Document distribution in a large corporation requires a set of routing procedures for each type of document. Documents may include memorandums, payroll reports, technical reports, external correspondence, and internal mail. Some of these documents may require managerial review and signature release authority to leave the organization. The document must be routed through the different levels of the organization according to the document procedures. The availability of the signers and reviewers becomes a delay factor in the routing of the document. This dissertation describes an approach to a solution to this problem using artificial intelligence and expert system concepts coupled with distributed computer networking to distribute the documents. A prototype system has been demonstrated. A document is originated as an "electronic file" on a user workstation (WS), called the Writer. The document is processed by an inference engine in the WS which also appends the list of Signers and Reviewers. The document is then sent to a Knowledge Base Server (KBS) which adds additional information regarding the distribution of the document. Each document contains headers for the communications network in the organization, distribution control header, and the document text body. The KBS stores the document according to the user profiles in the organizations. Activity of reviewing and signing the documents is originated at the user WS. The document is retrieved from the KBS, reviewed by the user, signed and returned to the KBS for intermediate storage. When the KBS has determined that the document has all the required signatures (Signwords), the document is sent to the final destination. The automated document distribution system summarized above has been demonstrated using a C language implementation on PC workstations and a UNIX-based KBS. The PCs are AT&T 6300 systems and the KBS is an AT&T 3B2/310 system. The communications network is a Sytek LocalNet 20 broadband local area network. Knowledge about document processing and distribution is distributed between local workstations' knowledge bases and the KBS. The second phase of the project involves implementing the system using AI and expert systems tools in the PCs and KBS.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / New facility construction and existing facility renovation create new or modified operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements for the maintenance responsibility organization such as a Public Works Department (PWD). This O&M requirement is fully described by an Operation and Maintenance Support Information (OMSI) package. OMSI content includes facility, systems, and product information. This thesis will address information integration, the process of allowing information systems to cross-communicate and share data. OMSI information integrated within the framework of a Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) system allows for early identification of O&M requirements, an improved planning capability for new facilities, and more efficient economies of scale. In addition to PWD manpower savings, OMSI-CAFM integration will also allow a revolution in the way O&M requirements are planned and created. Preliminary OMSI information would be ideally created by the design A/E after having considered work force capability from both a workload and expertise perspective. While this may be impractical due to the changing nature of workforce capability and the lengthy planning and design cycle of military construction, OMSI-CAFM integration will certainly allow O&M planning to begin early in the OMSI development stages. OMSI submittals can be layered to provide preliminary planning information in the first submittal and add additional detailed information in later submittals. In such a manner, PWD O&M planners can begin an incremental planning effort early in the facility construction phase. This thesis provides a non-proprietary, no-cost solution to OMSI-CAFM information integration that minimizes specialized knowledge on the part of the OMSI AE. This will allow a broad applicability of the solution to all OMSI developers, including those for smaller non-MILCON projects that aren’t specifically funded for OMSI generation. An effective solution must also provide for easy and inexpensive repurposing of OMSI information for future (and as yet unknown) uses. The solution uses XML technologies (XML, XSD, XLS, XLST, XPath, XQuery, etc) and XML storage systems for the content creation, management, and repurposing of OMSI information. / Lieutenant Commander, Unites States Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The advent of Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN) has seen a widespread adoption of its technology and functionality in many different areas. Many studies show more and more organizations are extending their networks to incorporate wireless devices and their applications. Permitting wireless devices to access private networks however, further complicates the tasks of protecting the network and its resources from unauthorized access. Now that they have become a significant element in today's networks, selecting and deploying adequate security measures have become the focus of many research efforts. Typically, network managers implement countermeasures to augment security. The goal of this thesis is to research approaches that compliment existing security measures with fine grain access control measures. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is adopted to accommodate such granular access control as it provides the mechanisms for scaling security down to the document content level. