The document discusses semiotic interoperability as a critical step towards integrating information systems. It introduces concepts from semiotics, such as signs, signifiers, signifieds, and how they relate to encoding and decoding information. The document proposes a semiotic interoperability framework with six levels - physical, empiric, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and social. These levels must work together to ensure successful communication between systems through understanding the meaning, intention, and social consequences of shared information. The framework aims to achieve effective integration of information systems.

1. Semiotic Interoperability
- a critical step towards systems integration
AS2010427 - K.A.D.Y.L. Kuruppuachchi
AS2010377 – M.K.H. Gunasekara
CSC 364 1.5 Seminar 2
Department of Computer Science and Statistics
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
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2. Overview
• Introduction
• Semiotics
• Semiotics concepts
• Information Systems Integration And
Interoperability
• Semiotic Interoperability
• Semiotic Interoperability framework
• Conclusion
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3. Introduction
• Information systems integration is becoming
critical for organization .
• Legacy systems often generates needs for
integration with new systems .
• The ideal integration of information systems
should be organic and seamless communications
among not only technical systems but also
process, norms, people, culture as well as
organisational strategies.
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4. Introduction cont'd.
• The nature of information systems integration lies
in the successful signs communication among
different systems.
• Semiotics, as the study of signs, provides the
theoretical foundation on how signs can be
successfully communicated among systems.
• Organizational semiotics provides a theoretical
foundation for systems interoperability.
• A notion of ‘semiotic interoperability’ is proposed
in this research as a paradigm.
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5. Semiotics
• Semiotics, as the study of signs that examines the
nature and properties of all kinds of signs
(Morris, 1946; Peirce, 1931),
• Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), founded semiotics as the
‘formal doctrine of signs’.
• Signs and symbols can be studied, not only in language
(both written and spoken forms), but also in
rituals, culture, images and art – in fact, anything that
can be ‘read’ as text.
• Semiotic researchers do not study signs in
isolation, rather they study the conventions governing
the use of signs and sign systems.
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6. Signs
• A sign can mean one thing in one particular cultural context,
but mean something quite different in another
• Signs can also change their meaning over time
• Semiotics has been used especially in information systems,
management, marketing and organizational studies
• Marketing researchers have used semiotics in research on
advertising, brand image and marketing communications
(Hackley, 2003)
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7. Semiotics concepts
1.
2.
3.
4.
Signifier and signified
Sign, object and interpretant
Icon, index and symbol
Encoding and decoding
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8. Signifier and signified
• Saussure distinguished between two things:
• The signifier is a sign or symbol that can stand for
something else. By definition, all words are
signifiers since they always stand for something
else (e.g. a thought, a feeling, or a thing). A signifier
is used by the person wanting to communicate
• The signified is what the sign or symbol represents
– what it is interpreted to mean by the receiver of
the communication
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9. Sign, object and interpretant
• Peirce distinguished between three things:
• Sign : The written word ‘house’ or a drawing of a house.
• Object : The category ‘house’.
• Interpretant : Anyone who is involved in reading and
interpreting the sign.
• Peirce’s view recognizes that the same sign can
have different meanings depending upon the
context
• For example the word ‘slim’, although the spelling is
the same in both languages, means ‘cleaver’ in
Dutch while in English it means ‘thin’.
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10. Icon, index and symbol
• An icon is a sign that signifies its meaning by qualities of
its own; it is like the thing it represents (e.g. the icon of
a trash can on Apple and Windows computers)
• A sign can also act as an index:
• An indexical sign points to or indicates something else. For
example, a wavy line on a road might ‘point to’ bends in the
road a few hundred yards ahead.
• A symbol is something that stands for or is symbolic of
something else (Eg: the three colors of traffic lights.)
• The three categories of signs are not separate and
distinct; a complex sign may be a mixture of several
kinds.
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11. Encoding and decoding
• The only way that messages can be sent from
one person to another is via the use of a
code
• Encoding is the process of transforming any
thought or communication into a message
• Decoding is the process of reading the
message and understanding what it means
• For example, consider the road code - only
someone who can read the road signs
correctly is allowed to obtain a driver’s
licence
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12. Information Systems
Integration And Interoperability
• Information systems integration is the process that
ensures the interaction between information
systems necessary to achieve domain objectives.
