Multidimensional Semistructured Data: Representing Context-Dependent Information on the Web

In this paper, we address a problem common in the frame of WWW, namely, representing information that assumes different facets under different contexts (sets of worlds). For expressing context-dependent (or multidimensional) data, we introduce Multidimensional Semistructured Data, where context is defined through (dimension, value) pairs. An extension of OEM called Multidimensional Object Exchange Model (MOEM) is introduced, for representing multidimensional data. We discuss the properties of MOEM and define a transformation that, for any given world, reduces MOEM to a conventional OEM holding under that world. As a case study, we show how MOEM can be used to represent changes over time in an OEM database.