Glossary

Term	Context or Acronym Expansion	Definition
A2A	application to application	Integration between two applications without human intervention.
A2H	application to human	One-way interaction, application to human, as in flight monitors or "push" technology.
abduction	logic	To create hypotheses about probable causes from patterns observed. This is the primary source of new knowledge. Data mining is essentially an abductive process. See also induction and deduction.
abstract	class or ontology design	More generalized representation (e.g., animal is more abstract than bear).
accidental	problem/solution	The complexity of a solution that is introduced by the tools and methods of solving the problem. See essential.
accretive	changes, especially to a system	Changes that add on gradually, without disruption, similar to the way a river changes its contour by silting up at the bends. Antonym: evulsive.
acronym	lexical	Word formed from the initial letters of a compound word or phrase.
acyclic	hierarchy, graph, network	Does not loop recursively. If you were one of your own ancestors, you would have a cyclic family tree.
adapters	software	Small software components that bind an interface to an existing application.
agent	software	Autonomous software program acting on a user's behalf.
aggregate	model	Type of relationship that implies ownership.
agile methods	methodology	Approach to software development that relies on the design and the requirements emerging from the process of building and interacting with the sponsors of the project. See XP.
algorithm	software	Procedural, step-by-step method to solve a given problem.
aliases	vocabulary	Synonym.
ambiguity	vocabulary	Definition or identification that leaves uncertainty as to the specific assignment of referent to thing.
anonymizing	software	Property of hiding identity from one software module to reduce its specific dependency on one implementation.
antonymy	vocabulary	Opposite (e.g., "good" is an antonym of "bad").
API	Application Processing Interface	A published interface to an application or module that allows the programs to call or invoke services.
applets	software	Small units of an application.
application	software	Group of software functionalities implemented together to solve a business problem.
application server	infrastructure	Middle tier in a three-tier architecture, where business logic is performed.
architecture	software	Overall arrangement of the components out of which applications are built and delivered. More than just the selection of tools.
artificial intelligence (AI)	software	Software that performs some function that we had previously ascribed to humans only, such as natural language processing.
ASCII	American Standard Code for Information Interchange	Character set used by most PCs. As opposed to EBCDIC (the mainframe character set) and Unicode (the internationalized character set).
assert	logic programming	Establish a fact (e.g., assert that Robert Jones is employee 1234).
association	modeling	Type of relationship that does not imply ownership.
associative database	modeling	Style of database design that uses sentences to describe associations.
asynchronous	software	Style of message or RPC invocation where the sender does not wait for a response from the receiver.
atomic	database	Smallest whole unit of work. An atomic transaction is one that must complete or fail in its entirety.
attribute	modeling	A property of an entity, other than a relationship. Usually single valued.
auditability	process	Capability of a process to be reviewed by a third party after the fact. Generally requires nonalterable log, identification of users, etc.
authentication	software	Verifying that persons or agents are who they claim to be.
available	software	Property of a system that is operable and can be accessed by the users or agents who need it. Often measured in the percent of potential time it is actually available (as in 99.999% availability).
axiom	logic	Description of self-evident truth.
B2B	business to business	Integration between businesses (as opposed to business to consumer) characterized by the potential for more investment in the interaction and potentially higher volume of transactions.
B2C	business to consumer	Merchandizing directly to consumers, typically through a Web site.
behavior	object-oriented software	Methods that execute code.
bill of material	model	Hierarchic structure of parts; can be "to be" (the ordered parts list to build a car) or "as is" (the specific parts that went into this car).
binary	relationship	Two-way relationship. A relationship with an inverse.
bind	software	Attaching a request to an implementation. Implementations are in specific technologies, and to invoke them one has to attach an often abstract description of a request to the specific module that will invoke it. Adaptors bind to applications.
bit	software	Single binary unit of data (a 1 or a 0).
Biztalk	product	Microsoft's message orchestration product.
blocking	software	To wait for a reply after a request has been made. A blocking request makes the interaction synchronous for the requestor.
BNF	Bakus-Naur form	Language for expressing the grammar of a programming language.
bootstrapping	software	Process of bringing up a software environment. Software has the problem of having to exist in some context. Often the context in which software was created is not available on another machine. By convention, there is a small number of instructions that all environments understand; the bootstrap process defines more and more elaborate contexts, in sequence, to create the context in which the complete systems will run. Note similarity to the ontology problem.
bots	software robots	Agents.
bozo	people	Person whose opinions you distrust. From Bozo the Clown. Bozo filters are put on email clients or discussions to screen out known bozos.
BPEL4WS	business process execution language for Web Services	Standards for the definition of multiple-step Web service–mediated process flow.
BPSS	business process specification schema	The ebXML work flow specification.
broker	software	A go-between. A message broker is a piece of software that you send your message to instead of its final destination. This frees the sender from having to know about the final recipient.
bursty	communication	Communication or message that does not come at a uniform rate; it comes in "bursts."
byte	software	Single character, 8 bits. Base unit of storage size.
cache	software	A storage of data either nearer to the end use or in a form that is easier to use. Intended to reduce latency at time of use.
canonical	message/model	An accepted standard. In message modeling, it is the process of declaring a standard for message content rather than allowing each project to define its own.
capital	software economics	A one-time investment in a process that is expected to reduce operating costs over time.
cardinality	modeling	Constraint on the number of successors on a relationship. The cardinality for the relationship "biologic mother" is 1; for "biologic child" it is 0 or greater.
categorize	modeling	To ascribe an instance to a knowledge-level group, for the purpose of inferring additional information about the instance.
causation	modeling	Relationship with teleologic attribute. For example, travel causes displacement/motion.
CDATA	XML/HTML	Character data that is meant to be ignored by the parser (e.g., images). See also PCDATA.
ChemXL	XML	Standard XML vocabulary for the chemical industry.
choreography	messaging	Prespecifying the sequence of operations in a standard work flow. Same as orchestration.
class	object-oriented development	Definition of attributes and behaviors for a type of instance. Basic modules for object-oriented development (OO). In OO, class and type are nearly synonyms, but the slight difference causes considerable problems.
client	software	Requestor. Also the user interface tier in a three-tier architecture.
coarse grain	service	Service that does a large unit of work. Collecting an overdue receivable would be a coarse-grain service.
