A Model-Based Approach for Supporting Aspect-Oriented Development of Personal Information Management Systems

Abstract

Abstract. This paper is concerned by the development of tools for supporting personal information management over the Web; i.e. the storage and retrieval of personal information collected by users whilst interacting with Web applications. As personal information collections are unique to the user, it is very difficult to provide a uniform organization of information for everyone. Nonetheless, most personal information management systems (PIMS) will be concerned by similar aspects of information management such as information granularity, physical storage, policies for sharing information, versioning, etc. In this paper we analyze how information management aspects affect the development of PIMS. We start by identifying the relevant software aspects required to the development of PIMS. Then we describe how models featuring different aspects can be combined in a meta-model to build PIMS tools. This approach is illustrated by a case study.Keywords: personal information management systems, aspect modeling, models composition. IntroductionPeople naturally collect and store information that is relevant to their personal needs. In today's word people have an enormous quantity information on which depends the their daily lives; registration numbers with government services, addresses, telephones and e-mail addresses, banking information, etc. However, research has consistently shown that most of users have difficulties to remember where they placed their personal information and thus have difficulties in retrieving it (Jones & Teevan, 2007). As the quantity of information a person possesses increases, users must develop additional mechanisms for organizing their information space. Personal computers are often used with Personal Information Management (PIM) systems, as they allow people to collect items of information and store them outside their cognitive system (Malone, 1983). In the last years, users are more likely to interact with many applications and computers, thus causing fragmentation of their information space. Indeed, in order to manage their personal information, users frequently rely on multiple tools such as e-mail managers, agendas and file managers.