Euler, Topic Maps and Revolution An Introduction to ISO/IEC Topic Maps Tapsa Pippuri Senior Information Architect STEP 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 for tutorials and/or workshops...

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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”

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Applicability Anyone who needs to manage large pools of disparate interconnected information objects

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 ISO standard 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

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Key concepts Topics Occurrences Associations –also: –Scope –Identity and public subjects –Facets

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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...

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Topics Kullervo Helsinki Sallinen Hämeenlinna Finland Sibelius

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 More about topics topics have types and characteristics: –zero or more names –zero or more occurrences –zero or more associations

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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...

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Topic types Kullervo Helsinki Sallinen Hämeenlinna Finland Sibelius country opera town composer Legend:

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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…

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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”)

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Occurrences (resource domain) (topic domain)

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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!

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Occurrence roles article picture mention definition Legend:

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Representing indexes Helsinki Hämeenlinna , 77 Kullervo Sallinen Sibelius Tavastehus, see Hämeenlinna

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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”

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Topic associations Sibelius Hämeenlinna Hotel Kämp Kullervo Helsinki Finland Tolkien tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99

Association types Sibelius Hämeenlinna Hotel Kämp Kullervo Helsinki Finland Tolkien is-in born-in written-by influenced-by Legend: tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99

Association types Sibelius Hämeenlinna Hotel Kämp Kullervo Helsinki Finland Tolkien “portable semantic network” tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99

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

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 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!

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 But … Euler? c a d b g f e Leonhard Euler ( ) Bridges of Königsberg Problem

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Jean le Rond d’Alembert ( ) Graph Theory Denis Diderot ( ) L’Encyclopédie Revolution Topic Maps Reference Works Euler? Revolution? Leonhard Euler ( )

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 Connections Life is full of connections Knowledge and creativity thrive on them Today’s information owners need to be able to exploit them Topic Maps are the exciting new technology for doing so, efficiently and reliably

tapsa pippuri, topic maps, xml finland '99 To join the revolution Standard text and other materials: Topic map mailing list: Workshops and tutorials: Kiitos ja näkemiin!