CODASYL	Conference on Data Systems Languages; database	Prerelational database standard that used a network model in which database navigation followed predefined pointers.
cohesion	software design	Property of a module in which all the parts belong together. In a cohesive module all the parts are closely related; there are no extraneous parts.
column	database	Attribute for relational databases.
COM	component object model	Microsoft standard for binding local components.
combinatorial	system	Complexity increases more than proportionally with number of interacting parts.
commitment to ontology	Semantic Web	Declaration that a domain or document makes in terms of using and agreeing with the meaning of terms from a particular ontology. Key to different documents being able to intercommunicate.
compiled	software	Source code converted to machine-specific instructions (which bind the source code to the machine instruction set).
composite	software	Combination of more than one "back-end"
application		system into one unit of work. Often combined into one user interface.
compound	words	Group of individual words whose meaning can only be known in combination (e.g., World Series).
conceptual model	modeling	Model independent of implementation.
conceptualization	ontology	Abstract, simplified view of the world that we wish to represent for some purpose.
configurable	architecture	Style of development in which independent components can be configured into new combinations. Promotes flexibility. Distinct from customization, which, in changing a particular configuration, makes it rigid.
configurable	application package	Data-driven parameters that can be set at implementation time to achieve different behaviors from the system.
conjunction	logic	And.
ConnectBy	database	Oracle-specific SQL extension for bill of material processing in relational database.
consortium	vocabulary	Group of companies.
constraints	database	Predicates that must be true or else transactions will not be committed.
content	data	Intellectual property. Often documents or messages.
contracts	software design	Style of design that sets up contracts between calling and called routines. Can be evaluated at run time.
contracts	legal	Intentionally obscured agreements between parties for the purpose of requiring more human interpretation.
copybooks	software	Early form of "include" statements that would copy standard code or data definitions from a library.
CORBA	common object request broker architecture	Middleware developed under OMG. Platform-neutral way for programs to call other programs.
cosmology	philosophy	Subdiscipline of metaphysics concerned with the nature of being.
coupling	design	Linking two software components such that they are dependent on each other.
cowpaths	architecture	Initial way something is done, which, if mindlessly repeated, will become doctrine.
customization	software	Changing a software package source code to more closely match a particular set of requirements. Increases maintenance effort, makes upgrades difficult, and often invalidates warranties.
CWMI	common warehouse metadata interchange	Standard for expressing metadata between data warehouse products.
cXML	Commerce XML	Standards for eProcurement.
cyclomatic	design	Measure of the complexity of control structure of a procedural program.
DAG	directed acylic graph	Graph (network) in which all the nodes are connected and prevented from looping.
DAML	DARPA agent markup language	Extensions to RDF to create ontologies for the Semantic Web.
DAML+OIL	ontology	DAML and OIL are used together often enough that the combination is referred to as DAML+OIL.
DARPA	Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency	Funding source for early Internet and currently the Semantic Web.
database	computer systems	Place to persistently store data
DCOM	distributed component object model	Microsoft's standard for binding to distributed components.
DDL	data definition language	The language used to describe the data definitions (metadata) in relational systems.
declarative	software	Type of language in which code writer does not control the flow of control at execution time.
decomposition, functional	design	Style of breaking a problem down into its constituent parts along functional lines.
decoupling	design	Process of separating software modules that had previously been coupled, for the purpose of improving the flexibility and ability to change the parts independently.
deduction	logic	To infer knowledge of an instance from its membership in a category or type. The process of using knowledge but not of creating it.
default	user interface	Property values that are true often enough that they are provided as a time-saving aid to a data entry operator.
default	database	Property values for a category or class that are generally held to be true for all members, but can be distinguished from those that have been declared to be true for the instance.
definition	vocabulary	Description of what something means; often sufficient for humans, rarely sufficient for software agents.
delegation	software design	Act of turning over to another module the specific implementation of some feature. The delegator need not know how the delegatee implements the function.
delimiters	messages	Separators in a message that allow a parser to know where one element starts and ends.
dependency	software design	Recognition that one software component will be adversely affected if another one changes. Most software has dependencies on its operating system, but will also have dependencies of an often deep stack of other software components.
deployment	software implementation	Act of getting software functionality into the field.
design by contract	message architecture	Style of message design or service architecture in which "contracts" are established between applications and services regarding allowed calling conventions and service to be provided.
design by contract	object-oriented design	Style of development in which "contracts" are established between classes in an object-oriented design. Contracts are instantiated as preconditions and postconditions or assertions.
design time	software	Refers to things that must be changed when the software is being designed (or modified). For example, a scheduling algorithm is normally a design-time choice. However, it is possible to design an architecture in which the algorithm is a run-time option that could be selected by a user or another software component
developers	people	People who create software.
dialect	language	Subset of a language agreed to by a group of people. Similar to an ontology, with the members of the group who share the dialect being committed to the ontology.
dictionary	database	Place where metadata for the definition of tables, columns, and so on are stored.
dictionary	language	Collection of word definitions, with the purpose of distinguishing closely related words. Most dictionaries contain considerable encyclopedia functionality, which obscures their distinction function.
dimension	general	Aspect or element from which you can regard something.
dimension	data warehousing	One of the axes in a data warehouse that can be used to query or summarize the facts in the warehouse.
directed	model	In a network model the property that says whether the arcs have "arrows." A project plan is "directed" in that the precedent relationships go in a particular direction. A thesaurus is undirected in that the definitions are only related, without having a direction to them.
directed graph	model	Graph in which the arcs are directed.
disambiguate	vocabulary	Process of selecting between alternative, ambiguous, interpretations. Conversationally, people do this by asking, "Do you mean x or y?"
dispatch	message architecture	To send a request to its final destination. A broker dispatches messages.
distinction	vocabulary	To set up rules for disambiguating closely related concepts.
DML	data manipulation language	Language that allows agents to access or change data in a database. SQL is by far the most common DML.
DMOZ	directory Mozilla	Group of volunteers who categorize Web sites.
DNS	Domain Name Server	Designated node that assigns or tracks names and their relation to devices (e.g., jones.com is at IP 198.243.127.19).
document	data	The content in a message or other intellectual property. May be encoded in XML, but needn't be.
document	paper	Physical object in the real world. Lawyers refer to the "wet ink" as being the physical document that has the original signature.