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Currently under development, the Global Information Grid (GIG) Enterprise Services (ES) is a suite of capabilities intended to provide improved user access to mission-critical data via Web-based and network technologies. Some of the problems of implementing such capabilities include non-uniform data formats, incompatible run-time environments and nonstandard proprietary applications, all of which block operational interoperability. Web services are specifically designed to address the interoperability challenges of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) such as the GIG. SOAs are networked infrastructures that are designed to facilitate the interoperability of collections of services without requiring service context awareness. Standards-based Web services provide the necessary flexibility and extensibility to ensure information flow is platform, run-time and software independent. The proof of concept (POC) software example developed for this research demonstrates the flexibility and extensibility of standards-based, operating-system-independent Web services. The result is an experimental endeavor to provide a mock operation command center information portal, which provides a notional summary personnel status report to the commander in real-time from a Web service that was originally generated by a stand-alone client/server system. The POC is developed with great attention to open-source technologies and open-standards compliance. The key technologies involved are Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Java programming language, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) scripting language and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). This work demonstrates the benefits of leveraging Web services to unlock legacy specialized applications to enhance the Warfighter's battlespace awareness by improving information flow via a Web based information portal. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / A common problem between Military applications and operators is the consistent and meaningful exchange of data. Currently, several models and simulations exist for the purposes of training and analyzing military data. Due to the absence of an agreed-upon standard with which to represent unit data, much is lost during interchange and applications are not maximized. This thesis is a step towards a solution. Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology has been widely accepted as a standard for representing information in such a way that it is self-documenting, self-validating and platform independent. By using the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM), formerly known as Generic Hub, and XML it is possible to develop a representation of unit data that is extensible and broadly useable by tactical systems and human operators alike. This thesis approaches the problem exploring the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and the Extensible Modeling Simulation Framework (XMSF) as possible overarching architectural concepts for a global solution. The C2IEDM is used as the core data interchange model for this research and applies XML technologies, schema and the Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) to derive a formatted data representation that is acceptable within the Flexible Asymmetric Simulation Technologies (FAST) Toolbox. The transformation example serves as template for other simulation programs to follow for interchange through the common base model. This thesis shows that by using a common data representation like C2IEDM coupled with the power of XML and XSLT, unit information can be transformed and interchanged between applications. In order to accomplish this, an extensive analysis is done on recently performed and ongoing research as well as the development of exemplars to show how the proposed process is completed. The result of this work is a transformation of unit data extracted from an example C2IEDM instance file that is compliant with the schema for an actual unit order of battle tool used for modeling and simulation. / Major, United States Army

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Network-centric warfare (NCW) has changed the way the Department of Defense addresses technological improvements for its military forces. No longer is the emphasis on enhancing the capabilities of a single platform, but the focus is now on networking people, processes and technology to enable knowledge sharing and rapid decision-making. The capabilities required to support network-centric operations (NCO) in the NCW environment must be supported by new, innovative networked communication technologies. There are many sources of requirements for these software systems supporting NCO, which may increase in number as the Services continue to develop the capabilities necessary for the transformation to a fully networked military force. Requirements may also emerge and continue to evolve following the fielding of a NCO capability because new technology has the potential to change how warfighters work. Requirements evolution results in requirements engineering challenges associated with the acquisition and development of network-centric software systems. As such, an approach is needed to provide for consistency in elicitation, management and documentation of evolving requirements for technological capabilities supporting NCO. The purpose of this research is to address the problem of evolving requirements. The requirements engineering framework proposed by this thesis incorporates classification theory and requirements modeling principles, and is supported by the Extensible Markup Language (XML) family of technologies. Particular attention has been paid to the selection of non-proprietary, platform independent technology to ensure data can be exchanged between organizations. The framework demonstrates a means by which requirements can be classified and structured in a standardized format. The result is a set of requirements that is consistent in structure and content, and that can be easily shared among all stakeholders because it utilizes one standard, non-proprietary format. This approach captures evolving software requirements of fielded network-centric software systems for use in the development of future systems. / US Navy (USN) author.

