On semantically-accessible messaging in an office environment

Electronic messaging in an office environment is normally carried out in natural language. For a variety of reasons it would be useful if electronic messaging systems could have semantic access to (i.e. access to the meanings and contents of) the messages they process. Given that natural language understanding is not a practicable alternative, there remain three approaches to delivering systems with semantic access: electronic data interchange, tagged messages, and the development of a formal language for business communication (FLBC). The authors compare and contrast these three approaches, present a theoretical basis for an FLBC (speech act theory), and describe a prototype implementation.<>