Knowledge Management
at the Datum Level
Trish Laedtke
Project Manager
DataChannel/ISOGEN International
Austin, March 2000
XML in Knowledge Management
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Phenomenal acceptance across industries
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Used for structuring data
Used for transferring information
New applications available weekly
Limitations in Knowledge Management
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Legacy applications and data stores
Non-XML like data.
– Engineering drawings
– Video
– Etc.
Knowledge Management
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Historically known by a variety of other names
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Document Management
Product Data Management
Content Management
Data warehousing/mining
All are wrestling with data management
functions
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Access
Relationships
Access
Version management
Access
Knowledge Management
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Key to all of these is knowing what data to
access, by whom, when
This capability must be driven below the file
level. -- i.e., pieces of data within a document
are the drivers
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For access
For reuse
For process
The possibilities for increased functionality are
exponential
The gains are too valuable to ignore
History of Product Data Management
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PDMs became popular in the mid-90’s for
management of engineering information
regarding parts, assemblies, and products
Similarity to Document Management Systems
(DMS)
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Application sitting on a database
Manages object versioning, relationships, and
workflow/process
Provides the ability to track development and decision
history
Access is increasingly web-based, but few files are
viewable without downloads.
PDMs (cont.)
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Differences from DMS
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Diverse data or file types, some of which cannot be
dealt with as XML
– Engineering CAD/CAM/CAE
– Miscellaneous supporting documentation
Diverse types of users
Multiple types of relationships
Integration with other systems highly probable
– ERP
– DMS
Closed, controlled system--imposed limits
Traditional PDM Example
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Company A manufactures Whatsits.
Engineer creates whatsit.dwg.1 in a CAD
application.
X
whatsit.dwg.1
Traditional PDM Example (cont.)
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Support departments create supporting
documentation.
May be Microsoft Word
BOM for
whatsit
or other publishing
formats.
X
May be financial
whatsit.dwg.1
or parts
database info.
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Traditional PDM Example (cont.)

Meanwhile, changes occur in the design of
Whatsit.
BOM for
whatsit
X
whatsit.dwg.1
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Y
whatsit.dwg.2
Traditional PDM Example (cont.)

Change is needed in the supporting
documentation, new versions are created
BOM for
whatsit
X
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
whatsit.dwg.1
BOM for
whatsit
(Rev A)
Y
whatsit.dwg.2
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev B)
Traditional PDM Example (cont.)

