Are we moving toward an information superhighway or a Tower of Babel? : the challenge of large-scale semantic heterogeneity PDF
Preview Are we moving toward an information superhighway or a Tower of Babel? : the challenge of large-scale semantic heterogeneity
^ (LZBRAAIES ^ © o / DEWEY Reprinted from Proceedings ofthe IEEE TwelthInternationalConference on Data Engineering (ICDE- 12), February 1996, pp. 2-8. HD28 .M414 Are We Moving Toward an Information Superhighway or a Tower of Babel? The Challenge of Large-Scale Semantic Heterogeneity Stuart E. Madnick Sloan WP# 3888 CISL WP# 96-01 February 1996 The Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA Cambridge, 02142 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OFTF-HNOLOGY SEP 16 1996 LIBRARIES We Are Moving Toward an Information SuperHighway or a Tower of Babel? The Challenge of Large-Scale Semantic Heterogeneity Stuart E. Madnick Sloan School ofManagement, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA [smadnick®mit.edu] Abstract we are now facing is: Will the information superhighway continue onward (toward heaven) or will it also be The popularity and growth of the interrupted by a "confusion oftongues." "Information SuperHighway" have dramatically increased the number of information sources 1.2 Emerging Information SuperHighway available for use. Unfortunately, there are significantchallenges to be overcome. The "Information SuperHighway", and its current One particular problem is context form as the Internet, has received considerable attention in interchange, whereby each source of information government, business, academic, and media circles. and potential receiver of that information may Although a major point of interest has focused on the operate with a different context, leading to large- rapidly increasing number of users, sometimes estimated scale semantic heterogeneity. A context is the as 20 million and growing, an even more important issue collection of implicit assumptions about the is the millions ofinformation resources that are becoming context definition (i.e., meaning) and context accessible. characteristics (i.e., quality) of the information. Today, when people talk about "surfing the 'net," This paper describes various forms of context they usually referto use of the World Wide Web (WWW) challenges and examples of potential context through some user friendly interface, such as Mosaic or mediation services, such as data semantics Netscape. This type ofactivity can be effective for casual acquisition, data quality attributes, and evolving usage but requires significant human intervention for semantics and quality, that can mitigate the navigation (i.e., locating the appropriate sources) and problem. interpretation (i.e., reading and understanding the information found.) Ba'bel n. 1. In the Old Testament, the site of a tower Consider the opportunities and challenges posed by reaching to heaven whose construction was interrupted by exploiting these global information resources in an the confusion oftongues. 2a. A confusion of sounds and integrated manner. Let us assume that we have access to voices. 2b. A scene of noise and confusion. [The information ft'om each of the various stock exchanges AmericanHeritageDictionary]. (possibly with a delayed transmission for regulatory purposes) and each of the weather services around the INTRODUCTION world. We might want to know the current value of our 1. international investments, which might require access to 1.1 Tower ofBabel multiple exchanges both in the USA (e.g., NYSE, NASDAQ) and overseas (London, Tokyo). As another example, you might want to know where are the best ski In the Bible there is the tale of the Tower of Babel conditions at resorts around the world. To manually wheremankindendeavoredtoconstructatowerintended to access and interpret the numerous information sources reach to the heavens. There are certain parallels to the relevant to these examples would rapidly become current-day endeavor to build an "Information impractical. Although some problems may be SuperHighway" to access information from around the immediately obvious, there are subtle but important organization andaround the world (maybe to the heavens) in support of many important applications in areas such challAengmeasjaolrso.such challenge is context interchange, as finance, manufacturing, and transportation (e.g., global wherebyeachsource of information and potential receiver risk management, integrated supply chain management, of that information may operate with a different context. globaIlnint-hteransBiitblveisibGiolidty.)introduced a multiplicity of A context is the collection of implicit assumptions about the context definition (i.e., meaning) and context languages to mankind, the resulting confusion made it characteristics(i.e., quality) ofthe information. When the icmopmomsusniibclaetionforamonlgarge-msacnalkeind coloeraddiinnagtionto atnhde information moves from one context to another, it may be termination ofthe tower's construction. The question that misinterpreted (e.g.. sender expressed the price in French cash management in New York City may or may not be francs, the receiver assumed that it was in US dollars.) identical to the same activity in London. The point is This paper describes various forms of context that although