Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t? 31 October 2007 A :45-3:30 PM PDT Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony / /

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. New Technologies  Meta data  W3C OWL SKOS  Topic Maps

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Meta data  What is it in this context?  How does it work in a semantic environment?

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Semantic Web? “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?” About October 31, 2007 Professional baseball Entertainment Business By Smith Story Arial Summary In brief

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. 1.98?  Price?  Price of what? Newspaper? Stadium seat? Article?  $, , Ÿ, £?  Wholesale? Retail? Sale?  How? ?

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. “ Meaning ” starts with a knowledge organization system (KOS)  Uncontrolled list  Name authority file  Synonym set/ring  Controlled vocabulary  Taxonomy  Thesaurus Not complex - $ Highly complex - $$$$ LOTS OF OVERLAP! Topic Map Ontology SKOS

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Meta Data - the “Meaning Markers”   Data about data  Information about information  Included  Added

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Data about ‘stuff’ - like what?  Author name  Date of creation  Language used in the creation  Title of the creation  Subject of the creation  Keywords...

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Narrowing the focus  Keywords (AKA subject headings, index terms, identifiers, etc.) are one type of meta data.

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. For example...  A bibliographic database record usually includes information such as author, title, language, date of creation, and subject area.  So does a traditional library card catalog

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. But did you think about…  The legend on a street map?  The yellow pages in a telephone book?  The aisle signs in a supermarket?

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Meaning of meta data  Meta data is information that ‘points’ to a explanation or a resolution  Meta data makes statements about an information resource or object

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Sidebar - meta data or metadata?  ‘Metadata’ is “a word coined by Jack E. Myers to represent current and future lines of products implementing the concepts of his MetaModel, and also to designate his company, The Metadata Company, that would develop and market those products.”

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Metadata   A term not used prior to 1969  Used first in 1973  Registered U.S. Trademark (in 1986), owned by Jack Myers  Metadata  granted incontestable status in 1991  Designed to be a term with no particular meaning

Meta Data “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?” Professional baseball Entertainment Business Smith There was a time... In brief... IncludedAdded Object

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Meta data as indexing language List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s Associative rel’s

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Aka subject term, heading, node, category, descriptor, class Taxonomy / thesaurus  Main Term (MT)  Top Term (TT)  Broader Terms (BT)  Narrower Terms (NT)  Related Terms (RT) See also (SA)  Scope Note (SN)  History (H)  NonPreferred Term (NP) Used for (UF), See (S) TAXONOMY THESAURUS

Term record Various views

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. New Frontiers from the World Wide Web Consortium: OWL & SKOS

Term record Various views The old frontier?

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Taxonomy, Thesaurus, & Ontology  Taxonomies and thesauri are not ontologies  They are entities  Ontology – science of describing kinds of entities “an explicit and formal specification of a conceptualization”

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Ontology  From philosophy – the science of describing Kinds of entities in the world How they are related

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. OWL  Web Ontology Language  W3C Recommendation 10 February

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc.

Taxonomic classification Kingdom:Animalia Phylum:Chordata Class:Aves Order:Strigiformes Families:Strigidae Tytonidae

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Spotted Owl

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Web Ontology language - OWL  OWL output Provides semantic meaning to these kinds of entities Web resource Accessible to automated processes

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. OWL  “…is intended to provide a language that can be used to describe the classes and relations between them  that are inherent in Web documents and applications.”

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. OWL  Formalize a domain by defining Classes Properties of those classes  Define individuals Assert properties about them  Reason about these Classes and Individuals

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. OWL Ontology  May include 1. Classes 2. Properties 3. Instances  Capture semantics  Multiple, distributed, related ontology schema  Normative OWL exchange syntax RDF/XML Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language Topic SKOS

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Structure of controlled vocabularies List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s Associative rel’s

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Hierarchical View Term

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc.   Agrotechnology  Biotechnology  Animal management technologies  Controlled environment agriculture  Genetically modified crops  Source: Taxonomy term record

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc.   Agrotechnology  Biotechnology  Animal management technologies  Controlled environment agriculture  Genetically modified crops  Agricultural science  Food technology  Plant engineering   Source: Thesaurus term record

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Agrotechnology <NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T252" newsindexer:alpha="Animal management technologies"/> <NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T1221" newsindexer:alpha="Controlled environment agriculture"/> <NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T2166" newsindexer:alpha="Genetically modified crops"/> <Related_Term rdf:resource="#T127" newsindexer:alpha="Agricultural science"/> <Non-Preferred_Term rdf:resource="#T3898" newsindexer:alpha="Plant engineering"/> Source: OWL term record

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. SKOS  Simple Knowledge Organization System  SKOS Core Guide W3C Working Draft 2 November / /  SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification W3C Working Draft 2 November / /

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. SKOS  May include 1. Classes (RDFS) 2. Properties (RDF) 3. Instances??  Express structure and content of concept schemes  Multiple, distributed, related SKOS schemes  Normative SKOS exchange syntax RDF/XML Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language OWL

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. SKOS  Specifically for “concept schemes” Thesauri Classification schemes Subject headings lists Taxonomies Terminologies Glossaries And other types of controlled vocabularies

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. SKOS  Models concept schemes A set of concepts OPTIONALLY includes statements about semantic relationships between concepts  Directionality implied - interpretations - (‘skos:Concept’ and properties)  Not people, organizations, places, etc.

