Ronald Stamper Explained

Ronald K. (Ron) Stamper (born 1934) is a British computer scientist, formerly a researcher in the LSE and emeritus professor at the University of Twente, known for his pioneering work in Organisational semiotics, and the creation of the MEASUR methodology and the SEDITA framework.

Biography

Born in West Bridgford, United Kingdom, Stamper obtained his MA in Mathematics and Statistics at University College Oxford in 1959.[1]

Stamper started his career in industry, first in hospital administration and later in the steel industry. He started applying operational research methods with the use of computers, and evolved into the management of information systems development. In need of more experts, he developed one of the first courses in systems analysis in the UK. In 1969 he moved into the academic world, starting at the London School of Economics as senior lecturer and principal investigator. From 1988 to 1999 he was Professor of Information Management at the University of Twente at its Faculty of Technology and Management.[1] From 2001 to 2004 he was visiting professor at the Staffordshire University.

In 1970s Stamper joined the work of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), and participated in the IFIP TC8/WG8.1 Task Group Design and Evaluation of Information Systems. In the 1990s he made a significant contribution to its 1998 publication of A Framework of Information System Concepts. The FRISCO Report.

Work

Theoretical foundations of information systems

The main thrust of Stamper's published work was to find a theoretical foundation for the design and use of computer based information systems. He used a framework provided by semiotics to discuss and prescribe practical and theoretical methods for the design and use of information systems, called the Semiotic Ladder. To the traditional division of semiotics into syntax, semantics and pragmatics, Stamper added "empirics". "Empirics" for Stamper was concerned with the physical properties of sign or signal transmission and storage. He also added a "social" level for shared understanding above the level pragmatics.

Stamper adopted the idea of the sign as the fundamental unit of informatics after his research into the meaning of the word "information" which he considered dangerously polysemous. He was concerned to establish an operationalism at the semantic level of information systems rather than the binary level.

LEGally Oriented Language LEGOL

His work at the LSE investigating LEGOL (for LEGally Oriented Language – a computerized representation of the law) led him to incorporate the idea of Norms pioneered by Von Wright and the Affordances of Gibson in a system called NORMA (for NORMs and Affordances).

Stamper collaborated with Ronald Lee of the University of Texas on organizational deontics incorporating the Speech Acts of Austin and Searle. This led to the broader methodology he called MEASUR (for Methods for Eliciting, Analysing and Specifying Users’ Requirements). MEASUR incorporated the methods of Problem Articulation, Semantic Analysis and Norm Analysis, and uses the ontology chart.

IBM partly sponsored the research into LEGOL at the LSE, and LEGOL 2, was used as an application to test IBM's seminal Peterlee Relational Test Vehicle, the first relational database.

Publications

Books
Articles, a selection

External links

Notes and References

  1. Ronald Stamper. "RONALD STAMPER, at ICEIS'99; 1st International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, Setúbal, PORTUGAL, 27-30 March, 1999." at iceis.org. Accessed 03-05-2017.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ronald Stamper".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.