Integrating and Accessing Heterogeneous Information Sources in TSIMMIS

Abstract

The goal of the Tsimmis Project is to develop tools that facilitate the rapid integration of heterogeneous information sources that may include both structured and unstructured data. This paper gives an overview of the project, describing components that extract properties from unstructured objects, that translate information into a common object model, that combine information from several sources, and that allow browsing of information. TSIMMIS and its Components A common problem facing many organizations today is that of multiple, disparate information sources and repositories, including databases, object stores, knowledge bases, file systems, digital libraries, information retrieval systems, and electronic mail systems. Decision makers often need information from multiple sources, but are unable to get and fuse the required information in a timely fashion due to the diffculties of accessing the different systems, and due to the fact that the information obtained can be inconsistent and contradictory. This work was supported by ARPA Contract F33615-93-1-1339, by the Anderson Faculty Scholar Fund, by the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford University, and by equipment grants from Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM Corporation. The US Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the offcial policies or endorsements, either express or implied, of the US Government. The goal of the Tsimmis 1 project is to provide tools for accessing, in an integrated fashion, multiple information sources. Numerous other recent projects have similar goals and are discussed briefly at the end of this abstract. For the following description of the Tsimmis architecture refer to Figure 1. Translators and Common Model Figure 1 shows a collection of (disk-shap