A treasure trove of Dedre Gentner links, titled “Analogy, Similarity, Metaphor and Mental Models” at Northwestern University, where she is Director of Cognitive Science Program.
Conceptual Modeling
Links - CommonKADS
According to Wikipedia, the definition of CommonKADS is "a methodology to support structured knowledge engineering."
An interesting variation includes Multiagent Systems ( MAS-CommonKADS ). In the article A Methodological Proposal for Multiagent Systems Development extending CommonKADS, the major constituents of the CommonKADS Agent are:
Links- Knowledge Engineering
Updated Sept 16 2008
An interesting collection of people and papers at the UCLA Graduate Summer School 2007, Probabilistic Models of Cognition: The Mathematics of Mind ( encrypted for some reason ). What better way to spend one's summer.
Links - Dedre Gentner Publications at Northwestern
Link - OASIS Universal Business Language
From the document:
The OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) is intended to help solve these problems by defining a generic XML interchange format for business documents that can be extended to meet the requirements of particular industries. Specifically, UBL provides the following:
A library of XML schemas for reusable data components such as “Address,” “Item,” and “Payment” — the common data elements of everyday business documents.
Definition of a Model
Definition of Model
At the core of conceptual modeling is the idea of a model. The Wikipedia defines a model as "an abstract (or actual) representation of an object or system from a particular viewpoint". [ Note: this definition has changed, but I still like the old version ]
There are three parts to the definition above - an object or system, a representation and a viewpoint. It is critical to understand the role of each element of a model.
The E-Z Framework
The Zachman Framework is both powerful and flexible. There are several extensions and variations of the Zachman Framework available in the marketplace. In fact, it can be used as a form of 'meta-model' to map the features of two models.
Zachman Framework
Six Categories of Questions
Journalism majors know the drill by heart. The First Law of Journalistic Excellence, the 5 "Ws" of Reporting ( and an "H" throw in just to make life difficult for journalism students ). The Law states: every journalistic oeuvre must answer these eternal questions - who, what, when, where, why and how. That's a fine principle for overworked journalism students, but what about the rest of us, for example they who toil tirelessly in the murky mines of Infotechnology.
Design Patterns
The first mention of design patterns in relation to software was made in 1987 by Kent Beck and Ward Cunningham ( who also invented CRC Cards ). The idea of design patterns then kicked around for a few years, but became popular in 1994, with the classic text "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software", edited by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, et al.
Qualitative or Commonsense Reasoning
During the late 1980s, a group of academics investigating models of physical systems developed a set of guiding principles to help them perform simulations. The purpose was to perform an amazing and unprecedented feat of computation - predicting that water spilled on the top of a table would eventually drip on the floor.
Conceptual Modeling
"Well, remember that what an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality. Everyone has one. You have to -- to exist, you need an ideology. The question is whether it is accurate or not. And what I'm saying to you is, yes, I found a flaw."
- Alan Greenspan
"This model will be a simplification and an idealization, and consequently a falsification."
- Alan Turing