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Source:

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. DH SKOS Output Agriculture Agribusiness Agronomy Farming Accepted

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. DH SKOS Output American music Accepted

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. DH SKOS Output Architecture Refers to the art and practice of designing and building structures Accepted Band music Accepted

A Brief Discussion of Topic Maps

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Statements about what? Baseball Amateur baseball Little league Professional baseball Sports MLB “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”

Topic Maps  ISO standard - ISO 13250:2002  For merging back-of-the-book indexes  Collection of structured markup  Describing KOS  Associating KOS with information resources (objects)  Separation of KOS from objects

Topic Maps  Three main concepts 1. Names of things 2. Occurrences of the named things 3. Associations between names  Three additional constructs 1. Identity 2. Facet 3. Scope OWL

Topic with occurrence “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?” Professional baseball descriptor-for Topic map layer Information resources layer

Topics, associations, occurrences Professional baseball Baseball Sports member-of MLB use-for doc-type Amateur baseball Little league member-of descriptor-for Professional athletes related-to Smith author-of member-of article

Problems with Semantic Web  Complexity  Lack of tools  Lack of skills  Limited resources  Gaming the system  The syllogism trap  KOS biases  Lack of agreement  Lack of interest  Good enough  Topic Maps vs. OWL

Lack of agreement  “Symbionese Liberation Army credited with offing an SUV” About - ‘revolutionaries’ or ‘freedom fighters’ About - ‘revolutions’ or ‘freedom movements’  “Symbionese Liberation Army accused of firebombing SUV” About - ‘terrorists’ or ‘anarchists’ About - ‘terrorism’ or ‘anarchy’

The syllogism trap  Humans are mortal  Greeks are human  Therefore, Greeks are mortal  New Mexicans speak Spanish  The author lives in New Mexico  Therefore,... Source: Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview” and Dave McComb, presentation at DAMA-I, May

The syllogism humor trap  I am a nobody  Nobody is perfect  Therefore, I am perfect Bonus: I don't approve of political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected.

Topic Maps vs. OWL  TMCL  Topic maps  XTM, HyTM, LTM  ISO  OWL  RDF Schema  RDF  RDF/XML, N3  SOAP, WSDL  W3C

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Full-text search and applied indexing languages  Full-text search engines - getting better??  Thesauri applied using machine automated indexing - easier, faster, cheaper  Taxonomic navigation Faceted navigation Table of contents drilldown - taxonomy views  Query disambiguation

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Full-text search and applied indexing languages  Long history  Many richly developed thesauri with legs  Tools that work  Large body of professionals  Almost as rich

Tools that work!

Hierarchical View Term Record Almost as rich

ANSI/NISO Z x

Clearer disambiguation? Mercury Planets Roman god Metallic element Temperature Automobile TypeOf BrandOf IsA

Clearer disambiguation?  Thesaurus statement Mercury (planet) mercury (metal) Mercury (automobile) Mercury (mythical being) mercury (temperature)

Clearer disambiguation?  OWL statement Mercury (Planets)

Thesaurus to SKOS  Thesaurus label  Main Term (MT)  Top Term (TT)  Broader Terms (BT)  Narrower Terms (NT)  Narrower Term Instance  Related Terms (RT) See also (SA)  NonPreferred Term (NP) Used for (UF), See (S)  Scope Note (SN)  History (H)  SKOS Label   NonpreferredTerm 

Thesaurus to Ontology (OWL)  Thesaurus Label  Main Term (MT)  Top Term (TT)  Broader Terms (BT)  Narrower Terms (NT)  Narrower Term Instance  Related Terms (RT) See also (SA)  NonPreferred Term (NP) Used for (UF), See (S)  Scope Note (SN)  History (H)  OWL Label 

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Objectives for search & navigation  ASIS&T -- virtual library Subject matter  ASRT -- internal information control Organization chart  Naval Postgrad -- Homeland security degree Curriculum outline  SLA -- Web content Public Web navigation

Naval Postgraduate School ’ s Homeland Security Taxonomy

SLA website and thesaurus

SLA search

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Myth of topic maps  And OWL, SKOS  Not a myth  They do work  Limited adoption  Narrow, tightly defined niches

Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t? 31 October 2007 A :45-3:30 PM PDT Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony / / Thank you. Questions?

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Activity in the field  Ontologies Ontologies  SKOS SKOS guide/#secref guide/#secref  Topic Maps

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Resources     Lars Marius Garshol, “Metadata? Thesaurui? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!” Steve Pepper, “The TAO of Topic Maps” 

Copyright  2007 Access Innovations, Inc. Resources  Cory Doctorow, “Metacrap: Putting the Torch to Seven Straw-men of the Meta-utopia,”  Russell Glass, “Is Anyone Going to Tag all of this Stuff?,”  Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview,”  Pete Norvig, “Semantic Web Ontologies: What Works and What Doesn’t,”