Preprint: Information integration in institutions

[Joseph Goguen <goguen@cs.ucsd.edu>]

The paper whose abstract is given below is available at

    http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/~goguen/pps/ifi04.pdf

and will appear in a memorial volume for Jon Barwise
sometime in 2006, edited by Larry Moss.


Information Integration in Institutions
   Joseph A Goguen
   Department of Computer Science  and Engineering
   University of California at San Diego, USA

This paper unifies and/or generalizes several approaches to information,
including the information flow of Barwise and Seligman, the formal conceptual
analysis of Wille, the lattice of theories of Sowa, the categorical general
systems theory of Goguen, and the cognitive semantic theories of Fauconnier,
Turner, Gardenfors, and others.  Its rigorous approach uses category theory
to achieve independence from any particular choice of representation, and
institutions to achieve independence from any particular choice of logic.
Corelations and colimits provide a general formalization of information
integration, and Grothendieck constructions extend this to several kinds of
heterogeneity.  Applications include modular programming, Curry-Howard
isomorphism, database semantics, ontology alignment, cognitive semantics, and
more.