Usage of Term Information Model

International-Data-Spaces-Association / ids-specification

The Dataspace Protocol is a set of specifications designed to facilitate interoperable data sharing between entities governed by usage control and based on Web technologies. These specifications define the schemas and protocols required for entities to publish data, negotiate Agreements, and access data in a data space

https://docs.internationaldataspaces.org/dataspace-protocol/

Apache License 2.0

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Usage of Term Information Model #25

Closed ssteinbuss closed 1 year ago

ssteinbuss commented 1 year ago

We might want to change the term Information Model in this spec to avoid confusion and to be more precise.

The term Information Model was used in IDS before and is used for the ontology representing the Information Layer of the IDS-RAM
From my perspective it is not an information model, but more a structural model that describes the entities and their relationship in a data space.
The term information model addressed more the domain of data engineering (at least referring to Wikipedia). The term conceptual model would represent better the scope of the model, as we do not describe a data model, but more the relationships of the different entities or concepts in data space (also Wikipedia.

jimmarino commented 1 year ago

This is consistent with the term as used in W3C, for example:

https://www.w3.org/TR/odrl-model/

or data model:

https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/

I suspect when we submit the specifications to a standards body, we will need to make them more rigorous along those lines.

ssteinbuss commented 1 year ago

This is consistent as described in my initial post. The ODRL Information model is a data model, in fact, an object model, which describes the objects, with their attributes and relationships including inheritance. I agree that the term is used there.

VC describes data models and trust models, but not information models. The term is not used in the document at all.

In the specification at hand, my perspective is that the DCAT model, including the ODRL policies, is basically the Information model. The part named information model does not describe a data model but provides information about the context of the spec. What are the actors or systems in the system, and how do they relate to each other? It is not the data model in the scope of the specification.

jimmarino commented 1 year ago

Let's discuss. I'm not sure what we have is a data model since things like "Dataspace" or "Participant" have no material representation, e.g., there are no schemas defined. What I think we have is "concepts," "terms" and "definitions" that form the basis of the other specifications. I'm not sure what to call that.

ssteinbuss commented 1 year ago

terms, concepts and definitions would be an approach.