We seek to take some initial steps towards a theory of information that is adequate for understanding and designing systems that process information, i.e., information systems in a broad sense. Formal representations of information are needed in designing, using and maintaining such systems, especially when they are computer based. However, it is also necessary to take account of social context, including how information is produced and used, not merely how it is represented; that is, we need a social theory of information. Ideas from ethnomethodology and semiotics, as well as logic and the sociology of science, are used to explore the nature of information.

We describe an approach to user interface design based on ideas from social science, narratology (the theory of stories), cognitive science, and a new area called algebraic semiotics. Social analysis helps to identify certain roles for users with their associated requirements, and suggests ways to make proofs more understandable, while algebraic semiotics, which combines semiotics with algebraic specification, provides rigorous theories for interface functionality and for a certain technical notion of quality. We apply these techniques to designing user interfaces for a distributed cooperative theorem proving system, whose main component is a website generation and proof assistance tool called Kumo. This interface integrates formal proving, proof browsing, animation, informal explanation, and online background tutorials, drawing on a richer than usual notion of proof. Experience with using the interface is reported, and some conclusions are drawn.

This paper describes the Tatami project at UCSD, which is developing a system to support distributed cooperative software development over the web, and in particular, the validation of concurrent distributed software. The main components of our current prototype are a proof assistant, a generator for documentation websites, a database, an equational proof engine, and a communication protocol to support distributed cooperative work. We believe behavioral specification and verification are important for software development, and for this purpose we use first order hidden logic with equational atoms. The paper also briefly describes some novel user interface design methods that have been developed and applied in the project

: We describe a new approach to interface design called algebraic semiotics, combining semiotics with algebraic specification to give a rigorous theory of representation quality, and we apply it to the tatami distributed cooperative proving project. This project uses standard html, Java, etc. for remote proof browsing, servers for remote proof execution, a protocol to maintain truth of distributed cooperative proofs, and a tool combining proof assistance with website editing. Its proof paradigm reduces theorems to problems solvable by proof servers. ProofWebs integrate browsing, execution, animation, and informal explanation with formal proofs, and their design has been driven by semiotic ideas. 1 Introduction The landscape of theorem proving can be seen as two main peaks with a great plane between. These peaks represent fully automatic theorem provers and proof checking theorem provers; the plane represents the difficulty of combining their virtues. The peaks are steep and dark bec...

recent advances in web technology, interface design, and specification. Our effort to improve the usability of such systems has led us into algebraic semiotics, while our effort to develop better formal methods for distributed concurrent systems has led us into hidden algebra and fuzzy logic. This paper discusses the Tatami system design, especially its software architecture, and its user interface principles. New work in the latter area includes an extension of algebraic semiotics to dynamic multimedia interfaces, and integrating Gibsonian affordances with algebraic semiotics. 1

: This paper describes some tools to support formal methods, and conversely some formal methods for developing such tools. We focus on distributed cooperative proving over the web. Our tools include a proof editor /assistant, servers for remote proof execution, a distributed truth protocol, an editor generator, and a new method for interface design called algebraic semiotics, which combines semiotics with algebraic specification. Some examples are given. 1. Introduction Formal methods have been used to prove correctness of software, but this task is known to be difficult, for various reasons [5, 13]. New technologies -- the internet, the web, multimedia, applets, etc. -- offer exciting opportunities to reduce this difficulty that have not yet been much explored. We seek to build industrial strength formal method tools for distributed work by ordinary software engineers over the web, especially for concurrent systems. This involves several challenging subtasks, including a practical ...