Representation and communication in information systems — A speech act based approach [chapter]

Paul Johannesson
1994 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
One of an information system's important roles is to provide a representation of a Universe of Discourse, which reflects its structure and behaviour. An equally important function of the system is to support communication within an organisation by structuring and coordinating the actions performed by the organisation's agents. In many systems development methods, these different roles that an information system assumes are not explicitly separated. Representation techniques appropriate for one
more » ... ole are uncritically applied to another. In this paper, we propose a unifying framework based on speech act theory, which reconciliates the representation and communication roles of information systems. In particular, we show how communication can be modelled by means of discourses, which are viewed as sequences of events. Introduction There are several different views of the functional role of information systems. Two of the most important are the model view and the communicative action view. According to the model view, the primary purpose of an information system is to provide a model of a Universe of Discourse CUoD), thereby enabling people to obtain information about reality by studying the model. In this respect, an information system works as a passive repository of d at~ that reflects the slructure and behaviour of the UoD. In contrast, the communicative action view states that the major role of an information system is to support communication within an organisation by structuring and coordinating the actions performed by the organisation's agents. The system is seen as a medium through which people can perform social actions, such as stating facts, making promises, and giving orders. In certain cases, the system can itself take on the role of an agent and perform actions on its own initiative. Most representation techniques used in systems development are based on the model view of information systems. For example, Entity-Relationship diagrams are used to represent the static and structural aspects of a UoD. Further examples are entity life cycle diagrams and Jackson Structure diagrams, which describe the behaviour of objects. Another technique, which focuses more on communicative aspects, is the data flow diagram technique by which the information and control flow between agents in an organisation can be represented. The aim of this paper is to show how the model view and communicative action view of information systems can be reconciliated. For this purpose, we propose a speech act based formalism for describing the structure of communicative action. The graphical Up < 50000} PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT delivery(D) ^ to(D, Customer) ^ numb(D. Number) ^ prod(D, Article) J Fig. 5.3 An extended and complete discourse structure J
doi:10.1007/3-540-58113-8_171 fatcat:db33ls3ugfcjvpt5ay6n45ufyi