Association Areas

The DNE not only provides access to pieces of information, but also provides quick access to the context in which this information is best understood. It does so by making it possible to contextualize NEs in a variety of ways, and by making it easy to see and to access the context of each project.

There are two broad ways in which NEs can be situated in a context. A knowledge map traces the  all the relations that you think are important between the knowledge you have. An object model lays out how you plan to use this knowledge. Depending on the type of context that's important, different combinations of the three association areas (and the cabinet) may come into ply.

The NE has three association areas, reflecting three general ways in which projects might bear upon each other. These three areas are the affinity area, the contributes to wing and the contributions by wing. In affinity you can affiliate any NE which is related to the active NE. This relationship can take any form, so an NEs presence in affinity might reflect any relevant connection or partial overlap between two projects.

The relationship between the active NE and the projects in the contribution wings is more precise. NEs in the contributes to wing are impacted by the active NE. Literally, they are projects which the active NE contributes to. NEs in the contributions by wing impact on the active NE. Again, these are projects which the active NE receives contributions by.

In some models, some areas may or may not play a part. For instance, in a process model only the wings are fully in play.