlying commitments,
  practices, vocabularies

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More schemas about schemas

• Cultural context is helpful but leads to
  endless interpretation?
• Useful to develop taxonomies about schemas
• How are schemas developed? What methods are used?
  (Process)?
• What motivates their development? (Purpose)?
• How are they used? (Practice)?
• What underlying theories are used? (Perspective)?
• Accompanying methods, analytic tools, software
• Framework designed as practioner's guide to
  help match schemas pragmatic, heuristic,
  guiding emphasis

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Some Notes on Interoperability...

• Dialogue, principle of charity
• Costly requires workshops, committees, time
• Minimax strategy minimal interoperability for
  maximal benefit
• Orthogonality different perspectives around
  common, consensual semantic core
• Standardisation, interoperability foster and
  restrain organisational innovation

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Cycles of Standardisation / Differentiation

• Initial differentiation
• time, cost constraints, lack of awareness of
  other schemas
• Drive towards standardisation
• sharing information, improved queries /
  reporting, consolidated client histories
• New drives towards differentiation
• failed interoperability efforts new,
  incompatible systems new operating environments,
  classificatory schemes
• History of document formats good example

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Contra Interoperability

• Loss of local representations of meaning
• Conflicting interests
• Trust
• Legality
• Lack of flexibility
• Inhibits innovation
• Interoperability not end in itself subject to
  intra- and inter-organisational rationales
• Criteria, toolkit useful for assessing pros and
  cons of interoperability

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• Thank you...