Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

We outline the main elements of what we call structuring of information and argue that information needs to be structured accordingly. The principles of may both serve as guidelines for creating Topic Maps, and provide orientation for further development of Topic Maps standards and software.

This paper illustrates the Topic Maps approach taken in a project for a Dutch Document Management Specialist supporting local Government municipalities. The solution described in the paper is about Access Control Lists in a Topic Map and exploits the advantages of subject based approaches in combination with a Topic Map Ontology. This subject centric IT solution builds on an existing generic model and makes it possible to build Topic Maps portals that become more maintenance free.

The development of the IRIS semantic desktop platform has provided illumination of some important issues associated with the collection and manipulation of knowledge assets that are organized by an ontology. We explore those issues related to the personalization of the workspace and of the knowledge assets manipulated by IRIS users. We show that a topic map can provide a necessary mediation between the formal organization provided by an ontology to serve the needs of semantic interoperability between workstations and the individual’s need to personalize the workspace in a fashion.

Virtual study environments are web-based applications where e-courses are delivered. In accordance with the shift towards the semantic web, the conception of separated and narrowly focused e-courses seems to be obsolete and certain new solutions should be offered. The Topic Maps technology is a good candidate to become the core integrative element of the next generation of educational portals with the potential to replace current virtual study environments. In the paper we explain why and how to transform virtual study environments using Topic Maps. Also we present a pilot application.

This work-in-progress report subsumes our ongoing research to develop a Topic Maps centric, modularised system which supports collaborative software development by combining the merits of Topic Maps for representation, the Semantic Zooming paradigm for navigation/visualisation, and a generic process model for development process steering.

This work-in-progress report describes the requirements for a "European Administrative Nomenclature" network. It addresses the research topic of interoperability between UN and EU reference classifications, Topic Maps, ebXML Registries and distributed databases. Governmental organisa- tions in Europe will be supported in their administrative terminology with the help of a Seamless Core Model, Published Subjects and TMRAP.

This paper describes a query algebra for tolog, a query language for Topic Maps inspired by Prolog and very similar to Datalog. The language is based on binding variables by matching predicates against the topic map being queried, and contains predicates for querying any aspect of the Topic Maps Data Model (TMDM) [ISO13250-2], as well as support for user-defined predicates. SQL-like features like aggregate functions, projection, ordering, and result set paging are also supported. The paper uses a formal model for Topic Maps called Q to formally define the semantics of tolog. The standard tolog predicates are defined, together with a query algebra. This gives the query language a firm basis, enables interoperable implementations, and serves as the starting point for further work on the language.

Both the more pragmatic Topic Map data model (TMDM) and the more fundamental Topic Map Reference Model (TMRM), have reached now a certain degree of maturity. Unfortunately, the development of these models did not occur in lockstep as they address very different needs and communities. This work tries to be the missing link by faithfully mapping TMDM instances into TMRM. For this purpose we formally introduce a refinement of the existing T model by adapting it to the latest TMRM version and by extending it to cover TMRM disclosures.

This paper describes TM/XML, an XML syntax for Topic Maps that is very close to the natural, or colloquial, XML representation of the information in the topic map. It can be used to process Topic Maps data with XML tools, and integrate non-Topic Maps systems with Topic Maps systems.

Further, TM-Views, a mechanism for describing what to include when extracting a fragment from a topic map, is described. TM-Views improves the usability of TM/XML in the described use cases, but can also be used independently of TM/XML.

The paper deals with the possibility of creating a topic map based system where different sectors of cultural heritage would interact with users, by monitoring the navigation histories of users and the statistics on the searches, in order to authorize variant form of names. The problem of managing different sectors and harmonizing them both from a structural and a semantic view point, by using topic maps, is also discussed. With regards to this, we are introducing two projects, which are largely based on the above mention use of topic maps.