TMs

I’ve been trying to get my head around Topic Maps, a powerful but complex standard for building intricate networks of metadata. I couldn’t even begin to describe them myself but the following resources have proved very useful:

The TAO of Topic Maps: A superb article describing the underlying concepts behind the standard in non-technical terms. This is a great initial introduction to Topic Maps and knowledge structures in general.
My First Topic Map: A tutorial describing the initial construction of a Topic Map in XTM, using Star Wars as the example topic. Easy Topic Maps has a collection of other excellent Topic Maps resources.
Omnigator: The trial version of Ontopia’s Omnigator. This requires a JRE but is essential if you want to explore a TopicMap once you have created it. You can play with it online here.

Posted 24th July 2002 at 9:57 pm

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The TAO of topic maps is fascinating reading, and suggests a huge amount of potential for the standard. But, as with XML, I'm left wondering how and when it will be put to practical use (specifically, how I'll use it!). The most interesting point I took away was that of context. I've often wished google could understand the context of my searches, and hopefully in the future it will. Similarly, if all websites had access to a sort of context for each user, the experience would be a lot smoother. And, dare I say it, only (the most) relevant adverts would be shown.
P - 26th July 2002 13:15 - #

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TMs

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