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis focuses on the genre of municipal documents (application forms) and the variety of written and visual languages that make up their corpus to reveal the various lexical semantics used in the forms as communication tool between individuals and the larger organisations. It was important to review not only how other researchers have dissected such documents, but also what they have used to study their corpus. The thesis also provides a thorough overview of literature pertaining to forms from the municipal and governmental sector as it relates to social semiotics, genre, corporate identity, branding and multimodality. As there was not enough empirical data or research from the African or non-European perspective, a wider literature review was needed to enable me to use a number of complimentary models that could fit the study area. Drawing on a theoretical framework based on the fields of Social Semiotics (Kress 2010; 2014), Applied Linguistics (Brumfit 1996) and Visual Communication (Tam 2008) as well as analytical tools like the genre and multimodality model (GeM), as described in Bateman (2008) and the grammar of visual design (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006), branding and language ideology, the study offers an analysis of the language of particular forms used widely by the City of Cape Town (CCT). The language of forms in essence is as unique as a dialogue held between two people to obtain information. Misunderstanding and communication can easily occur if the questions and sections are not formulated correctly. Although both the textual and visual modes were investigated, the aim was to uncover the corpora used on forms with which a basic set of standard words, phrases and sentences could be designed. If the language of forms in a particular organisation like the CCT can be standardised, the amount of effort on the language practitioners will decrease, and the textual components can be made available in all three of the official languages (Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English) in as simple a language structure as possible.

Cette thèse d'ingénierie des connaissances a pour objet la redocumentation de l'activité médiée informatiquement à base de fichiers traces. Au cours d’un tel processus, un utilisateur interprète et réécrit les traces dans un nouveau document, qui correspond à un genre particulier et décrit l'activité dans toute sa richesse ; il a notamment la possibilité de reformuler le contenu des traces, de l'enrichir avec d'autres informations (justification ou informations sur le contexte), de supprimer des parties, etc. Il s’agit ainsi de renforcer le statut documentaire des traces selon les trois dimensions de la lisibilité, de l’intelligibilité et de l’échange. Nous proposons une approche générique semi-automatique qui combine le contenu de traces de l’activité et les connaissances des utilisateurs dans des formes narratives, facilement échangeables, décrivant l’activité de façon personnalisée pour les utilisateurs. Celle-ci utilise des modèles formels pour les traces et les documents produits, ainsi que les principes de la théorie de la structure rhétorique (RST). Elle soutient la redocumentation à travers deux phases : une phase automatique pour générer un document initial fragmenté à partir de la trace d'activité comme une première description pour celle-ci et une phase interactive pour personnaliser cette description selon les besoins et les choix d'un utilisateur afin de produire un document. Nous proposons également la spécification de cette approche pour le cas particulier de la redocumentation par le texte et nous présentons ActRedoc, un outil auteur que nous avons développé pour implémenter cette approche spécifique en utilisant différentes technologies du Web Sémantique. Les résultats de notre travail ont été testés dans un environnement réel qui est celui de la redocumentation des traces de navigation dans un site d’archives de journaux du XIXème développé par la bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. Nous présentons ainsi les résultats d'une première évaluation de l'approche de redocumentation en texte et de l'outil ActRedoc auprès d'un groupe d'utilisateurs / This thesis is situated within the framework of knowledge engineering; it is particularly interested in the redocumentation of the computermediated activity from traces files. We suppose that during such a process, a user interprets and rewrites traces in a new document that corresponds to a particular genre and describes the traced activity in détails ; all this via the possibility to rewrite traces content, to enrich this content with other information (justifications or information on the context), to delete parts from it, etc. Therefore, we strengthen the documentary status of traces according to the three dimensions of legibility, comprehensibility and exchange. For implementing such a process, we propose a generic semi-automatic approach which combines the content of activity traces with users knowledge in narrative forms, easily exchangeable, to describe the traced activity in a personalized way for users. This Approach uses formal models for traces and documents (produced), as well as principles of the rhetorical structure