Meta-modeling the Cultural Behavior Using Timed Influence Nets

A process that can be used to assist analysts in developing domain specific Timed Influence Nets (TIN) is presented. The process can be used to represent knowledge about a situation that includes descriptions of cultural behaviors and actions that may influence such behaviors. One of the main challenges in using TINs has been the difficulty in formulating them. Many Subject Matter Experts have difficulty in expressing their knowledge in the TIN representation. The ontology based meta modeling approach described in this paper provides potential assistance to these modelers so that they can quickly create new models for new situations and thus can spend more time doing analysis. The paper describes the theoretic concepts used and a process that leads to an automated TIN generation. A simple example is provided to illustrate the technique.