ODP Viewpoints and Maps

I have been pondering the comments of @Downes on one of my previous posts. In the comments he says that any map is one-dimensional. I am not sure what he means by that, but I take it that he says that any maps lacks aspects. This reminded me of the viewpoints of the ODP Reference Model. These viewpoints are interesting as they intend to separate (separation of concerns) things and offer various abstractions.

Now back to my map. My map shows the relation between the Information Viewpoint (the MicroContent Types/Objects) and the Computational Viewpoint (Applications/Services). The Enterprise Viewpoint is not relevant here, as the intentions and goals of the user are unknown. The Computational Viewpoint covers the actions a user wants perform on the MicroContent Objects (create, read, get, publish, etc.).

In these two viewpoints we should not talk about protocols, API’s, systems, software, distribution of components, etc. In several of the PLE diagrams, I see all the Viewpoints mixed, resulting (at least for me) in an unclearer picture. Unfortunately this is also often reallife reality, users a confronted with all kinds of technological and engineering aspects and they shouldn’t be. Things should be more transparant.

Categories/tags: MicroContent • general
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