Information Flow in Logical Environments

Abstract: This paper describes information flow within logical environments. The theory of information flow, the logic of distributed systems, was first defined by Barwise and Seligman (Information Flow: The Logic of Distributed Systems. 1997). Logical environments are a semantic-oriented version of institutions. The theory of institutions, which was initiated by Goguen and Burstall (Institutions: Abstract Model Theory for Specification and Programming. 1992), is abstract model theory. Information flow is the flow of information in channels over distributed systems. The semantic integration of distributed systems, be they ontologies, databases or other information resources, can be defined in terms of the channel theory of information flow. As originally defined, the theory of information flow uses only a specific logical environment in order to discuss information flow. This paper shows how information flow can be defined in an arbitrary logical environment.