1. A High-level Topic Maps-based Language for the Semantic Web Semantic Web EU/NSF Workshop, Sofia- Antipolis, Oct 3-5, 2001 Michel Biezunski (mb@infoloom.com), with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb (srn@coolheads.com)

2. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. HTML still needed HTML has made the success of the World Wide Web –Simple, straightforward. –Powerful enough to get the job done. –Implementable, because of its limitations. The Semantic Web need something comparable. We need something simple that the world can adopt.

3. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved.Outline What topic maps are. –How they help differentiate what's useful for humans and what's useful for machines. Research project proposals –How they help building something clear, simple, useful, and appealing. Usefulness, Scalability,...

4. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. What are Topic Maps ? A standardized (ISO/IEC 13250:2000) paradigm in which: –subjects become objects ("topics"). –Relationships between subjects are asserted. Web links Topic Map

5. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Making subjects addressable To be processed, subjects should first be made addressable. The purpose of Topic Maps is to make subjects addressable. Subjects are defined by humans, and can be (in specific contexts) processed successfully by machines. A "topic" is a subject made addressable: –It is a computer surrogate for a subject. –It is characterized by a set of structural locations (names, occurrences, associations).

6. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Subject Indicators vs. Subject Constituters A piece of information can indicate what a subject is. A piece of information can be the subject. subject

7. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Two faces of Topic Maps KOAN: Knowledge, Occurrences, Associations, Names The core: Graph made of nodes and arcs.

8. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. KOAN: High-level Topic Maps concepts Association Topic Occurrences (Scope) -Subject -Name(s) -Roles -Members -Template -Type

9. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. The Core: heart of Topic Maps SW tormyeather Lena Horne sings Stormy Weather : "Don't know why..."

10. T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" Topic Maps Core

11. scope component association scope association member association member scope component T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of...

12. scope component association scope association member casting association casting member scope componentCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of...

13. scope component association scope association member casting association casting member scope componentCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Cmusic

14. scope component association scope association member casting association casting member scope component casting roleCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Cmusic Tperformer

15. scope component association scope association member casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic Cmusic

16. scope component association scope association member casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic Tperformance Cmusic

17. scope component association scope association member casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic Cmusic A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" TperformanceA Lena performing Stormy Weather Is an instance of a performance Cinstance Cclass

18. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic Tperformance Cmusic

19. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCrole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role Ctemplate Cmusic

20. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCrole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role A performances have a music role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic

21. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCrole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role; performers must be musicians A performances have a music role Tmusician CRecognized Player of Role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic

22. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCrole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role; performers must be musicians A performances have a music role; music must be a song Tmusician Tsong CRecognized Player of Role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic CRecognized

23. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCrole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role; performers must be musicians A performances have a music role; music must be a song Tmusician Tsong A Lena is a musician Cinstance CRecognized Player of Role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic CRecognized Cclass

24. scope component association scope association member association template casting role casting association casting member scope component casting role castingCinstance Crole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... Tperformer Tmusic TperformanceA performances have a performer role; performers must be musicians A performances have a music role; music must be a song Tmusician Tsong A "Stormy Weather" is a song A Lena is a musician Cinstance Cclass CRecognized Player of Role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic CRecognized Cclass

25. Cinstance Crole Cperformer T Lena T Song: "Stormy Weather" A Lena performs "Stormy Weather" T Movie: "Stormy Weather" ST Soundtrack of... scope component association scope association memberTperformer Tmusic Tperformance association templateA performances have a performer role; performers must be musicians A performances have a music role; music must be a song Tmusician Tsong A "Stormy Weather" is a song A Lena is a musician castingCinstance Cclass CRecognized Player of Role Crole Ctemplate Ctemplate Cmusic CRecognized Cclass casting association casting member scope component casting role casting

26. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. What the assertions means to humans: Lena Horne performs Stormy Weather. Lena Horne is a performer. The music she performs is Stormy Weather. The performance is in the context of the soundtrack of the movie "Stormy Weather". The assertion that Lena Horne performs Stormy Weather, is a valid instance of a performance assertion. –The performer is a musician. –The music is a song. –Lena Horne is a musician. –Stormy Weather is a song.

27. What the machine sees

28. What the machine really sees

29. casting node topic node association node scope node casting-member arc association-casting arc scope-component arc association-template arc casting-role arc association-scope arc Topic Maps Core

30. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Two faces of Topic Maps Human –Topic (Subject) Names (scoped) Occurrences (scoped) –Associations (scoped) Machine –Arcs association-template association-scope scope-component association-casting casting-member casting-role –Nodes a (association) s (scope) c (casting) t (topic) Complex models Multidimensional, multilingual Multiple perspectives

31. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Research still needed Core of Topic Maps and RDF –Reification: early vs. late –Mathematical foundations –Scalability Improved Knowledge/Content Mangement –Ontology integration –Separating description from processing Building popular standards

32. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved.Cores Expressing the Topic Maps Core as an application of RDF –and/or expressing the RDF Core as an application of Topic Maps Core. Mathematical foundations for the data models Graph theory: –What are the characteristics of systems that support the assertions in the graph model just described for the Topic Maps Core?

33. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Early/late reification Topic Maps requires "pre-emptive" (or "early") reification of assertions. RDF requires "lazy" (or "late") reification. Early: Reification is not an issue, never needs to be discussed. Taken for granted. Early: Things can be reliably and permanently addressed in terms of the arcs that they terminate. Late: They can't.

34. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved.Scalability Speed (quick response) Scale of diversity Sheer volume Usefulness (control infoglut enough and still make the result useful).

35. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Scalability: Quick response Expert systems are designed to integrate everything (e.g., Cyc). We need ways to make knowledge useful and findable without fully understanding or integrating it into a single expert system.

36. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Scalability: Scale of Diversity Information resources not based on Platonic forms -> Difficult to understand. Likely to accumulate all kinds of inconsistency. Number of relationships grow exponentially.

37. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Scalability: Sheer volume What problems appear at high scale? Test the theory: we can achieve very high scale integration with Topic Maps while preserving usefulness: demonstrate that, say what are the problems.

38. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Scalability: Usefulness Generic Platonic-form-oriented search engine technology needs to be developed. Such search engines will aggregate knowledge around a broad range of forms. The Platonic forms supported by existing search engines are mainly words and phrases in one or more specific natural languages. The "meanings" of these words and phrases is far more interesting than the words themselves.

39. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Improved knowledge/content management How can the Web become a friendly place for all kinds of content to be "owned and exploited" as opposed to merely "published" in one or more renditions?

40. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Ontology integration Ontology integration and Topic maps paradigm Concepts need to become reliably addressable –regardless of their names, –regardless of the namespaces within which they have those names. Leverage everybody's work in –identifying concepts, –describing them, –collating/organizing reference materials –codifying relationships between concepts

41. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Intellectual property rights How can intellectual property rights be verified? How can a piece of content be made to "know" who claims ownership? How can the owner's policies be enforced? What business models are supportable, and what enhancements to the infrastructure of the Web itself can or should be made in order to support the enforcement of content owner policies? What kind of cooperative ownership of intellectual property must be supported?

42. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Build a consensus Within and between communities. –Build standards which are going to be used, not only appealing models. –Understand what everybody is doing. –Open our own ears Remember HTML

43. © 2001, Michel Biezunski. with the complicity of Steven R. Newcomb. All rights reserved. Machine-driven processes (DAML+OIL) Semantic Web A proposal for a global architecture Knowledge Management, Metadata models RDF / Topic Maps Ontologies Documents (SGML, HTML) Databases (Schemas) XML