MATILDA: A Framework for the Representation and Processing of Information in Multimedia Systems

Current multimedia systems are clouded in their distinction between raw data, the information represented by that data, the structure of the data, and the inter-relationships between the data. Similarly, development paradigms for information systems do not typically take into account issues beyond the immediate functionality of the given system. This results in information systems which are difficult to maintain, difficult to develop, difficult to reuse, and which do not reach their potential in terms of functionality and useability. This work attempts to begin to redress this situation by considering both appropriate frameworks and data models which encourage suitable treatment of information from a broader perspective. These ideas are encapsulated in the MATILDA framework, discussed in this paper.