Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter XIV
Conceptual Modeling of Events
for Active Information Systems
Salvatore T. March
Vanderbilt University, USA
Gove N. Allen
Brigham Young University, USA
aBstract
Active information systems participate in the operation and management of business organizations.
They create conceptual objects that represent social constructions, such as agreements, commitments,
transactions, and obligations. They determine and ascribe attributes to both conceptual and concrete
objects (things) that are of interest to the organization. Active information system infer conclusions based
on the application of socially constructed and mutable rules constituting organizational policies and
procedures that govern how conceptual and concrete objects are affected when defined and identified
events occur. The ontological foundations for active information systems must include constructs that
represent concrete and conceptual objects, their attributes, and the events that affect them. Events are a
crucial component of conceptual models that represent active information systems. The representation
of events must include ascribed attributes representing data values inherent in the event as well as rules
defining how conceptual and concrete objects are affected when the event occurs. The state-history of
an object can then be constructed and reconstructed by the sequence of events that have affected it. Al-
ternate state-histories can be generated based on proposed or conjectured rule modifications, enabling
a reinterpretation of history. Future states can be predicted based on proposed or conjectured events
and event definitions. Such a conceptualization enables a parsimonious mapping between an active
information system and the organizational system in which it participates.
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