Whereas I believe it's the definitive framework, I have some remarks about 3 columns labels which seems too much associated to specific levels:
Instead of "network": locations, physical or otherwise
Instead of "people": organizational units
Instead of "time": timing or execution states
Article Extending and formalising the framework for information syst...
John Zachman and I wrote that article in 1991, when we were both working at IBM. We had both been giving lectures in IBM and elsewhere on subjects that had some overlap. He had a strong background as a consultant on large projects, especially in the aerospace industry. My background was in computer science, especially artificial intelligence and natural language processing, but I had also worked on some large R & D projects in IBM.
From time to time, we had discussed issues in the overlap. He had thought about adding more columns to the 3-column framework in his 1987 paper. I observed that each of his columns, including the new ones, could be considered the answer to one of the six question words in English.
That idea is as old as Aristotle, who used a question word or phrase to name each of the ten categories in his ontology. But Aristotle took advantage of the Greek option of putting a definite article 'the' ('to' in Greek) in front of each word or phrase in order to treat it as a noun. Since Latin did not have a definite article, Cicero coined new words, such as 'quantitas' for 'the how much' and 'qualitas' for 'the what kind'.
To answer your question, Zachman wanted to maintain a continuity in terminology with his 1987 article and the many lectures he had delivered since them. I made some suggestions about the new terminology, but I concentrated on the mapping from his framework to issues of logic, ontology, and computer science.
For a copy of our joint article, see http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/sowazach.pdf .
For some slides about Aristotle's logic and ontology, see http://www.jfsowa.com/talks/aristo.pdf .
Our joint article cites my survey of semantic networks, which was also published in 1992. For an updated version, see http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/semnet.htm .
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Analytical Chemistry
- Column