theory (RST). It supports the redocumentation process through two phases: an automatic phase to generate an initial fragmented document from traces as a first description of the activity and an interactive phase to personalize this description according to the user needs and choices so that to produce an easily exchangeable document. We also propose a specification of this approach for the particular case of redocumentation by text and we present ActRedoc, an authoring tool that we developed by using different technologies of the Semantic Web in order to implement this specific approach. The results of our work were tested in a real environment which concerns redocumenting the activity of browsing a site of archives of newspapers of the XIXth century developed by the municipal library of Lyon. Thus, we present a first evaluation of the approach of redocumentation by text and of the authoring tool ActRedoc by a group of users

Pesquisas em Interfaces Naturais, sub-área da Computação Ubíqua, investigam o uso de dispositivos não-tradicionais para possibilitar a interação entre usuários e aplicaçõs de maneiras menos intrusivas (gestos, voz e escrita baseada em tinta eletrônica, por exemplo). Com o aumento da popularidade de dispositivos equipados com sensores de aceleração, os desenvolvedores agora dispõem de um novo dispositivo que pode ser utilizado para prover interação entre usuários e diferentes aplicações, como por exemplo as que se encontram presentes em ambientes de TV interativos. Assim, aplicações que fazem uso de acelerômetros vêm sendo desenvolvidas para situações específicas, e suas implementações e formatos de dados manipulados são dependentes do domínio para o qual foram projetados. Este trabalho apresenta um modelo para a formalização do modo como esses dados podem ser manipulados, por meio de uma abordagem genérica e extensível. Além disso, o modelo permite a descrição de regras para agregação de valor a estes dados por meio da adição de significados. Isto e obtido com a proposta de uma arquitetura em camadas que possibilita a estruturação e compartilhamento desses dados de modo flexível. Três protótipos foram implementados na linguagem de programação Java, fazendo-se uso dessa arquitetura e de uma API desenvolvida para facilitar o uso do modelo. Essas implementações demonstram a viabilidade do modelo proposto como solução para a questão da interoperabilidade nos cenários ilustrados, e para a extensibilidade dos dados, nos casos em que uma mudança de requisitos faz-se necessária / Research in Natural Interfaces, sub-area of Ubiquitous Computing, investigates the use of non-traditional devices to support user interaction with applications in less intrusive ways (gestures, voice and writing based on electronic ink, for instance). With the increasing popularity of accelerometers, developers now have another tool that can be used to provide interaction between users and different applications, such as interactive TV environments. However, applications that make use of accelerometers are currently being developed for specific situations, and their implementations and handled documents are also dependent on the domain for which they were designed. This work aims to propose a model to formalize how the accelerometer data may be handled in a generic way. In addition, the model enables the description of rules to aggregate value to these data through the addition of meanings. This is done by proposing a layered architecture to structure and share data in a exible way. Three prototypes were implemented in the Java programming language, making use of this architecture and an API designed to facilitate the model implementation. These prototypes demonstrate the feasibility of the model proposed as a solution to the issue of interoperability in the scenarios illustrated, and the problem of data extensibility, whenever a change of requirements poses necessary

A pesquisa analisa os dos termos documento e informação a partir de uma abordagem terminológica a fim de comparar as noções e identificar traços que auxiliem a melhor delimitação do campo da Ciência da Informação. A compreensão das características identitárias da Ciência da Informação é uma necessidade conjuntural, observada no contexto da pós-modernidade em que a área busca consolidar-se. O uso da orientação da Teoria Comunicativa da Terminologia, que considera o aspecto pragmático e social dos termos, mostrou-se um recurso importante para demonstrar e justificar a simbiose entre os termos documento e informação, corroborando a caracterização do domínio da Ciência da Informação. / The research examines the terms \"document\" and \"information\" from a terminological approach, in order to compare the concepts and identify traits that help to better delineate the field of Information Science. The understanding of identity characteristics of Information Science is a necessity circumstantial, viewed in the context of postmodernity in the area seeks to \"establish itself\". The use of the orientation of the Communicative Theory of Terminology, who considers the pragmatic and social terms, proved to be an important resource to demonstrate and justify the symbiosis between the terms \"document\" and \"information\", confirming the characterization of the field of Science Information.