DOM	document object model	API that allows programmers to access nodes in an XML document. Operates in memory, so not appropriate for extremely large documents. See SAX.
domain	general	Area under consideration (e.g., the domain of eCommerce or manufacturing).
domain	relational	Set of all possible values for an attribute. See also range (relational).
domain	ontology	A constraint on the classes on which a property can be used.
DSD	document structure description	Early XML schema language.
DTD	document-type definition	Schema language for SGML and XML.
Dublin Core	ontology	Standard ontology for documents.
dynamic	design	Characterized as being able to change at run time.
EAI	enterprise application integration	Industry and products involved in making the interfacing of applications more economical.
EBCDIC	extended binary coded decimal interchange code	Mainframe character set. See ASCII.
ebXML	electronic business XML	United Nations–sponsored standards for eCommerce.
eCommerce	electronic commerce	Doing business through computers (without human intermediaries).
EDI	electronic data interchange	Standards for high-volume B2B transactional exchange.
EER	extended entity relationship	Entity relationship design with inheritance.
effectivity	versioning	Versioning scheme in which portions of a structure become available or unavailable as of certain dates. A manufacturer may make a model change "date effective," meaning that after a certain date it will manufacture the model in a different way.
element	XML	Atomic unit of meaning in XML.
elicit	process	To draw out; especially to draw out the meaning of something from a group of users.
eMarketplace	eCommerce	Place where people or agents go to meet others involved in trade.
empiricists	philosophy	Group of eighteenth-century philosophers who believed that most of what we know comes from our senses.
encrypting	software	Process of obscuring data such that unauthorized users cannot understand it.
encyclopedia	vocabulary	A description of what is known about a concept. This is distinct from distinguishing one concept from another, closely related, concept.
entailment	logic	Semantic implication within a context; for example, buying entails paying.
enterprise	organization	General term for businesses, government organizations, and nonprofit organizations.
entity	database	Basic element used to construct relational designs.
epistemology	philosophy	Branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge.
eProcurement	software	Act of buying over the Internet.
equivalent	logic	Two representations of the same thing.
ER	entity relationship	Style of design focused on entities and their relationships to each other.
ERP	enterprise resource planning	Originally manufacturing resource planning, but generalized for nonmanufacturing companies. Has become synonymous with large-scale integrated applications.
essential	problem/solution	That which is necessary. Fred Brooks, in The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (Addison-Wesley, 1975), distinguished between "essence" and "accident" as the two sources of complexity in software systems. The essential part was that which had to do with the problem and could not be gotten rid of. The accidental part was that which we introduced to the problem in attempting to solve it.
ETL	extract, transform, and load	A data warehouse architecture that separates the population of a data warehouse into three stages: extracting data from the source; transforming it into a form suitable for update; and loading it, which is an efficient posting process.
evulsive	changes, especially to a system	Rapid, discontinuous change (e.g., a change to a data structure that breaks dependent modules).
exabyte	data storage	One billion gigabytes (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).
exception	process flow	A non-normal control flow; often an error generated by an environmental issue (e.g., disk full).
explicit	semantic	Formal expression of knowledge.
extensible	database or model	Capable of being added to accretively. An extensible data structure is one to which additive changes can easily be made. Relational databases are extensible at the table level, in that columns can be added to tables without requiring programs to be rewritten.
extensional	model	A set defined by a specific list. The states of the United States is an extensional set. See intensional.
extract	data warehousing	Select and copy data from a source to be used for subsequent processing.
fan in/out	modeling	Cardinality of relationship. If an object refers to many other objects, we say it has a high degree of fan out. If it is referred to by many other objects, we say it has a high degree of fan in.
fat client	architecture	Architecture in which user interface and business logic are on the desktop tier. Drawback is that every change to the system potentially involves complex deployment and rollout to make the changes to all the affected desktops.
field	data	Legacy system equivalent of a column.
fine grain	service	Service that does a small unit of work. An example of an extremely fine-grain service would be one that added two numbers together.
finite autonoma	software	State machine with a finite number of states and transitions.
firewall	architecture	Component, usually hardware and software, intended to enforce policies of access control to an intranet.
FOAF	friend of a friend	Ontology about people and their properties.
folk genera	linguistics	Nonscientific creation of categories for dealing with nature. Deals with the way people make and use categories.
GAAP	generally accepted accounting practices	Rules about what the categories in financial statements mean; rules about other accounting treatments.
generalize	ontology	To create a more abstract definition or category.
geospatial	ontology	Pertaining to locations and regions on the earth. Can be located and reasoned about in terms of area.
gigabyte	data storage	One billion bytes.
glossary	vocabulary	Dictionary.
grain	service	See coarse grain and fine grain.
grammar	language	Set of rules for ordering vocabulary items. In computer science may be expressed formally (e.g., in a BNF).
granularity	service	Size of the service; see coarse grain and fine grain.
graph	model	A model of entities (nodes) connected to relationships (arcs).
grounding	semantics	Connection of implication to empirical data. How we connect pure thought to the real world.
GUI	graphic user interface	Presentation of an interface for use by a human, on a graphic screen with a pointing device.
H2A	human to application	Interface in which a human supplies information to an application. Data entry.
H2A2H	human to application to human	Traditional application that combines aspects of the application supplying data to the person and vice versa.
H2H	human to human	A computer application in which the application makes no semantic distinctions and simply passes along uninterpreted information. Email is H2H, except for the header data.
hiding, data	software design	Design principle in which more maintainable code is promoted by hiding much of the detail of the implementation from the invoker. This allows the called routine to change some details without considering how it will affect other programs. Greatly reduces dependency.
hierarchy	ontology	Tree-style arrangement of terms or classes in which each child has only one parent (single inheritance).
histogram	data	Statistics on the frequency of occurrence of keywords by an optimizing routine to make searches faster.
homonym	linguistics	Two different meanings sharing the same word and the same spelling (e.g., mogul the emperor versus mogul the ski bump).
HTML	hypertext markup language	Tag language on which the World Wide Web is based. Markup is for presentation only.
