Semantics, Features, and Applications of the Viewpoint Abstraction

Partitioning information bases such that their contents may be viewed from different situations and represented and processed in different contexts, constitutes a fundamental concern in various disciplines of computer science. Not surprisingly, numerous notations and techniques support certain aspects of the viewpoint abstraction. This paper motivates the use of a well defined terminology and framework regarding basic notions accompanying the viewpoint abstraction, such as contexts, perspectives, situations, and relativism. Furthermore, it establishes the cognitive and linguistic evidence on the usefulness of considering multiple views. A previous paper introduced a generic framework for contexts in order to provide a common kernel for the modelling of information base partitions. This paper demonstrates the embedding of the framework into an extensible, structurally object-oriented data/knowledge model and illustrates the applications of contexts and their accompanying mechanisms for authorization and change propagation to the modelling of (database) views, (software engineering) workspaces, and versions.

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