The mere unmanageable amount of techniques for conceptual modeling of information systems poses a challenge both for users of existing techniques and for developers of new techniques. However, interpreting the emergence of new conceptual modeling techniques as a result of changing architectural paradigms for information systems seems to be inappropriate. Through inspection of prevalent architec...

This paper has proposed a Graph – semantic based conceptual model for semi-structured database system, called GOOSSDM, to conceptualize the different facets of such system in object oriented paradigm. The model defines a set of graph based formal constructs, variety of relationship types with participation constraints and rich set of graphical notations to specify the conceptual level design of...

Conceptual models are the means by which a designer expresses his or her understanding of an envisioned information system. This research investigates whether modeling experts or novices differ in understanding conceptual models represented by textual descriptions in the form of narratives, by generalpurpose conceptual modeling languages, such as entity-relationship models or by pattern-based c...

From the side of modelers and early-adopter industry, interest in reasoning over conceptual models and other online usage of conceptual models is growing. To obtain a more precise insight in the characteristics of the main conceptual modeling languages, we define the (semi-)standardized ORM, ORM2, UML, ER, and EER diagram languages in terms of the new generic conceptual data modeling language C...

In response to constant criticism that methods for conceptual modeling in information systems lack theoretical foundations, several approaches have been proposed. Among these, ontological approaches have recently received considerable attention. Though MCCARTHY and HAYES already in 1969 had called for ‘‘metaphysically adequate modeling,’’ it was not before 1986 that WAND and WEBER commenced wor...

As more organizations rely on externally-produced information, an important issue is how to develop conceptual models for such data. Considering the limitations of traditional conceptual modeling, we propose a “lightweight” modeling alternative to traditional “class-based” conceptual modeling as typified by the E-R model. We demonstrate the approach using a real-world crowdsourcing project, NLN...

An important assumption for many KA researchers is structure preservation ; i.e. conceptual models can be converted in a straight forward manner into a design for an implementation. This assumption may not always hold. Seemingly trivial variants in a qualitative conceptual models can block pragmatically desirable properties such as KB-testability and KB-maintainability. KB-testability and KB-ma...

Usually object types are organized in taxonomies by means of a specialization relation (also called subtyping or isa) ‘implemented’ by means of inheritance. This paper proposes a (non-incompatible) alternative to taxonomies that relies on three primitives: grounding, a specific kind of factual existential dependence, extensional atemporal parthood, and existence at a time. On the basis of these...

Workkow management is emerging as a challenging area for databases, stressing database technology beyond its current capabilities. Workkow management systems need to be more integrated with data management technology, in particular as it concerns the access to external databases. Thus, a convergence between workkow management and databases is occurring. In order to make such convergence eeectiv...

The paper demonstrates that a wide variety of event-based modeling approaches are based on special cases of the same general event concept, and that the general event concept can be used to unify the otherwise unrelated fields of information modeling and process modeling. A set of event-based modeling approaches are analyzed and the results are used to formulate a general event concept that can...