III: Small: BeliefDB - Adding Belief Annotations to Databases

在今天的许多科学学科中，用户社区正在一起工作，以组装、修改和管理共享的数据存储库。随着社区知识的积累和数据库内容的发展，它可能包含相互冲突的信息，成员可能不同意它应该存储的信息。今天的关系数据库管理系统（RDBMS）可以帮助这些社区管理他们的共享数据，但是在管理关于存储数据正确性的冲突事实和冲突意见方面提供的支持有限。本项目开发了一个信念数据库系统（BeliefDB），允许用户表达信念注释。这些注释可以是肯定的（同意）或否定的（不同意），并且可以是高阶的（关于其他信念注释的信念注释）。这种方法允许用户对数据库内容和注释进行结构化的讨论。BeliefDB为注释提供了明确定义的语义，使关系数据库能够有效地理解和管理它们。智力优势：(i)信念数据库模型的定义：该项目开发了一种形式主义，扩展了数据上的信念注释和先前插入的注释的关系数据库。（ii）信念查询语言的设计：该项目用一种扩展SQL的新查询语言来补充数据模型。（iii）规范信念数据库表示的开发：该项目开发了在传统RDBMS之上存储和操作信念数据库的方法。更广泛的影响：管理数据库和共享数据存储库在科学界变得越来越普遍。beliefdb提供了一个新的数据管理系统，解决了这些社区管理冲突数据的需求。如果成功，该项目将帮助数据管理技术经历一个新的范式转变，从将数据作为内容来管理，到支持用户社区协作创建部分冲突的数据库内容。有关该项目的进一步信息，请参阅该项目的网页：：http://db.cs.washington.edu/beliefDB/

In many scientific disciplines today, a community of users is workingtogether to assemble, revise, and curate a shared data repository. Asthe community accumulates knowledge and the database content evolvesover time, it may contain conflicting information and members candisagree on the information it should store. Relational databasemanagement systems (RDBMS) today can help these communities managetheir shared data, but provide limited support for managingconflicting facts and conflicting opinions about the correctness ofthe stored data.This project develops a Belief Database System (BeliefDB) that allowsusers to express belief annotations. These annotations can be positive(agreement) or negative (disagreement), and can be of higher order(belief annotations about other belief annotations). The approachallows users to have a structured discussion about the databasecontent and annotations. A BeliefDB gives annotations a clearlydefined semantics that lets a relational database understand andmanage them efficiently.Intellectual merits: (i) Definition of a Belief Database Model: Theproject develops a formalism that extends a relational database withbelief annotations on data and on previously inserted annotations.(ii) Design of a Belief Query Language: The project complements thedata model with a new query language that extends SQL. (iii)Development of a canonical Belief Database Representation: Theprojects develops approaches to store and manipulate belief databaseson top of a conventional RDBMS.Broader impact: Curated databases and shared data repositories arebecoming widespread in the scientific communities. A BeliefDBprovides a new data management system that addresses the need of thesecommunities to manage conflicting data. If successful, the projectwill be one of the pieces that will help data management technologyundergo a new paradigm shift, from managing data as content, tosupporting a community of users in collaboratively creating partlyconflicting database contents.For further information on the project see the project web page::http://db.cs.washington.edu/beliefDB/