ABSTRACT
Semantic integration is not a one-way process because it is affected by a set of factors or characteristics as outlined in Chapter 14. Given the complexity of the issue, the user needs to know what his or her choices are and what is involved in each choice. According to the framework introduced in Chapter 14, this translates to knowing in advance what to expect from the integration process, considering bottlenecks, impossibilities, costs, and eventually to selecting the optimum solution. The rst critical issues (questions to be answered) are:
1. Objective-assumptions-assumptions made about the source of semantics and what the desired objective is. The type of the process (extraction, comparison, integration) or their combination must also be specied here.