HTTP	hypertext transfer protocol	Standard request to Web servers. Protocol on which much of the World Wide Web is based.
hype	marketing	Attempt to gain market share by promoting a product as revolutionary or a breakthrough. To substantiate such claims, vendors often craft claims that obfuscate the real capability of products. This can lead to Gartner's "trough of disillusionment."[*]
hyperbolic	visualization	Style of presenting hierarchic data that recenters the view on a selected item, which allows a user to navigate a complex space more easily.
hyperlink	document	A one-way reference from one document to another. Originally promoted by Ted Nelson, hyperlinks became implemented in the World Wide Web as the navigational links followed from one Web page to another.
hypernymy	ontology	Word of a more specific meaning; for example, "Arabian" is a kind of "horse."
hyponymy	lexical	Inverse of hypernymy; for example, "mammal" is a more general type than "horse."
idealism	philosophy	Belief that the categories we deduce from observation are imperfect forms of a generalized ideal.
identify	semantics	To associate the description of an entity with its real-world counterpart.
identity	semantics	That which we perceive to be permanent about a perceived real-world entity; the identity of a person or an organization
idiolect	language	Dialect spoken by an individual.
implementation	software	Instantiation of and conversion to a software application.
induction	logic	Process of creating categories from instances. Probabilistic reasoning.
inference	semantics	Reasoning from known propositions.
infrastructure	software	The environment that must be present for an application to operate.
inheritance	software	The accretion of properties and behaviors from a hyponym.
input	software	Act of supplying information to an application.
instances	software or data	Specific individual groups of data, usually created from some sort of template. In object-oriented systems, calling "new()" on a class creates an object that is of the type of the class. In a database system, inserting a row in a table creates an instance of that entity.
instantiate	software	The act of creating an instance.
integrator	person, organization	Humans who build interfaces between applications.
intellectual property	semantics	Property created by humans; not necessarily tangible. Includes documents, ideas, patents, songs, movies, brands, trade secrets, software, content, databases, and knowledge.
intensional	model	A set defined by rules. Each time the rules are executed you may get a different set. The set of customers with overdue balances is an intentional set. Opposite of extensional.
interface	software	Subset of a component's functionality that is presented for other programs to access. Could be a data interface or a behavioral interface. See data hiding.
interface, user	H2A or A2H	See GUI.
interfacing	integration	A style of integration that relies on programmed point-to-point interfaces.
intermediary	eCommerce	One (usually a person or company) who acts as a go-between in eCommerce; attempts to disintermediate (take out) as many intermediaries as possible.
intermediate	integration	A common representation that allows many interfaces to be written to the common interface instead of to each other. Reduces combinatorial explosion.
Internet	network	Set of computers that address each other through DNS and URLs, use HTTP for the primary access protocol, and display information in HTML. Global in scope, traveling over public networks, as opposed to intranets.
interpret	language	Process of making sense out of the world or spoken language.
interpret	software	To compile source instructions one at a time as needed. This delays binding to machine instructions until run time.
intranet	network	Use of Internet technologies and tools in a private network.
inverse of	model	For bidirectional relationships, the one that "goes the other way" ("child" is the inverse of "parent").
invoked	software	Called, or executed.
isa	model	Shorthand for the specialization/ generalization relationship. Basis for inheritance in object-oriented design. See also subsumption.
iterative	method	Method that approaches a problem by successive reapplications of the same process. Distinct from waterfall style, which attempts to do the design and build processes once.
J2EE	Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition	Java-based framework for middleware, particularly at the application server level.
jargon	language	Words in a dialect intended to keep the nonmembers from knowing what's going on.
join	relational database	In relational databases, process whereby two tables are combined into one based on their sharing of key values.
junction	database design	Entity whose role it is to resolve many-to-many cardinality relationships. For example, for there to be a relationship between students and classes in a relational design, there must be a junction record.
key	database design	An attribute or attributes that are designated to identify a particular entity. Social Security number is often used as a key for a "person" entity.
keyword	content	To find content, we extract some of the less common words from a document and index them back to their location in the document.
KIF	knowledge interchange format	Standard format for exchanging rules between AI systems.
knowledge	model	An agent has knowledge of a scenario or context to the extent that it has a model that provides some degree of predictability.
knowledge level	AI, modeling	Part of a model in which you reason about the behavior of the system rather than its implementation.
languages	human	The spoken and written utterances that humans use to communicate (e.g., English and Chinese). Each has its own vocabulary, grammar, and ontology.
languages	computer	Utterances intended to be readable by humans that can be translated into an equivalent set of instructions that can be processed by a computer. Each has its own vocabulary, grammar, and ontology.
latency	network	The time delay between a request and a reply. Latency is affected by network congestion, the number and type of intermediaries, and the processing done at the receiving site.
layers	architectures	Separation of an architecture into components, each of which deals with information at different levels of abstraction. The ISO seven-layer protocol for communication is a classic example. Also often referred to as "stack."
LDBT	long-duration business transaction	Basis for most business processes. LDBTs are events that usually originate from a stimulus outside the company, and take human-scale time to complete. For example, procuring a part could take hours to months, especially to completely close it out by receiving it and paying for it.
legacy	system	An older application. May frustrate sponsors because it is difficult to change, no one knows exactly what it does, or components on which it is dependent are becoming obsolete.
lexical	language	Pertaining to words, as in a lexical analysis of text.
lexicographer	language	Person who writes dictionaries.
lexicon	vocabulary	Computer-readable dictionary of attributes.
linguistic	language	Pertaining to language.
literal	data	Constant variable (sounds like an oxymoron).
loose coupling	architecture	Arrangement whereby components are attached in a way that makes them easier to detach and reattach at run time, promoting easier change.
lumpers	categorizers	A category of categorizers who tend to group things into fewer, larger categories.
made item	semantic	Physically discrete item, with persistent identity, that was manufactured.
magnitude	semantic	Measurement on one of these dimensions: distance, mass, or time.
mainframe	architecture	Older-style centralized computer architecture, still supporting a huge number of legacy applications.
maintainability	software	Property of an application that makes it easier to change; includes desirable features such as high cohesion, loose coupling, literate programming, low cyclomatic complexity, and good documentation.
mandatory	model	In a relationship, a constraint that a particular relationship must have at least one successor.
