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International Conference on Conceptual Modeling

ER 1999: Conceptual Modeling — ER ’99 pp 475–490Cite as

Contextualization as an Abstraction Mechanism for Conceptual Modelling

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1728))

Abstract

The notion of context appears in several disciplines, including computer science, under various forms. In this paper, we are concerned with a notion of context in the area of conceptual modeling. First, we present a simple definition whereby a context is seen as a set of objects, within which each object has a set of names and possibly a reference: the reference of the object is another context which “hides” detailed information about the object. Then, we enhance our simple notion of context by structuring its contents through the traditional abstraction mechanisms, i.e. classification, generalization, and attribution.We show that, depending on the application, our notion of context can be used either as an alternative way of modeling or as a complement of the traditional abstraction mechanisms. Finally, we study the interactions between contextualization and the traditional abstraction mechanisms as well as the constraints that govern such interactions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, P.O.Box 1385, GR 711 10, Heraklion Crete, Greece

    Manos Theodorakis, Anastasia Analyti & Panos Constantopoulos

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

    Manos Theodorakis & Panos Constantopoulos

  3. Universite de Paris-Sud, LRI-Bat 490, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

    Nicolas Spyratos

Authors
  1. Manos Theodorakis
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  2. Anastasia Analyti
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  3. Panos Constantopoulos
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  4. Nicolas Spyratos
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, 292 Rue Saint Martin, F-75141, Paris Cedex 03, France

    Jacky Akoka

  2. Université de Versailles, 45 Avenue des Etats Unis, F-78035, Versailles Cedex, France

    Mokrane Bouzeghoub  & Elisabeth Métais  & 

  3. ESSEC, Avenue Bernard Hirsch, F-92021, Cergy Cedex, France

    Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Theodorakis, M., Analyti, A., Constantopoulos, P., Spyratos, N. (1999). Contextualization as an Abstraction Mechanism for Conceptual Modelling. In: Akoka, J., Bouzeghoub, M., Comyn-Wattiau, I., Métais, E. (eds) Conceptual Modeling — ER ’99. ER 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1728. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47866-3_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47866-3_32

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66686-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47866-9

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