Multiplicity of Perspectives, Context Scope, and Context Shifting Events

A perspective is a system\´s (or individual\´s) version of operational context. This paper explores the issue of the multiplicity of perspectives. It is hypothesized that "trigger events" bring two or more such perspectives into novel contact with each other in a way that challenges the context and scope assumptions of the systems and their users. This disjunction of perspectives presents a root cause of interoperability issues at the systems of systems level. We propose the use of a structured description of a system of systems as a means to specifically articulate the trigger events. By making context and scope assumptions explicitly visible and accessible, individual systems will be able to discover them and adapt to each other, enabling the dynamic creation of new, re-purposed, and re-scoped systems of systems. Two \´thought experiments\´ are offered to illustrate the concept of trigger events and their role in bringing perspectives into conflict.