Affinity Area

Not all information relations fall easily into the categories of more general and more specific (relations well captured in the cabinet or in the contribution wings), but relate to each other in a less well-defined, but no less important way. Such general relations are called affinities. Data models, for example, rely on affinity relations, as do most internet hyperlinks. The NE documents these relations in an affinity area populated with NEs that can stand to the active NE in any relation you deem important.

Some affinity relations are provisional, allowing you to record an unclear or obscure contribution relation without risking an error with regard to the exact nature of the relation. For instance, if you know that two NEs will be related in a results chain but you are unsure exactly how, you can provisionally relate them via affinity. Some affinities are genuine, reflecting a relation that doesn't sit comfortably in the contribution paradigm. For instance, data model relations are documented in affinity.

Affinity relations in the DNE are not reciprocal. If NE A has NE B in its affinity area (what is called an "active" affinity), this does not mean that B must also have A in its affinity area. You decide.

As well as displaying the affinities that you set for a given NE (its "active" affinities), the affinity area can be used to display two other sorts of relation. First, it displays "passive" affinities. This view shows all the other NEs that have an "active" affinity relation with your NE. The "passive" affinity view is kind of like a mirror view to the regular or "active" affinity view. Instead of displaying all the NEs that you "see" by affinity, the affinity area displays all the NEs that "see" you by affinity.

Second, the affinity area displays a limited view of cabinet relations, namely, it displays the NEs that stand under the active NE in the cabinet tree-structure. While this is not technically an affinity relation, it can be very useful when populating contribution wings (for instance when building an object model) by taking advantage of the parity between information management in a tree structure and object model construction in contribution wings.

Note that affinities are not exported when you export a map. Only contribution relations are exported.