Markov	algorithm	Statistical algorithm for finding patterns and predicting similarity in unstructured documents.
markup	language	Annotating documents by inserting matching tags to offset certain sections.
marshal	communication	To serialize a set of data for transmission.
mereology	semantics	Study of part/whole relationships.
meronomy	semantics	Terms related through a part/whole relationship (sometimes called metonymy).
message	architecture	A request or reply expressed in data; often expressed as an XML document.
message	object-oriented design	Object-oriented design refers to a method call as a message, even though it is a function call.
message broker	software	A software intermediary that dispatches messages to their correct site.
message-oriented middleware	architecture	Style of architecture that features intercomponent communication through messages and message routing through a message broker.
meta	general	To transcend or go above. For most of computer science it means "about," as in "metadata is data about data."
metadata	data	Data about data. Includes data that describes how data is stored, where it is stored, how it is validated, and what it means.
metametadata	data	Data about metadata (usually at a high level of abstraction).
metapattern	architecture	An architecture that takes context as one of its central premises.
metaphysics	philosophy	Branch of philosophy that deals with understanding the fundamental nature of everything, particularly the relationship of mind to matter.
method	object-oriented design	Function bound to a class.
middleware	software	Non-application-specific software that performs infrastructure tasks.
model-theoretic semantics	semantics	An account of meaning in which sentences are interpreted in terms of a model of, or an abstract formal structure representing, an actual or possible state of the world.
MOM	message-oriented middleware	See message-oriented middleware.
MRP	manufacturing resource planning	Application that manages most of the functions of a manufacturing company.
multiple inheritance	software/ontologies	Framework that allows classes to inherit from more than one parent.
MVC	model view controller	Design paradigm for GUI applications that separates the underlying model (what is being manipulated) from the view (the presentation of the model) and from the controller (the set of events that are allowed to be performed by the user). By overlaying the controller functions on the view, it creates the illusion of direct manipulation.
mycophagist	food	Someone who eats mushrooms.
N3	Notation3	Shorthand way of writing RDF.
NAICS	North American Industrial Classification System	Revised taxonomy of business classification; replaces Standard Industrial Code (SIC).
n-airty	relation	See valence.
namespace	semantics	Domain within which a name is guaranteed to be unique and findable.
navigational	data model, UI	Refers to following a series of links or pointers to accomplish a task. A navigational user interface has users go from screen to screen to accomplish a task (as opposed to a composite application). A navigational data model relies on a programmer traversing pointers to get to additional data.
net (.net)	software	Microsoft's XML-based framework.
network	computer system	Topologic arrangement of hardware and connections to allow access to shared components.
network	model	Graph where nodes can have more than one entrance arc, as distinct from a hierarchy that allows only one inbound link.
NIAM	Nijssen's information analysis method	Predecessor to ORM.
NLP	natural language processing	Branch of artificial intelligence that deals with interpreting and generating humanlike speech.
NLP	neurolinguistic programming	Discipline within therapy that deals with how language reveals impoverished mental models that prevent people from accomplishing their goals.
nomenclature	vocabulary	Set of names for terms in a given domain.
nominalization	linguistics	To convert a verb to a noun. Used in software programs to create a handle for a method.
normalization	database	Arrangement of attributes to tables in a relational design so as to avoid update anomalies. Ensuring that each property is dependent only on the primary keys of its table.
Notation3	semantics	Shorthand way of writing RDF.
OCR	optical character recognition	Applications that can read typed or handwritten characters and convert to ASCII text.
ODBC	open database connectivity	Standard to allow programmers to write to an abstract relational database layer and delay binding until run time.
OIL	ontology inference layer	Standard for defining ontologies.
OMG	object management group	Nonprofit organization that promotes open systems standards.
ontology	semantics	Specification of a conceptualization.
OO	object oriented	A style of software development organized around classes of objects, in which the code encapsulates the data. Promotes data hiding and cohesion. Class inheritance implements typing, as well as code reuse.
open systems	computer systems	Computer systems where at least the interfaces and very often the implementation is publically available and not controlled by a single entity.
orchestration	work flow	Preset direction of flow of activity. Synonymous with choreography.
ORM	object role modeling	Conceptual design notation focused on role modeling. Enables good modeling, especially for relationships of higher valence.
orthogonal	categorization	Literally "at right angles." Refers to finding aspects of categorization that are as independent of each other as possible.
OWL	Web ontology language	Successor to DAML + OIL; a proposed W3C standard. Note: Dyslexic acronym is attributed to the owl in Winnie the Pooh who spelled his name WOL.
package	application	Predeveloped generic application; an application software package.
package	software development	Unit of deployment for software, usually consisting of many OO classes.
parse	software	To separate an incoming stream of data into its constituent parts based on a grammar and various delimiters.
PCDATA	XML/HTML	"Parse-able" character data; refers to text that can be parsed. See also CDATA.
PDA	personal digital assistant	Handheld computer typically for contact lists, calendar, and to-do lists.
perception	mind	Process whereby humans discern order in a complex world.
phenomenology	philosophy	Philosophy that reality consists of objects and events as perceived by human consciousness. Similar to the philosophy of the sophists.
platform	computers	Standard environment in which an application operates. Typically a family of compatible hardware and operating systems defines a platform; database management systems may also define a platform, as may the Internet protocols.
polymorphism	object-oriented design	Literally "to take many forms." In object-oriented design, subclasses of a class implement the public interface to the parent class in such a way that a message sent to a collection of parents and children would be responded to by each appropriately, without the caller knowing.
polysemous	linguistics	Word with multiple related meanings (e.g., mouth, the anatomic opening, and mouth, the opening of a cave).
portal	UI	Composite application presented through a Web front end. Often an attempt to bring all the interfaces available to a particular group of users to one point.
pragmatism	philosophy	Philosophy that holds that both the meaning and the truth of any idea is a function of its practical outome.
precision, semantic	semantics	The degree of refinement or specificity applied to a particular semantic categorization. For example, car repair manual is a more semantically precise term than document, even though both may be equally accurate.
precompiler	software	A processor that runs before the primary compiler; may expand copybooks, "includes," and so on.
preconditions	software design	Assertions in design by contract that are enforced to be true prior to method executing.
predicate	logic	A statement you can make about something that can be evaluated later as true or false.
primary key	relational design	The unique identifier for instances of an entity. For example, in a customer table, we might declare that CustomerID is to be the primary key and therefore the unique identifier.
primitive	semantics	Types that are atomic and have no supertypes. Some maintain that there are a few semantic primitives from which all business-related applications can be built.
