The inXys information design is based on work done by Murray Turoff et al at NJIT related to TEIES and its predecessor EIES. The inXys information model is built around the core objects and the services that support them:
A conference is a container of members (users and groups) and topics. A conference is an on-going, asynchronous discussion by users focused on a particular subject. A conference is a collection of Topics, each topic has comments made by users related to the topic. A comment may have user replies, furthering the discussion around that initial comment. topics are main tracts of discussion with comments. Comments are discussion around topics and members can reply to individual comments.
In a typical conference organization, a moderator or moderators will determine the topics of discussion and post those to the group. Members can comment on the topics and carry discussion in a series of comments or with replies to comments.
Notifications are short messages broadcast to users, groups, or conference memberships about events that occur throughout the system.
Tickets are privilege overrides granted to a user or group to provide access to secure objects in the system.