EE model theory is a theory about system models and their conceptual modeling. When obtaining information about a system, we use models because we cannot directly touch the system, but we define a framework for understanding the model and a specification language, which is a symbolic form that expresses it.

The following definition of apostle is adopted for thinking about models.

“An entity that uses system A, which does not directly or indirectly interact with system B, to obtain information about system B, is using A as a model of B.” It is easy to understand if you imagine using a “sphere” as a model of the “earth.”

When applying the semiotic triangle described in the previous article to obtain information about a complex (another name for a system), a triangle is obtained with the concrete complex (‘referent: system’), conceptual complex (‘ideas’ in the mind’), and symbolic complex (‘symbols’) as vertices. In this case, the conceptual complex is a model for understanding the concrete complex and is called a “conceptual model,” and one expressed in a symbolic form such as text is called a symbolic complex.

The equivalent of the “type” of a conceptual complex in the EE information theory is called a “conceptual schema” (conversely, an instance of a type is a conceptual complex). A language that expresses a conceptual schema in a symbolic form is called a conceptual modeling language. Since the “types” of conceptual schema are classified by business domain, this language is a “domain-specific language”. If we further increase the level of abstraction of the expression and consider concepts that have conceptual schema as instances, we can express general domains beyond the specific domain. This is called a “meta-schema”.

From the above, a three-level hierarchical framework of instance, schema, and meta is defined as shown in the figure, and this is called the General Conceptual Modeling Framework (GCMF). This approach of hierarchizing by abstraction level is a way to deal with differences in the granularity of interest. As an aside, the original author criticizes the ambiguity of the definition of the modeling hierarchy in UML based on this theory.

Modeling requires the explicit expression of the “idea” that is in mind. It is possible to do this in natural language, but since it lacks precision, it is expressed using formalized text.

The original authors have developed a general language for this purpose, the Global Ontology Specification Language (GOSL), and the methodology they developed for modeling business organizations, called DEMO (Design and Engineering Methodology for Organisation), conforms to this.

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