procedural	programming	Coding style in which flow of control is explicitly expressed by the programmer.
procedure	software	A coherent grouping of code.
procedure	work flow	Instructions for human users of computer systems that augment the built-in work flow.
processes	work flow	Higher-level abstractions of end-to-end business processes.
production	implementation	Area where the versions of applications that are approved for use by end users are kept.
program	software (verb)	To reduce an algorithm to code, usually procedural code.
program	software (noun)	A compilable unit of code.
projection	database	The set of return values desired from a query.
property	semantic	That which is subject to ownership. Can be tangible or intellectual.
property	model	In object-oriented design, either an attribute or a relationship.
proprietary	software	Infrastructure in which the public interface is controlled by a single company or a small number of companies. Sometimes refers to single-company implementations of an open interface.
protocol	communications	Rules governing transmitting and receiving data.
prototypes	linguistics	A way of defining categories around exemplar representatives (e.g., a robin may be a prototype for the category "bird").
prototypes	software	Artifact in iterative development in which a disposable version of a user interface is presented to users and sponsors to allow them to clarify their requirements.
publish	message	At the occurrence of a predefined event, message is sent to all components that have indicated an interest by previously subscribing.
publish/subscribe	architecture	Style of interaction in which the consumers of information indicate that they are interested in certain types of changes from certain sources. When the change occurs they are notified via a message. This is instead of either continual polling, asking for the information when you need it (but it may not be available), or batching interfaces.
QOS	quality of service	Measure of the goodness of a communication channel (dropped packets, etc.).
query	database (noun)	A declarative statement describing the data set that a user or program wants to obtain from a database.
query	application (verb)	To request information from a data store.
queue	infrastructure	Temporary storage for unprocessed messages; allows called process to operate more efficiently and ensures that all messages are processed.
range	relational	A restricted set of the domain of values to which an attribute can belong.
range	ontology	Restriction on the values of which a property must be a member.
RDF	resource description framework	Basic model for expressing knowledge in the Semantic Web.
RDFS	RDF schema	Adds schema properties to RDF, such as "subclass" and "inverse."
reachable	network	The set of all nodes in a graph that can be arrived at by traversing arcs.
recursive	programming	Flow of control in which a module calls a new instance of itself an indefinite number of times.
reference	model	To establish a one-way relationship to an object (point to).
referential integrity	database	Property of database management system that allows it to manage the relationship of instances in different tables such that a change or deletion in one table does not invalidate information in another. Referential integrity would prevent the deletion of a customer if there were still orders outstanding for that customer.
reify	semantics	To treat an abstraction as if it were real. Marriage is the reification of a relationship, as are most entities in most databases.
relational	database	Database characterized by implementation of relationships by matching key values in different tables.
relationship	model	Named link between two objects that defines the kind of relationship instances might have. In business rules, a relationship is a fact.
relationship	instance	Set of pointers to other objects that a particular object is associated with via a named relationship.
repartitioning	architecture	Intentional effort to redefine the boundaries of a set of applications to achieve better cohesion at the application level, as well as potentially looser coupling.
repeaters	data structures	Parts of a data structure that occur more than once. May be a fixed number of repeaters. The number may be defined in a header record, or it may be undefined until a particular delimiter is encountered. Common in EDI and older data structures.
repository	metadata	Place to persistently store metadata. A database for metadata.
request	message	Type of message intended to solicit information; reply is called a response.
resource	RDF	In RDF terms, a URI or a literal.
response	message	Reply to request containing information.
rich client	architecture	Generalized client that is able to mimic much of the behavior of a fat client interface, allowing the user interface to be more responsive without having application specific client side code.
rights	semantic	Ownership primitives that indicate what an owner can do with owned property.
rigidity	architecture	Property of a system that makes it hard to change, generally due to overimplementation of dependencies.
RMI	remote method invocation	J2EE method of invoking behavior on remote components.
robust	architecture	Designed in a way that is resilient to adverse events in the environment.
routing	middleware	Dynamic determination of destination of a message.
RozettaNet	eCommerce	Standards for supply chain eCommerce.
RPC	remote procedure call	Mechanism for invoking a component on another platform. Usually requires binding to the specific RPC technology.
RuleML	XML	XML standard for expressing rules.
run time	software	Refers to things that can change when the program is running as opposed to those things that must be changed when the program is being designed (or compiled). Shifting things (e.g., hardware, software, data) from design time to run time can make the system much more flexible.
RUP	rational unified process	Methodology promoted by Rational Corporation; uses UML and promotes iterative development.
SAML	security assertions markup language	Standard way to indicate authorizations.
SAX	simple API for XML	Programmable interface for an XML document that doesn't require it all be in memory.
scale	architecture	Ability to process larger volumes of work. Often requires an architecture that allows replication of processing units without a bottleneck.
schema	XML	Allowable tags and their sequencing, usually expressed in DTD or XSD.
schema	database	Data definition for tables.
SCM	supply chain management	Application, or integration effort, to allow a company to have more oversight of the parts vendors, all the way through the chain of suppliers to the extractive vendors.
scope	application	Size or boundary. Scope may be described in terms of functions to be automated, or it may be defined in terms of degree of semantic precision required.
SDM	semantic data modeling	Conceptual database modeling based on semantics.
semantic	philosophy	Concerned with the study of meaning (often the meaning of words). In business systems we are concerned with making the meaning of data explicit (structuring unstructured data), as well as making it explicit enough that an agent could reason about it.
Semantic Web	network	Next-generation Internet in which all the content is tagged with semantic tags and committed to ontologies. An interlinking of ontologies will allow agents to reason about information only tangentially connected (and not previously connected by their creators).
semiotics	philosophy	Branch of linguistic study primarily concerned with human use of signs, symbols, syntax, and semantics.
sentient	mind	Capable of reasoning. Alternative definition includes being capable of feeling, but that has no applicability for business systems.
service	software (noun)	A software component that is accessed via a message. Typically the component executes on its own platform in its own environment, and only the result is sent back to the caller. Most non–service-based architectures involve the component executing in the caller's environment.
SGML	standard generalized markup language	Early tagged document markup language. Was popular for complex document creation, but complexity of language led to it being largely superceded by HTML and XML.
