Metadata representation and management for context mediation

Abstract

The Context Interchange (COIN) framework is a platform of concepts that bridges the contextual divide among heterogeneous data sources. In this thesis, we present a metadata representation and management layer that augments the Context Interchange framework. On metadata representation, a suite of XML-based representation of COIN metadata is fashioned. These XML-based representations include RDF, RuleML, and RFML. The transformation between the different representations is done through XSLT. An intuitive user interface is also created to aid the creation of metadata for context mediation. The user interface features textual and graphical components that conceptualize ontology, context, and source information. On metadata management, a registry is set up to provide centralized access of metadata files. The designed system provides facility for knowledge sharing and reuse, a concept that is missing in the previously Prolog dominated COIN system.