Mask and multiple format: two notions for a progressive and adapted access to information

Introduces the notions of mask and multiple format for setting up a progressive access to information in an information system. Masks consist of more or less complete representations of the structure of information while multiple formats correspond to different representations available for multimedia data. We describe how these two notions are integrated into AROM, an object-based knowledge representation system which supports a UML-like formalism, by instantiating a model called PAM (Progressive Access Model). More generally, a progressive and adapted access to information can be given to users of any information system by simply adapting the PAM to the underlying data schema and coupling it with the target data or knowledge base.