SHOE	simple HTML ontology extension	An early project to extend HTML with semantic tags.
shredding	XML	Parsing an XML document into its constituent parts to be stored atomically in a relational database.
similarity	semantics	Lexical relations of words with related meaning. For example, "gluttonous" is similar to "greedy."
SKU	stock-keeping unit	Level of semantic precision used by inventory control systems. If red and blue widgets are interchangeable at the point of use, they will be identified by the same SKU number.
SOA	service-oriented architecture	Application architecture organized around the use of services, including Web Services.
SOAP	simple object access protocol	Wrapper for Web Service requests that allows them to be invoked across the Internet, including through firewalls.
SODA	service-oriented development architecture	See SOA.
software	computer systems	Intellectual property that imposes semantic meaning on input from humans or devices to which it is attached.
SOI	service-oriented integration	Performing EAI using service-based technologies.
sophists	philosophy	Group of philosophers who believed that the world existed only to the extent it was perceived. "Man is the measure of all things" was a saying of the sophists.
source	messaging	Point of origination of a request. May be important for auditability and security.
source code	software	Human-readable procedural or declarative statements that can be compiled into equivalent machine-executable code.
specialization	ontology	Increasing semantic precision by subtyping. Almost an exact antonym to generalization, but there are a few obscure conditions where generalization and specialization are not inverses.
specs (specifications)	software	Reduction of requirements or design into a document to be used to direct further development.
splitters	ontology	People who are inclined to create new categories whenever new distinctions come up.
SQL	Structured Query Language	Declarative language for expressing queries and updates to relational databases.
state	object-oriented development	The values of all the properties of an object at a specific time.
state	software	A special type of category that allows the item being referenced to dynamically change properties as it changes state. Historically implemented in code or in a finite-state machine.
stateless	service	Property of a service that allows it to scale. The service does not maintain state (object-oriented style state) between invocations, so the next time a request is made it need not go back to the previous service.
static	object-oriented development	Methods that operate at the class level and do not need an instance to function.
static	software	Fixed binding or linkage. Not dynamic. Static linking cannot change at run time, as opposed to dynamic linking, which can.
status	category	Same as state (category), usually referring to the state of physical items or long-duration business transactions (e.g., "What is the status of this order?").
store	database	To record data in a nonvolatile medium (the data will be retained even if the power is turned off or a program crashes).
STP	straight-through processing	Early acronym for what is now called Real Time Enterprise (RTE).
stub	software	Small bit of software. Sometimes refers to the start of a program generated by a case tool. May also refer to the bit of code that binds a request to a platform and API.
style sheet	declarative	Set of structured hints to be applied to a family of documents to create a particular type of display.
subroutines	software	Software modules usually compiled at the same time, and linked in with the calling program, but still obeying the rules of data hiding by only referring to shared data through the defined calling interface.
subscribe	message	Indicate to potential publisher of messages that a component is interested in receiving notification in the event of a change.
substance	philosophy	Physical material (e.g., "lumber" consists of the substance "wood").
subsumption	ontology	To classify, include, or incorporate in a more comprehensive category or under a general principle. The "isa" relationship.
subtypes	ontology	A proper subtype "is" one of its parent types, more specifically a specialization of that type.
Swetsville Zoo	place	Private park in Fort Collins where you can visit creatures made from surplus parts.
syllogism	philosophy	Style of inductive logic that starts with a generalization (all men are mortal), includes a categorization (Socrates is a man), and concludes with a semantic entailment or the instance taking on an attribute of the category (Socrates is mortal).
symbolic	AI or formal semantics	Semantic reasoning with variables substituted for semantically known objects. Conclusions drawn at this level are universally true.
synchronous	messaging	Message style in which the requestor blocks and waits for a reply.
synonymy	ontology	Two terms that mean the same thing. As pointed out by John Saeed, there are few true synonyms.[*]
syntactic	semiotics	Concerning the grammar order or special characters in a document or message.
table	relational	Storage place for entities in a relational database. All entities are stored in tables, with each column representing an attribute.
tacit	semantics	That which has not been expressed in formal terms. Tacit knowledge may be knowledge we have without knowing that we have it.
tag	markup	Delimiters that also contain information. Most common type are matched tags such as 〈t〉42〈/t〉, which is the number 42 tagged by the tag "t."
taxonomy	semantics	A vocabulary ordered into a hierarchy, generally to find terms easily, and also to subtype the terms.
TBL	Tim Berners-Lee	WWW inventor; often goes by his initials.
technology	semantics	Application of knowledge to a problem area to improve performance or reduce use of resources. Clothing is a technology for conserving body heat. Vendors of software products would have you believe that their product is a technology for conserving something or performing something better.
templates	software	Preexisting outline that allows for the generation of new data conforming to the patten of the template. In object-oriented development a class is the template for the creation of a new object, but much more complex templates are possible.
temporal	semantic	Pertaining to time. Events and plans are temporal entities.
terabyte	storage	One thousand gigabytes. Data warehouses with a terabyte of information are now common.
term	business rule	Semantic object. Vocabulary item. The basic building block of facts and rules.
term	ontology	A label on a concept.
text	semantics	A portion of a document expressed in characters (as opposed to sound or graphics).
thing	semantics	Often the top of a generalization tree. This is the top object in the Cyc ontology. Some ontologies restrict "thing" to tangible real-world items with persistence.
tier	architecture	Original computer architectures were monolithic in that all processing occurred on a single machine. Over time, separation of concerns led to more flexible architectures by separating processing into different tiers. Two-tier systems typically had a fat client processing user interface and business logic on one tier (the desktop) and persistence on another tier (the database server). Three-tier architectures added a third layer in the middle (the application server) where most of the business logic migrated to. Current architectures are n tiered, where n is some positive integer.
time now	temporal	Concept of "now" implemented in systems. Should be expressed in Universal time (Greenwich Mean Time) to prevent issues with servers in different time zones recording the same fact differently. Many temporal functions should be expressed in terms of time now (e.g., a task planned to start at some time before "time now" is probably late if there is no actual start time).
tipping point	fashion and epidemiology	A characteristic of complex systems that a particular phenomenon can exist for a long time until conditions are right for it to reach epidemic proportions. The inflexion point has been referred to by Malcolm Gladwell as the tipping point.
token	parsing	The unit to which a parser divides text for subsequent processing. For a tagged markup such as an XML document, this is the data between the tags (recursively).
