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A Processing A Processing Model Model
for Topic Mapsfor Topic Maps
Knowledge Technologies 2001Austin, 6 March 2001
Steven R. Newcomb ([email protected])Michel Biezunski ([email protected])
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Syntax is only half of Syntax is only half of the storythe story
• Syntax is for interchange.• Interchange Syntax is not enough
for processing. Need an explicit processing model to describe what the result of processing is.
• XML technology is useful but not sufficient for topic map processing.
• Implementers must know the processing model in order to build interoperable applications.
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What is a topic map?What is a topic map?
• The answer you get depends on whom you ask.
• This situation is inconsistent with the use of topic maps for global knowledge interchange.
• Typical answers:– A kind of XML document, right?– A finding aid made from an XML
document by a process of rendition…?– Whatever application X thinks a
<topicMap> element means…?
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• The entire history was driven by idealists interested in solving the central problems of information management.
• 1993: First expression of Topic Map paradigm in Davenport SOFABED draft by Steven R. Newcomb. “Syntactically, topics are best represented as independent links!”
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1993: Schism of Davenport Group project into– DocBook. (That’s another story.)– Conventions for the Application
of HyTime (CApH), hosted by GCA Research Institute (now IDEAlliance), chaired by Steven R. Newcomb.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1993-1995: Several CApH drafts of topic map syntax and description, as a HyTime-conforming “Architecture Definition Document”.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1995-1997: Michel Biezunski as pioneering hero of the Topic Map story– makes first implementations; – proves the value of the topic
maps paradigm;– popularizes the paradigm;– serves the needs of real
customers.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1997: Steve Newcomb and Michel Biezunski start working together again. With Martin Bryan, they become co-editors of ISO/IEC 13250.
• 1997: Peter Newcomb asks, “What’s the model?” Steve and Michel say, “What do you mean, ‘What’s the model?’?”
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1997: Vicky Newcomb and Peter Newcomb eat tacos for breakfast at the Plano, Texas Whataburger. The model later known as “binding points” and “Whataburger” is born.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 1998: Bryan Bell pays Steve and Michel to be locked in a room in Tacoma until they finish drafting ISO/IEC 13250.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• Essential Dialectic Tension: – Biezunski’s Principle vs. – Newcombian incomprehensible
elegance.
• Result: ISO/IEC 13250, with no explicit processing model, but total compatibility with Whataburger. Whataburger remains largely undisclosed, in the interests of getting the standard adopted.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• 2000: ISO/IEC 13250:2000 finally, at last, adopted by ISO. It’s based on SGML and HyTime.
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Topic Map paradigm: Topic Map paradigm: Historical FactsHistorical Facts
• GCA IDEAlliance (Dianne Kennedy, Paul Conn, etc.) prevails upon Michel and Steve to head up a new standards effort to make an XML Specification for Topic Maps as quickly as possible, in order to launch industries based on topic maps for the Web.
• Can we get the Whataburger model published and standardized at last?
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What you need to know What you need to know
1. A topic is a surrogate for a subject. 2. Subjects can be either indicated or
constituted by resources.3. Topics have characteristics: names,
occurrences, and associations with other topics.
4. Topic characteristics are applicable within defined scopes.
5. Two rules govern the merging of topic maps: the subject-based and the name-based merging rules.
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A Topic Map Processing A Topic Map Processing ModelModel
• Node types– t-node– a-node– s-node
• Arc types– association member– association scope– association template– scope component
• Topic-ification of resources
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What is a topic map?What is a topic map?
Interchangeable topic map
XML <topicmap> elements conforming to a structure defined by the XTM DTD.
Interpreted topic map
Application-internal graph resulting from processing the syntax. The topic map graph exhibits unambiguously all properties of topic map constructs.
Formatted topic map
Examples: HTML rendering of a topic map as an index; printed index.
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What is a Topic?What is a Topic?
• The computer representation of a subject (element or node)
• A set of topic characteristics:– topic names– topic occurrences– memberships of topics in
associations
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Topic Map GraphTopic Map Graph
• A set of nodes: t-nodes, a-nodes, and s-nodes.
SS
TT TT
AATT
TT TT
TT
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Subjects and TopicsSubjects and Topics
• Subjects are notions.• Topics are computer
constructs.• Topics are surrogates
for subjects.
subject
topic
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Topics have two Topics have two aspectsaspects
1. Syntactical, interchangeable elements<topic ... > ... </topic>
2. Application-internal nodes (t-nodes)
TT TTAA TT
TT TTTT SS
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When two topics have When two topics have the same subject...the same subject...
topic topic
...Topics get merged into one t-node in the topic map graph.
TT
T
subject
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Subjects and resourcesSubjects and resources
• An information resource can indicate what the subject is,
and/or
• an information resource can be the subject.subject
subject
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Addressability of Addressability of SubjectsSubjects
• Subject is not addressable
or
• Subject is addressable
subject
subject
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Subject Referencing Subject Referencing SyntaxSyntax
<subjectIndicatorRef>
<resourceRef>subject
subject
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The Subject Identity The Subject Identity PointPoint
• Each subject can be considered a hub connecting all topics having this subject.
• Such a hub, called a "subject identity point", is a resource that either constitutes or indicates a subject.
• Therefore all <topic>s which refer to the same subject are to be considered the same topic.
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Two Forms of Two Forms of AssociationsAssociations
• Associations are computer constructs that take two forms:– Syntactic, interchangeable
associations<association> .... </association>– Application-internal associations (a-
nodes)
TT TT
AA
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Associations and Associations and TopicsTopics
• Associations connect topics
• Associations can be considered as topics.
TT TT
AA
TAA
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Topic NameTopic Name
• Base Name: Name used to designate a topic.
• A topic may have zero, one, or several base names.
• A base name can be explicitly scoped.
• Each base name can have several variants, for various processes (display, audible rendition, sort, ...)
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Topic-basename Topic-basename AssociationsAssociations
• The base name becomes a topic whose subject is the string resource that is the base name.
• A topic-basename association connects the named topic to its name, within some scope.
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Basename-variantname Basename-variantname AssociationsAssociations
• The variant name becomes a topic whose subject is the information resource that is the variant name.
• A basename-variantname association connects the variant to the topic-basename association
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ScopesScopes
• Topic characteristics have scopes.
• A scope is an extent of validity.
• A scope is represented as a set of topics.
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Topic namespacesTopic namespaces
• Scopes are used to define namespaces for topics.
• TOPIC NAMING CONSTRAINT: No two topics can have the same name in the same scope (i.e., the same topic namespace).
• (This has absolutely nothing to do with "XML Namespaces".)
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What gets scopedWhat gets scoped
• Scope applies to topic characteristics:– name,– occurrence,– role played in relation with other
topics.
• Topics do not have scope. Only topic characteristics have scope.
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OccurrenceOccurrence
• Information resource attached to the topic because it is relevant to the subject that the topic represents.
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Topic-occurrence Topic-occurrence AssociationsAssociations
• The occurrence becomes a topic whose subject is the resource that is the occurrence.
• A topic-occurrence association connects the named topic to its occurrence, within some scope.
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More...More...
• http://www.topicmaps.net, a web site maintained by Michel Biezunski and Steven R. Newcomb.