• The development of information systems
integration can be divided into two phases:
technical integration and comprehensive
integration.
• (Chen and Vernadat, 2004) defines three levels
from enterprise interoperability.
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13. Semiotic Interoperability
• Organisational semiotics
• Semiotic framework
• Semiotic interoperability
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14. Organisational semiotics
• Sub branch of semiotics.
• It is the study of organizations using the concepts
and methods of semiotics.
• The scope of organisational semiotics includes both
public and private organizations and concerns their
inner workings, their interactions with the
environment and with one another.
• Addressed fields such as marketing, human
resource management, business law and business
ethics
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15. Semiotic framework
BY Stamper (1973)
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16. Semiotic Interoperability
framework
to work together through communication with
insight into
• the physical properties
• transmission structure of signs
• placing emphasis on communicating meaning
• intention
• social consequence of information
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17. Physical Interoperability
• This level is concerned with the physical connection
and transmission channel in sign communication.
• The hardware devices of the systems must be
interconnected in order to support the data
transmission.
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18. Empiric Interoperability
• This level ensures sign transmission through
compatible channels and protocols between
systems.
• This level is concerned with the matching of coding
and decoding between sign sender and receiver.
• This level ensures the capacity of communication
channels and protocols of different information
systems are matched.
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19. Syntactic Interoperability
• Syntactic interoperability ensures data exchange
between systems through compatible formats and
structures.
• The syntactic interoperability is achieved when the
expression of information, or language, or formula
can be recognized by different information systems.
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20. Semantic Interoperability
• This level indicates the ability of interpreting and
converting information into equivalent meaning to
allow information sharing between systems.
• Semantic level is concerned with the meaning of
signs.
• communication is successful if signs are interpreted
for both sender and receiver according to same
principles.
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21. Pragmatic Interoperability
• Pragmatics is the level of semiotics concerned with
the relationship between signs and the potential
behavior / intention of responsible agents, in a
social context.
• This level ensures that processes supposed by the
systems in individual contexts can be aggregated to
achieve the overall intended purpose.
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22. Social Interoperability
• This level ensures that the resultant interoperable
systems should be coherent with the social
commitment, obligation and norms in the
organization and support organization's strategy,
vision and objectives.
• Norms have long been classified into several
categories:
•
•
•
•
Perceptual
Cognitive
Evaluative
Behavioral
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23. Example
• At the physical level, the telephones must be
connected by the phone line through telephone
service providers.
• At the empirical level, the voice signals will be
converted into electronic (or optical) signals and
transmitted between two telephones.
• At the syntactical level, the two people involved in
the telephone conversation must follow the same
grammatical rules.
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24. Example…
• At the semantic level, the words, the technical and
non-technical terms, and the things referred to in
the conversations must be understood by the two
people. The sentences and the contents of the
conversation must make sense to both of them.
• At the pragmatic level, there is a concern with the
intention (of the caller),and there may be ‘silent’
messages beneath the surface.
• At the social level, social commitments and
obligations can often be created or discharged as
the result of a conversation.
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25. Semiotic Interoperability
framework
BY Stamper (1973)
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26. Summary
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27. Conclusions
• The semiotic interoperability provides a theoretical
concept covering how signs are communicated
successfully from physical to social level in order to
achieve effective information systems integration.
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28. References
• Weizi Li, Kecheng Liu, Shixiong Liu, 2013 ,”Semiotic
Interoperability ”, Published in proceeding of 5th
International Joint Conference on Knowledge
Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge
Management, Vilamoura, Algrave, Portugal
• Kecheng Liu,2000, “SEMIOTICS IN INFORMATION
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING”, Cambridge University Press.
• Chen, D., Vernadat, F., 2004. Standards on enterprise
integration and engineering—state of the art.
International Journal of Computer Integrated
Manufacturing 17, 235–253.
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29. Questions
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30. Thank You
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