Topic Maps links

This page links to useful sources of information about Topic Maps, a new ISO standard for organizing information. Topic maps are based on XML, but go far beyond XML in terms of what they can do to organize information. Here's what you'll find on this page:

• Introductions
• Examples
• Books
• Discussion forums
• Papers and presentations
• Specifications
• Software
• Topic map sites

Introductions

• The TAO of topic maps. This article has by now become a classic, and is the perfect introduction to topic maps.
• What are topic maps? An introduction to topic maps at XML.COM.
• A technical topic map tutorial. This tutorial gives a straightforward and direct introduction to topic maps, showing how to use the topic map syntax. Some PowerPoint slides are also available.

Examples

• A registry of topic maps. An online database of available topic maps.
• Ontopia Omnigator online demo. Browse topic maps online.
• Another topic map online browser, this time from Robert Barta at Bond University.
• The Pepys topic map, by Kal Ahmed. A topic map of Samuel Pepys's famous 17th century diary.
• Scripts and languages, an example web site built using topic maps.

Books

• Professional XML Metadata, published by Wrox, written by a large number of authors. This is the first book about topic maps, and it also covers RDF. I have not read it and so cannot say much more.
• XML Topic Maps, published by Addison-Wesley, written by a large number of authors, edited by Jack Park and Sam Hunting. This is currently the only book dedicated entirely to topic maps.

Discussion forums

• The topicmapmail list is a general mailing list about topic maps.
• The tmql-wg list is dedicated to discussion of the TMQL query language.
• There is also an IRC channel about topic maps, on irc.freenode.net, channel #topicmaps.

Papers and presentations

Information Architecture

• Metadata? Taxonomies? Ontologies? Topic Maps!, by Lars Marius Garshol. This paper explains what the terms metadata, taxonomy, and ontology mean, and how topic maps relate to all of these.

Querying

• The TMQL home page, about the ISO standard TMQL.
• tolog - a topic map query language, by Lars Marius Garshol.
• The answer is just a question [of topic maps matching], by Rafal Ksiezyk.

Topic maps and RDF

• Living with Topic Maps and RDF, by Lars Marius Garshol. A comparison of the two models, a study of RDFS and OWL applied to topic maps, a proposal for data conversion in both directions, and more.
• Survey of RDF/TM Interoperability Proposals, a W3C working draft. Describes and compares the different attempts at RDF/TM interoperability.
• Topic Maps vs. RDF, by Eric Freese.
• On the integration of Topic Maps and RDF Data, by Stefan Decker and Martin Lacher.
• Topic Maps and RDF: An exercise in convergence, by Graham Moore.
• DAML and Quantum Topic Maps, by Nikita Ogievetsky.

Topic map design

• Towards a general theory of scope, by Geir Ove Grønmo and Steve Pepper. This is the first in-depth study of scope, and well worth reading.

Visualization

• Topic Maps Visualization, by Benedicte le Grand and Michel de Soto.
• Topic Map metrics and visualization, by Benedicte le Grand.
• Trying not to get lost in a topic map, by Rafal Ksiezyk.
• Graph clustering for very large topic maps, by Olivier Baudon and Pascal Auillans. Note: very technical.

Content management

• Topic maps in content management, by Lars Marius Garshol.
• Topic maps for repositories, by Kal Ahmed.

Schemas

• The TMCL home page, about the ISO effort to create a standard topic map schema language.
• Creating semantically valid topic maps, by Geir Ove Grønmo.
• Validating Topic Maps with constraints, by Hans Holger Rath.
• Making topic maps more colourful, by Hans Holger Rath.

Applications

• Applying topic maps to the classification of health interventions, by Derek Millar.
• Knowledge Engineering for the "Ferret" Analytical Engine, by Jim Mason.

Automatic generation

• Harvesting Knowledge from the Organization's Information Assets, by Eric Freese.
• Constructing a navigable topic map by inductive semantic acquisition methods, by Helka Folch.

APIs

• TMAPI, a de fact standard API for topic map engines
• An introduction to TMAPI, by Robert Barta and Oliver Leimig, on XML.COM.
• Developing a topic map programming model, by Kal Ahmed.

Specifications

Official documents

• ISO/IEC 13250:2000 Topic Maps, the ISO standard itself. This describes the SGML and HyTime-based syntax of topic maps, not the later XML Topic Maps syntax.
• XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0. This is the XML Topic Maps standard, which is much more approachable than the ISO standard.
• TMQL Requirements 1.0.0. This is the requirements document for the topic map query language standard.
• TMCL requirements. This is the draft of a requirements document for the topic map constraint language standard.
• Work is currently being done on a formal data model for topic maps. These are the main relevant documents:
  • The roadmap drawn up by the SC34 WG3 meeting in Orlando, which explains what the plan of action is.
  • The Reference Model. Note that this document is just a description of the Reference Model to come, and not the thing itself.
  • The Standard Application Model. This is its home page, from where you can find more information about it.
  • A proposed requirements document for the Standard Application Model.

Various proposals

• The AsTMa language family, which includes a concise text-based syntax for topic maps, as well as some interesting extensions for querying, constraints, logic expressions, and modification.
• Linear Topic Maps 1.1, specification. This is the specification of a concise and easy-to-author text-based syntax for topic maps.
• Canonical XTM, the specification of a canonical syntax for topic maps, which is useful for automated testing of topic map software.

Software

• You can find free software that supports XTM 1.0, and which supports the original HyTime syntax.
• The Ontopia Omnigator can be downloaded for free.
• The Ontopia Knowledge Suite is a commercial topic map software package.
• TMCore05, a commercial engine from NetworkedPlanet.
• k42 is another such package, from Empolis.
• Mondeca also has commercial topic map software.

Topic map sites

• topicmap.com, a good portal of Topic Maps information.
• TMwiki, home page for a Topic Maps wiki system and a site about Topic Maps.
• Robin Cover's pages has a very extensive set of topic map links.
• Topic Maps Weblog, a collaborative weblog published by the users of the #topicmaps IRC channel.
• TMRA'06, the international, academic conference series about Topic Maps, held in October each year in Leipzig, Germany.