Research in the SIKS Research School

Abstract

In the talk we will give a brief overview of the research agenda of the SIKS Research School, one of three in the Netherlands, in which the Dutch Universities have concentrated their Research in Computer Science. “SIKS” stands for School for Information and Knowledge Systems. The talk will sketch a few results of a cooperation between four Universities in the LIKE/LICS project which is about applying Linguistic Tools for Information (and Communication) modelling. An application of this in modelling active and passive objects in Cyberspace is also sketched. Objects in Cyberspace come in two (different) forms:

• objects as passive things, which can be inspected and retrieved by:

• subjects as dynamic things, representing human beings.

The latter can be simulated/implemented/realized by active objects (in the technical sense of the word) and can be seen as a combination of e-mail and Social Security Number; they are called: Alter-egos.

To model or specify the static and dynamic properties of alter-egos a tool is being used, called COLOR-X. With this tool it is possible to specify the behaviour of alter-egos in a way close to a specification in Natural Language. A Lexicon is being used for this: WordNet, which gives the meaning of concepts (or words) such as : ‘to borrow’. To specify more precisely the behaviour and static aspects of the alter-ego a language CPL is used which has been derived from another linguistic tool: Functional Grammar, in use by linguists to define meaning of words and of sentences.