topology	network	The spatial layout and interconnectedness of any type of network. We may speak of the topology of the hardware network, but we could also speak of the topology of an ontology (e.g., how much fan in/fan out exists).
traffic	network	Number of packets traversing a network.
transaction	database	An atomic unit of work that either succeeds or fails.
tree	model	A directed graph in which nodes are not referred to by more than one node (children do not have more than one parent).
trigger	database	Routine attached to a database table that is guaranteed to fire (execute) in the event of a prespecified occurrence (e.g., the updating of a particular attribute). The trigger will typically send a message, or side effect, that may update other tables in the database. Similar in structure to a publish/subscribe in which the publishers and subscribers are tables instead of programs and the database management system is managing the subscriptions.
triple	RDF	Knowledge expressed in a three-part grammar, which has been called "subject, predicate, object," as well as "resource, property, values."
truth conditions	semantics	The conditions under which a sentence or a proposition expressed by it is true; for example, the statement "I have red hair" is true under the condition that the speaker has, in fact, red hair. It is not true in the abstract, but only when grounded.
Turing test	AI	Litmus test of artificial intelligence: Can a program fool enough people into believing that it is human that we should ascribe "intelligence" to it?
UDDI	universal description, discovery, and integration	Standard for a registry or yellow pages for finding services.
UML	unified modeling language	Modeling language for object-oriented development popularized by Rational Corporation.
UMLS	unified medical language system	Ontology of medical terms used for searching medical literature.
unambiguous	semantic	Refers to specific item or category in requisite level of semantic precision.
unary	relation	One-way relation; pointer. Most relations are binary, which means they are automatically maintained both ways and can be traversed both ways.
Unicode	character set	Character set rich enough to represent non–Latin-based languages, such as Chinese and Burmese.
unique	constraint	There cannot be more than one equivalent item of this type within the scope indicated. We may say that customer numbers must be unique (within our organization or database) or we may say that there can only be one successor on a relationship, meaning there can't be more than one of that type in that set.
unstructured data	documents	Data (textual, video, sound, graphics) that has not been interpreted, tagged, or structured.
URI	uniform resource identifier	Unambiguous location of a resource in RDF.
URL	uniform resource locator	A resolvable location on the reachable Internet.
user	software	The role of a person relative to a particular application. For agents it is the person on whom the agent is working. Note that in both cases the user's identity is what confers security and authority.
valence	relation	Number of type of successors to a relationship. Also called the "n-arity." Most relationships have a valence of 2 (binary relationships), but relationships with a valence of 3 or 4 are not uncommon.
validation	XML/HTML	Determination that a document obeys all the rules set out in its schema.
veracity	semantics	Degree to which we believe something to be true. High veracity = high degree in belief in the truth of the assertion.
version	software, semantics	Modification of a basic instance that shares the same identifier. We can have different versions of a document that all contain the same basic document identifier. We can have different versions of an ontology, perhaps with date effectivity.
view	relational	A subset of a database as defined by a query.
vocabulary	semantics	List of terms in a particular dialect, often with definitions.
VRML	virtual reality markup language	Description of a three-dimensional space, in a tagged document.
W3C	World Wide Web Consortium	Nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining the standards on which the World Wide Web is based.
warehouse	database	A copy of the operational data of a firm, stored to optimize analytic retrieval instead of updates. Also organized to be robust in regard to changes in the structure of the operational databases or the hierarchic roll-ups of the dimensions.
Water	XML	A scripting language for building XML-based Web sites.
waterfall	methodology	A style of development that progresses sequentially through a series of tasks to develop a software product. As opposed to iterative or agile methods.
Web Services	architecture	RPC in which the request is in XML. Allows caller and receiver to be in different technologies as long as each can queue the message and process the XML request or response.
well formedness	XML/HTML	Property that a given tagged document adheres to the rules of documents of that type (e.g., all the tags match). Does not require a schema. See validation. Note that most HTML tools and browsers have become slack on well formedness, to the point where one cannot rely on HTML tags matching.
WordNet	ontology	Open-source English language repository of meaning of one-half million concepts. Many of the concepts have hypernymy, polysymy, and mereologic links.
work flow	process	A prespecified sequence of human and computer activities that should complete a business activity.
WSCI	Web Services choreography interface	Describes the flow of messages exchanged by Web Services in choreographed exchange. Pronounced "whiskey."
WSDL	Web Services description language	A description of the XML needed to invoke a specific Web Service. Pronounced "whizdull."
WSFL	Web Services flow language	Predecessor to BPEL4WS.
WWW	World Wide Web	The layer on top of the Internet that most people now think of as the Internet. Includes Web servers that are reachable by URLs and DNS, that accept HTTP requests on port 80, and that serve up user interfaces in HTML.
XCBL	XML common business library	Language promoted by CommerceOne for use in B2B eMarketplaces.
XDR	XML data reduced	Earlier version of XSD.
XLANG	work flow	Earlier version of BPEL4WS, expressly for Biztalk orchestration.
XMI	XML metadata interchange	Standard for interchanging metadata.
XML	extensible markup language	Tagged markup language, to which the tag set can be added. Note: It is considered poor form to capitalize the X in extensible.
XP	extreme programming	First of the agile methods, focused on pair programming, test as you go, and refactoring.
XP	operating system	Recent version of Microsoft Windows.
XPath	XML	Declarative way to define a subset of an XML document that you are interested in. Robust to many structural changes to the document.
XQuery	XML	Query language for retrieving data from an XML document or XML database.
XSD	XML schema	Schema language for XML, expressed in XML (as opposed to DTD, which was not in XML).
XSL	XML style sheet language	Declarative language creating a style sheet for XML documents.
XSLT	extensible style sheet language transformation	Extension to XSL that includes more structural changes to an XML document.
Y2K	year 2000 "Armageddon"	Remediation spending on legacy systems that were not, or were not believed to be, capable of processing in the new millennium due to ambiguity about century years in dates.
ZLE	zero-latency enterprise	Result of integrating a firm's processes in such a way that all the latency (especially the human-caused and batch-caused latency) has been removed and end-to-end processing happened immediately.
[*]Ted Nelson, Literary Machines. San Antonio: Project Xanadu, 1987. [*]John Saeed, Semantics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1997.