Abstract
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a telecommunications format that many view as the next major productivity gain made possible by information technology. This paper discusses how our semantic, procedure-oriented view of business transactions leads to a different kind of telecommunications system -- a performative network. Viewing procedures as formal conversations, we present a representation schema and grammar to model these conversations and initiate the development of a formal language by which users can cooperate, negotiate, and make commitments over a performative network. Our approach complements and extends EDI's syntactic, record-format orientation, seeking to express not only the data transmitted through these transactions but also the semantics of the procedures thennselves.
Recommended Citation
Dewitz, Sandra K. and Lee, Ronald M., "LEGAL PROCEDURES AS FORMAL CONVERSATIONS: CONTRACTING ON A PERFORMATIVE NETWORK" (1989). ICIS 1989 Proceedings. 33.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis1989/33