Euler, Topic Maps and Revolution An Introduction to ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps Tapsa Pippuri Senior Information Architect STEP Infotek A.S, Oslo

Euler, Topic Mapsand Revolution

An Introduction to ISO/IEC 13250

Topic MapsTapsa Pippuri <[email protected]>

Senior Information ArchitectSTEP Infotek A.S, Oslo

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99

Disclaimer

• Do not expect to grasp all the details

• Our goals today:– to provide an overview– to spark further interest

• More details in the Proceedings (and XML Handbook, 2nd Edition)

• Contact <[email protected]> for tutorials and/or workshops...


Topic Maps are...

• Another great ISO standard from SC34 … for describing knowledge structures

• “An international standard for typed links”

• The bridge between knowledge management and information management

• A new paradigm for organising, maintaining and navigating information

• “The GPS of the information universe”


ApplicabilityAnyone who needs to manage large pools of

disparate interconnected information objects


The Motivation

• Originally: To represent knowledge structures for indexes

• Extended to other forms of navigation aid:– The electronic equivalent of TOCs,

glossaries, thesauri, cross references

• Today seen as providing a new organising principle for information


ISO standard 13250

• Describes an abstract data model

• Defines an SGML/HyTime based interchange syntax

• An XML/XLink based form will follow when the XML linking specifications are stable

• Subject to final vote as I speak


Key concepts

• Topics• Occurrences• Associations

– also:– Scope– Identity and public subjects– Facets


Topics

• A topic is any “thing” whatsoever about which anything whatsoever may be asserted by any means whatsoever!

• Persons, entities, concepts – depending on the information in question

• (More precisely, it’s a topic link element in the topic map, but don’t worry about that yet!)

• Some examples, please...


Topics

Kullervo

Helsinki

SallinenHämeenlinna

Finland

Sibelius


More about topics

• topics have types

• and characteristics:– zero or more names– zero or more occurrences– zero or more associations


Topic types

• “types” attribute speficies the class(es) of which a topic is an instance

• represents the “IS-A” relationship• a.k.a. “hypernymy” or “superordination” or

“set-member”• More examples...


Topic types

Kullervo

Helsinki

SallinenHämeenlinna

Finland

Sibelius

country operatown composer

Legend:


Topic types

• Encyclopaedia: country, town, person, work…• Thesaurus: domain, concept, term...• SW documentation: system block, service

block, command group, command…• Legal publishing: law, case, court, concept,

commentator…• TechDoc: component, supplier, procedure,

error condition…


Topic names

• Three kinds:– base name, display name, sort name

• Multiple names:– Helsinki, Helsingfors– WSSSL (multiple expansions)

• Topic naming constraint:– Two topics cannot have the same name in the

same scope (e.g. “Kullervo”)


Occurrences

• Information that is specified as being relevant to a given subject

• An occurrence (or set of occurrences) of a topic within one or more addressable information objects (in an information pool)

• The “link” between the knowledge map and the information repository


Occurrences

(resource domain)

(topic domain)


Occurrence roles

• Different types of occurrences represented by occurrence roles

• For example: monograph, article, picture, video, mention, commentary, example, description, definition, syntax production, parameter list, functional description, overview, amendment, blueprint, graph …

• You get to choose!


Occurrence roles

article picture mention definition

Legend:


Representing indexes

Helsinki ...................... 49Hämeenlinna ............... 17, 77Kullervo ...................... 72 Sallinen ...................... 42 Sibelius ...................... 22Tavastehus, see Hämeenlinna


Topic associations

• Describe relationships between topics:

• “Helsinki is in Finland”• “Hotel Kämp is in Helsinki”• “Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna”• “Kullervo was written by Sibelius”• “Tolkien was influenced by Kalevala”


Topic associations

Sibelius

Hämeenlinna Hotel Kämp

KullervoHelsinkiFinland

Tolkien



Association types

Sibelius



Tolkien

is-in born-in written-by influenced-by

Legend:



Association types

Sibelius



Tolkien

“portable semantic network”



Other concepts

• Scope & Themes:Describes the limits of the validity of a topic characteristic assignment

• Facets:Provide a mechanism for assigning property/value pairs to information objects

• Subject identity & Public subjects:Establishing identity between topics within and across topic maps


Self-documentation

• Topics have types and topic types are (also) topics

• Occurrence roles are topics

• Scopes consist of themes that are themselves topics

• Association types and association roles are topics

• Facets and facet values are also topics!


But … Euler?

c

a

d

b

g

f

e

Leonhard Euler(1707-83)

Bridges of Königsberg Problem


Jean le Rond d’Alembert(1717-83)

Graph Theory

Denis Diderot(1713-84)

L’Encyclopédie

Revolution

Topic Maps

Reference Works

Euler? Revolution?

Leonhard Euler(1707-83)


Connections

• Life is full of connections

• Knowledge and creativity thrive on them

• Today’s information owners need tobe able to exploit them

• Topic Maps are the exciting new technology for doing so, efficiently and reliably


To join the revolution

Standard text and other materials:http://www.infoloom.com

Topic map mailing list:<[email protected]>

Workshops and tutorials:<[email protected]>

Kiitos ja näkemiin!

Documents

Euler, Topic Maps and Revolution An Introduction to ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps Tapsa Pippuri Senior Information Architect STEP Infotek A.S, Oslo