Similar products are created
BOM for
whatsit
X
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
whatsit.dwg.1
BOM for
whatsit
Z
(Rev A)
Y
whosit.dwg.1
whatsit.dwg.2
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev B)
Problems with Traditional PDM
System
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Relationships are built only at the file level
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Cannot relate parts within drawings to text within a
supporting document
Cannot track change between versions of a file and
the resultant change needed in supporting
documentation
Cannot search file content, must rely on metadata
Change causes rework in multiple applications,
by multiple users
Problems with Traditional PDM
System (cont.)
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Heavily dependent on notification, often requiring
employees to intervene in process
Expensive: software and time/resource
Interchange, being addressed by PDM
Elaborations group
Key to Redefining Data Access
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Data, is Data, is Data
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Files are data
Metadata is data
States are data
Relationships are data
Groves
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ISO/IEC10744: A formalized public international
standard representation
Provides a common object model, allowing
information in many notations to be addressed in
a common fashion, even if the sources from
which groves were generated were not.
Enables effective processing of very large
collections of structured content.
Groves Are Uniform!
SGML/XML/HTML Grove
CGM Grove
DB Schema
Grove
HyTime/Xlink
Grove
PDF Grove
MS-Excel Grove
API Grove
“Style” Grove
Basic Assumptions about Groves
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Groves provide a generic form of data abstraction
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Nodes with properties organized as trees or graphs
Simple, consistent API independent of data type details
Standardized syntaxes and semantics for addressing:
HyTime, SDQL, XLink (TBD)
Any kind of data can be mapped to a grove
representation
PDM + Groves
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Diverse types of data can be normalized using Property
Sets
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Property sets can be reused between different instances of data
types…
…different data sources present same grove representation
Opens access to data, not just metadata
Allows for addressing between disparate data types
Generation of new data or initialization of processes based on
known data
Groves are not implemented for the sake of groves but
as the means to a multitude of value-adding ends
Access to All Data
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Removes reliance on and limits of metadata
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Searching
Combined with relationships, better sense of
applicability
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Metadata:
• Author
• Creation date
• Revision info
• Identification
• Key words
• Abstract
Normalizaton of data using groves
allows access to data itself
Conversion to Other Formats
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Enables access to data without the originating
software, by removing the proprietary format
Allows a single grove aware process to output
from several different formats
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Microsoft Word
Grove
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
ASCII/XML
Relationships at the Data Level
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Allow the relationship of parts within drawings to
text within supporting documentation
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Addressing via HyTime or Xlink/Xpointer
NOTE: only applicable parts of data need to be
converted to groves
Grove
Grove
Part Info
Part Info
X
whatsit.dwg.1
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Added Automation Capability
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Masters can be established in appropriate
application and be used as key data for other
files
Changes in master files are noted, and related
info is updated
Grove
Including
Parts/
Assy. Info
Grove
Including
WBS/
BOM
BOM for
whatsit
Grove
Including
WBS/
BOM
X
whatsit.dwg.1
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Allows Creation of New Information
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Data from diverse formats can
be combined and
normalized, then
Grove
converted to another
Including
Parts/
structured data format,
Assy. Info
X
e.g., SGML/XML and
combined to create new
whatsit.dwg.1
information products
New
File/Product
BOM for
whatsit
Grove
Including
WBS/
BOM
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
Grove
Including
WBS/
BOM
Data Transfer Between Systems
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Files, metadata, and relationships can
be modeled in groves, converted to an
interchange format, e.g., XML
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Namespaces
Architectures
is composed of
BOM for
whatsit
X
source
Z
whosit.dwg.1
is described by
whatsit.dwg.1
Grove
Including files,
metadata, and
relatioships
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev A)
version
BOM for
whatsit
X
whatsit.dwg.2
Whatsit
Technical
Manual
(Rev B)
Degrees of Implementation
PDM
Pro/E
Pro/E
Groves
LSA Data
LSA Data
Groves
BOM
BOM
Groves
Other...
Other
Groves...
Logistics
Products
Queries
Topic Maps
and Links
Grove Representations
Groves are built and
stored external to the
PDM. Could serve as
the users’ main
point of access to data.
Further Integration
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PDM
Queries/
Main point of
user access
Topic Maps
and Links
Pro/E
Pro/E
Groves
LSA Data
LSA Data
Groves
BOM
BOM
Groves
Other...
Other
Groves...
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Groves are
stored and
managed along
with the source
data.
Relationships
can exist
between data in
groves within the
PDM.
An Idealist Approach
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Given the right infrastructure (resources
and OS), groves could become The
PDM in a bounded file-system.
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Access and storage/lock mechanisms
Simple GUI for users
Minimal controls imposed
Workflow versioning/tracking
An Idealist Approach
Advantages to Groves in PDM
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In and of themselves, groves can be used to
open data normally not available to the user or
system
Once data is ‘open’, other standards can be
applied to add more value and functionality to
data
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XSLT
HyTime
DSSSL
Etc.
“STEP/SGML Harmonization”
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Attempt to formally define relationship between STEP
(ISO 10303) and groves
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Work progressing but not yet formally published
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Enable automatic grove representation of STEP entities
Enable automatic representation of grove nodes as STEP entities
Immediate goal: full integration of engineering CAD/CAM/CAE
data and hypermedia through HyTime/XLink
Have established correspondence between the models
Have modeled SGML and HyTime using EXPRESS
Need to produce demonstration implementations and formalize
results
Done within ISO TC184/SC4 committee
Contact: W. Eliot Kimber, [email protected]
Resources
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HyTime Standard
www.hytime.org/papers/htguide.html
ftp.ornl.gov/pub/sgml/wg8/document/n1920/html/n1920.html
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GROVES Papers
xml.com/pub/2000/04/19/groves/index.html
www.hightext.com/IHC96/ek8.htm
www.prescod.net/groves/shorttut/
www.oasis-open.org/cover/groves.html
www.techno.com
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Topic Map Standard
www.infoloom.com/tminfo.htm
www.infoloom.com/tmsample/moo1.htm