php-deluxe.net - description Topic map

Topic map

Topic Maps are an International_Organization_for_Standardization standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. The standard is formally known as ISO/IEC 13250:2003.

A topic map can represent information using topics (representing any concept, from people, countries, and organizations to software modules, individual files, and events), associations (which represent the relationships between them), and occurrences (which represent relationships between topics and information resources relevant to them).

Topics, associations, and occurrences can be typed, but the types must be defined by the creator of the topic maps, and is known as the Ontology (computer science) of the topic map. There are also additional features, such as merging and scope. The concept of merging and identity allows automated integration of topic maps from diverse sources into a coherent new topic map.

Dubbed the GPS of the information universe , topic maps are also destined to provide powerful new ways of navigating large and interconnected corpora.

=Data format=

Topic maps have a standard called Common Topic Map Application Programming Interface (TMAPI), and query and schema languages are being developed within ISO.

The specification is summarized in the abstract as follows: This specification provides a model and grammar for representing the structure of information resources used to define topics, and the associations (relationships) between topics. Names, resources, and relationships are said to be characteristics of abstract subjects, which are called topics. Topics have their characteristics within scopes: i.e. the limited contexts within which the names and resources are regarded as their name, resource, and relationship characteristics. One or more interrelated documents employing this grammar is called a topic map.

A format called [http://www.ontopia.net/download/ltm.html linear topic map notation] (LTM) serves as a kind of shorthand for writing topic maps in plain text editors. This is useful for writing short personal topic maps or exchange partial topic maps by email. The format can be converted to XTM.

There is another format called [http://astma.it.bond.edu.au/ AsTMa=] which serves a similar purpose. When writing topic maps manually it is much more compact but as well has to be converted to XTM to be useful in applications.

=See also=

Concept map

Mind map

Semantic network

Semantic Web

Unified Modeling Language

=References=

Jack Park and Sam Hunting: XML Topic Maps: Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-74960-2 (in [http://www.topic-maps.org/cgi-bin/tmv_graph.plid=b1&path=bibmap.xtm bibMap])

=External links=

[http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0322_files/iso13250-2nd-ed-v2.pdf ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps, Second Edition]

[http://topicmaps.org/xtm/ XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0 Specification] (Especially noteworthy [http://topicmaps.org/xtm/#desc-intro A gentle introduction to Topic Maps] )

[http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tao.html The TAO of Topic Maps]

[http://www.empolis.com/downloads/empolis_TopicMaps_Whitepaper20030206.pdf The Topic Maps Handbook]

[http://xml.coverpages.org/topicMaps.html (XML) Topic Maps]

[http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/09/11/topicmaps.html What Are Topic Maps]

[http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html Metadata Thesauri Taxonomies Topic Maps! Making sense of it all]

[http://www.gca.org/papers/xmleurope2000/papers/s22-02.html Towards knowledge organization with Topic Maps]

[http://www.topicmaps.net/ Topicmaps.net]

[http://topicmap.com/topicmap/tools.html Topic map tools]

[http://www.isotopicmaps.org Home of SC34/WG3]

[http://www.tmapi.org/ TMAPI - Common Topic Map Application Programming Interface]

[http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/02/02/tmapi.html An Introduction to TMAPI]

[http://www.topic-maps.org/ Wiki about Topic Maps with Visualiser]

[http://www.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/~maicher/bibliography.html bibMap - the Topic Maps Bibliography]

[http://www.topic-maps.org/cgi-bin/tmv_graph.plid=source&path=bibmap.xtm bibMap - the Topic Maps Bibliography] (online browseable by the Topic Maps Visualiser)