these contexts can differ, as long as the challenges and examples of potential context mediation people, information, and context of a group all remain services, such as data semantics acquisition, data quality coupled together and separate from all other groups of attributes, and evolving semantics and quality, that can people, information and their contexts, there is no mitigate the problem. problem. The business needs to integrate information and the 2. THE ROLE OF CONTEXT advances in technology that make it physically possible havecombined to produce both good news and bad news. Increased information integration is important to The good news is that now we can communicate business in order to improve inter-organizational electronically in seconds orfractions of seconds, gathering relationships, increase the effectiveness of intra- information from many data bases throughout our organization coordination, and provide for much more organization or from related organizations all over the organizational adaptability. Examples of these world. The trouble is that we can gather the information, opportunities and their importance can be found in The but thecontext gets left behind. We can ask for the price Corporation of the 1990s: Information Technology and ofan item and getan answer such as "23", but is that $ or Organizational Transformation [10]. £? Is it single $'s or thousands (as an aside, even if given There is an important concept which we will refer to a clue, such as 23M, there may be a problem because awshetcohnetrexetl.ectrIonnicordoerrotfohrerpmeeodpilae, ttoherueseisinafonremaetdiofno,r sthoomuestainmdess —Minmewahnischmicllaisoens,MMsomiestiumseesd itto mmeeaanns context, which is the way in which we interpret the millions)? Is it for a single item or a group (e.g., block of information. That is, what does it mean (which we call shares)? Does it include or exclude taxes, commissions, the contextdefinition) and how good is it (which we call etc.? The answers to these questions are usually well thecontextcharacteristics.) known to the traditional users of that source information The context is not explicit for at least two reasons. and that share its context. In financial organizations, for First, it provides efficiency of communication (e.g., if example, this situation creates great problems in areas asked what is your grade point average by a fellow such as risk management, profitability analysis, and cnsdit student, you can reply "3.8" without having to explain management where information must be gathered from that it is a 4-point scale with 4 being best, etc.). Second, many sources with differing contexts. In order to be the context can be so fundamental in an environment that effective all these applications require information from most are not even aware that there is another possible many data bases, but it must be integrated intelligently. interpretation (e.g., we all know that a grade of "A" is 4.0.) 2.2 Challenges 2.1 Context Differences In the environment of the information superhighway, the above examples represent serious problems. Context may vary in three major ways. First, Information gathered from throughout the world in context varies due to geographical differences, that is, the different organizations and different functions has many ways things are interpreted in the US is different from that individual contexts, contexts that are lost when the in England, France, or China. Second, there are information is transmitted. functional differences. Even within the same organization Although some may think the solution is to come up and location, different functional areas interpret and use with a single context forthe whole world, or at least all of information differently. Third, there are organizational the parts ofthe same company, in reality this is extremely differences. The information used in the same function, in difficult for any complex organization. There are often the same industry, in the same country, can have different real reasons why different people, different societies, meanings between two companies. Forexample, the way different countries, different functions, different in which CitiBank might define a credit rating could be organizations may look at the same picture and see different from the way Chase does the similar thing. something very different [16]. To assume that this can be Thus, contextcan differ from one organization to another. prevented is a mistake. We must accept the fact that there Previously, people, information, and context wens is diversity in the world, yet we need to integrate tightly coupled. For those in charge of cash management information. The challenge is to integrate global in a financial organization in New York City, the fact that information from diverse organizations but to take the they deal with the world in a particular way is not a contextdifferences intoconsideration. This paper focuses problem because the information used and the people who on how technology can help us to meet this challenge. use it are all together in one place and share the same context. In that same city a different function of the organization, loans for example, may operate differendy but independently. Further, the same activity, such as
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