Model based information access

The engineering data of a large enterprise is typically distributed over a wide area and archived in a variety of databases and file systems. Access to such information is crucial to a team member, particularly in a concurrent engineering setting. However, this is not easy, because (1) a model of the relevant information is not available, and (2) there is no simple way to access the information without being knowledgeable about various computer data formats, file systems, and networks. The authors have developed a system called the Information Sharing System (ISS) to enable access to diverse and distributed information within a corporation. Such data could be stored in different repositories such as databases and file systems including those that contain multiple media. The paper describes the methodology fo the ISS, the details of the implementation nd extensions planned for the future