TMRA 2009

Topic Maps web service:

Case examples and general structure

2009/11/13, Leipzig, Germany

Motomu_Naito (motom@green.ocn.ne.jp)

Knowledge Synergy Inc.

Lars Marius Garshol (larsga@bouvet.no)

Bouvet ASA

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Existing components for the Topic Maps web service

3. Case examples of Topic Maps web service

4. General structure

5. Conclusion and Future work

1. Introduction

Background

- Many topic maps (tms) and web applications based on

them already exist, and more and more tms and their

applications are expected to appear

- The same topics (subjects) sometimes appear in

different tms in different applications and organizations

- Topic characteristics (i.e. topic name, occurrence

and role) are different in each tm

- We think tms become richer and more useful if they can

exchange and share the characteristics

Purpose

- To report the case examples of Topic Maps web service

- To consider the general structure of the service

2. Existing components

1. ONTOPEDIA’s PSI Server

(source: http://psi.ontopedia.net/ )

2. subj3ct

Subj3ct is a registry and clearinghouse service for subject

identifiers for the Semantic Web.

(source: https://subj3ct.com/about )

3. TMRAP : Topic Maps Remote Access Protocol

4. Topic Maps web application

- Lars Marius’s photo (tmphoto)

- Topic Maps case example (tmcase1)

- Topic Maps tools (tmtools)

- Everyday Physics on Web (EPW)

- Larsblog engine (larsblog)

Client(tmtools)

Client(tmcase1)

Server/Client

(tmphoto)

Client(EPW)

Server(Larsblog)

TMRAP requests TMRAP requests

TMRAP requests

TMRAP requests

3. Case examples of TM web service

The get-illustration web service among

existing TM web applications

More information about

the get-illustration web service

http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/183.html

3. Case examples of TM web service

- TM fragment exchange between TM applications using TMRAP

- Using the same PSI

The get-illustration web service

PSI Server

TM case example (tmcase1)

Lars Marius’s photo

(tmphoto)

Request

Return

Using the same PSIs for persons

tmcase1 requests photo to tmphoto and get urland displays it

Tmphoto owns persons photos and provide their url According to request

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ONTOPEDIA’s PSI Server

- Managed by ONTOPEDIA ( http://psi.ontopedia.net/ )

- Managing PSI & PSD (Published Subject Descriptor)

TMRAP

・ TMRAP (Topic Maps Remote Access Protocol) is a

web service interface

( http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/tmrap.html )

・ It makes possible to retrieve and modify Topic Maps

fragments from a remote Topic Maps server

・ Two protocols (HTTP or SOAP) are usable

・ Consist of the following methods

- get-topic

- get-topic-page

- get-tolog

- add-fragment

- delete-topic

Lars Marius’s photo TM web application

(tmphoto)

Created by Lars Marius Garshol

・ It manages 13,564 photos (at the time of 2009.11.5)

・ It’s ontology consists of topic types such as photo, person,

event, location and category and association type among them

・ User can navigate from the point of topic type view

・ It also has the following functions

- Filtering

- Rating the photos and showing the best photos

- Full text search

- Access control ( log in)

- The get-illustration web service

・ Enjoy it at http://www.garshol.priv.no/tmphoto/

Topic Maps case examples TM web application

(tmcase1)

Created by Motomu Naito

・ It manages 67 presentation (at the time of 2009.11.5)

・ It will be added more presentations very soon

・ It’s ontology consists of topic types such as presentation,

activity, event, session, person country, organization, purpose,

domain etc. and association types among them

・ User can navigate from the point of topic type view

・ It also has the following functions

- Client of Lars Marius photo

- Full text search

- Graphic display

- tolog query

・ Enjoy it at http://www.garshol.priv.no/tmcase1/

4. General structure

Identifying subjects

・ It is necessary to attach PSIs to ontology topics and

instance topics

・ It is necessary to use commonly recognized PSIs

・We suggest subj3ct.com as the place to seek PSIs for subject

・ It has 15,661,381 subjects at the time of 2009.11.5

・ If you can’t find PSI for your subject, create a new PSI and

register it on subj3ct.com

4. General structureHub service

・ Hub server switches client’s TMRAP request to appropriate

TMRAP server

・ TMRAP servers can be registered with Hub server

・ Then clients can simply request

to the Hub server, instead of

requesting each server

・ The Hub would implement

the TMRAP get-topic-page

request to each server

・ The return from each server

is topic map

・ The Hub server merge

the return from server then

return the result to client

4. General structureBig picture: Identified subjects networking

4. General structure

- The network consists of PSI server/clearinghouse, Hub server,

TM web applications, and something

- TM web applications play the role TMRAP client or/and server

- In the network we can link identified subjects and gather

information related to the subject

- Those subjects and information are still owned and managed by

their original applications

- In the network, we can enjoy rich, pure and high quality

information

Big picture: Identified subjects networking

4. General structure

More information will be required for

Identified Subjects Networking

(Required information to use web service)

・Who and how select only appropriate information?

Human or computer?

・To enable to select only appropriate information,

the following information is needed

- Existence of other topic maps web applications

- topic characteristics

- context, domain, etc.

・Do we need Service Description language like a WSDL?

・We could use topic maps for TMWSDL

5. Conclusion and Future work

Conclusion・We showed already existing components for TM web service

・We explained examples of TM web services we implemented

・We realized they are very useful

・We considered general structure and required components

・And we propose Identified Subjects Networking

5. Conclusion and Future work

Conclusion・ It is impossible to gather all information about one subject in one

topic map

・ It is inevitable to make topic maps distributed manner and

complement each other

・ To do so, each topic map and its web application can be simplified

and become easy to develop and maintain

・ TM web service is a very encouraging approach to realize the

Identified Subjects Networking

・ Today’s web search engines are very wasteful and inefficient

because they have to spider the entire internet continuously

to update their indexes

・ In contrast, to make it possible to link only suitable web

applications is very sensible and effective but a big challenge

5. Conclusion and Future work

Future work- To make it possible to link only suitable applications,

according to contexts, situations, etc.

- To make it possible to filter in only appropriate information and

filter out irrelevant information

- We will continue to work out web applications and required

components to realize generalized TM web service

i.e. the Identified Subjects Networking

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ありがとう

ございました。

Takk!