IRS Tax MapIRS Tax MapElectronic Research Tool Electronic Research Tool

David BrownInternal Revenue Service

Media and Publications Division

Project Timeline

• 2000 – Business need identified

• 2001 – Topic Maps prototype

• 2002 – Proposal to call site executives

• 2004 – Implementation at call sites in conjunction with IRS Probe and Response Guide.

• 2004 – Published on IRS Tax Products CD-ROM and Small Business Resource Guide

What is Tax Map?

• Electronic Research tool - Primary audience IRS telephone tax law assistors

• Network navigational model - Enables research by subject and discovery

• Contains forms and instructions, publications, tax law faq, and Tele-tax topics

• Builds on XML/SGML work we have done

What is Tax Map?

• Created using both human knowledge and automated processing

• Web representation of a knowledge base conforming to Topic Maps international standard (ISO/IEC 13250)

• Contractor produced using automated Topic Maps international standard software and processes

Why Topic Maps?

• Separate semantic layer - not burden authors

• Enables synthesis of human knowledge and automated processing

• Capture knowledge from tax experts

• Doesn’t require one vocabulary

Why Topic Maps?

• Scalable and matures with time

• Reusable year to year

• Management understanding

Inputs to Topic Map Process

• Headers from publications

• Form and publication titles

• Keywords from FAQ (controlled vocabulary)

• Rules for automated merging/relations

• Human created knowledge map

Preprocessing

•Slicing•Link Tables

Extracting Topic Map Information

•Topic names•Occurrences•Roles

Merging &Associating

•Merging by name•Applying rules

Creating theTopic Map

•XTM version•Internal storage

FormattingNavigable view

•HTML docs•Indexes•Topic Screens•Tables of contents

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IRSDocuments

IRS Topic Map Model

IRS Merging Specification

IRS Style sheets

IRS XTM Topic Map

IRS SpecificScripts

Topic Map Loom Standard Application

Publications(SGML)FAQs (XML)Teletax topics(XML)

Publications (HTML)FAQs (HTML)Tele-tax topics (HTML)Indexes, TOCs andTopic Screens (HTML)

©2003, Michel Biezunski, Coolheads Consulting

Configuration Files wrt document types

Configuration Files wrt document types

Merge Spec defined by IRS experts

XTM spec. conformingTo ISO/IEC 13250:2002

FormPub Database

Demo

Value added Tax Map

• Key entry points or hubs to begin search

• Fast learning curve - similar to using an index

• Contains topics related by tax experts

• Topic page - single entry point for subject

• Creation of a tax law ontology

• Accessibility

Probe and Response Guide

Maintenance of Tax Map

• Workshops with Tax Experts

• Maintenance of human knowledge file