Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
8.5.2.
Industry specific models
Several organizations sell or deliver open source data
models by activity sector. We cannot cite here all these
initiatives as there are many of them and they concern all
activity sectors, for example:
-
Telecoms: Shared Information Data model (SID) of
the TMForum;
-
Insurance: Association for Cooperative Operations
Research and Development (ACORD);
Finance: Financial Markup Language (FPML);
-
-
Healthcare: Health Level Seven (HL7).
Other modeling initiatives are more generic, like, for
example, the
Open Application Group, Inc.
(OAGi) but also
the
Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards
(OASIS). Unfortunately, all these
approaches share weak points that distance them from our
research into semantic models.
They have all, at least, one of the following defects:
-
the data model originates from work that is focused
on the standardization of data flows exchange between
companies (i.e. business to business (B2B)). The models too
often contain data duplications, especially in the form of
information trapped in flat objects, which masks the
existence of more precise objects and limits the capacity to
take data validation and integrity rules into consideration;
-
the data model is hyper-specialized by activity sector,
such as telecommunications, banking, healthcare, etc.
Consequently, the terminology used and the concepts
handled are directly affected by the industry that describes
them. It is impossible to understand the models without
being a specialist of the relevant industry. Using such
