Articulation management for intelligent integration of information

When combining data from distinct sources, there is a need to share meta-data and other knowledge about various source domains. Due to semantic inconsistencies and heterogeneity of representations, problems arise in combining multiple domains when the domains are merged. The knowledge that is irrelevant to the task of interoperation will be included, making the result unnecessarily complex. This heterogeneity problem can be eliminated by mediating the conflicts and managing the intersections of the domains. For interoperation and intelligent access to heterogeneous information, the focus is on the intersection of the knowledge. An algebra over domain is proposed which uses articulation rules to support disciplined manipulation of domain knowledge resources. The objective of a domain algebra is to provide the capability for interrogating many domain knowledge resources. The algebra formally supports the tasks of selecting, combining, extending, specializing, and modifying components from a diverse set of domains. The paper presents a domain algebra and demonstrates the use of articulation rules to link declarative interfaces for Internet and enterprise applications. In particular, it discusses the articulation implementation as part of a production system capable of operating over the domain described by the interface description language (IDL) of objects registered in multiple CORBA servers.