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Review of Topic Maps

This review highlights the problems with traditional document navigation and the need for improved reading and search facilities. It discusses the potential of hypertext and hypermedia solutions, with a focus on topic maps. It explains the structure, linking, indexing, and filtering capabilities of topic maps, showcasing their power in organizing and navigating information.

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Review of Topic Maps

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  1. Review of Topic Maps Luxemburg MR meeting Steven Depuydt Nov 22, 2002

  2. Information • Problems • Getting lost in documents • Documents often too long • Often no (sufficient) navigation facilities, no links to related information • Reading = checking the contents, skimming, browsing,… before and while reading • Information overload • How to find what you really need? • Need for excellent search facilities  Need to improve reading, change the way we read,...

  3. Hypertext • Hypertext / Hypermedia as a solution: • Basic hypertext = nodes (information units) + links • Nodes = text, video fragment, sound,… • Links = relations between anchors (points in nodes) • Pro • Modularity = small manageable information units • Linking of documents = richer knowledge • Con • Disorientation (Where am I? Where I was? Where do I want to go?) • Cognitive overhead (Users get to much information that they cannot remember the route they took to their current position)

  4. Hypertext • Natural hypertext navigation: • Links within one document or between documents • Advanced hypertext navigation features: • Table of contents • Maps • Indices • Search facility • Bookmarks • History list, …  Solve most of the problems with hypertext, but often limited to one single document and each feature is often a separate application.

  5. Topic Maps • A Topic Map structure is a high level structure that can cover all the previous navigation mechanisms (table of contents, maps, index, query engine, bookmarks, history list) mentioned. • From one single structure, all navigation features can be automatically derived • Topic Maps are a combination of (/ can be used for / are related to the following topics): • Structuring • Linking • Indexing • Filtering • Metadata • Searching • Clustering  That’s why Topic Maps (are so powerful)!

  6. Topic Maps • History • Started in the 90s • Davenport Group • Developers of the Docbook standard • Problem: merge of indices of different information resources. • ISO 13250 (SGML syntax) • XTM (XML syntax)

  7. Topic Maps • Linking + Indexing

  8. Topic Maps - Linking • Today’s links • Link information inside text objects

  9. Topic Maps - Linking • Independent links • Link information outside documents (hytime, xlink)

  10. Today’s links Inside Text based Single links One direction Hard to maintain Powerful ??? Independent links Outside Object based Multiple links Bi-directional Easier to maintain Powerful ! But, there’s more. Linking - Overview

  11. Topic Maps - Indexing • Organising objects around keywords or topics (index, thesaurus, glossary...)

  12. Topic Maps - Indexing • Next step: Linking of keywords (relations)

  13. Topic Maps (linking + indexing) • The TAO of Topic Maps: Topics, Occurrences and Associations.

  14. Topic Maps • TAO of Topic Maps • Topics (identified by their names) • Associations (describing relationships between topics) • Occurrences of topics (pointed to via locators)

  15. Topic Maps • Topics • Topics have types (the class of which a topic is an instance, the ‘is a’ relationship) • Topics have identity • Topics characteristics • have 0 or more names • have 0 or more occurrences • play roles in 0 or more associations

  16. Topic Maps • Example topics <topic id=“kul”><instanceof><topicref xlink:href=“#university”></instanceof><basename><basenamestring>Katholieke Universiteit Leuven</basenamestring></basename><variant><parameters><subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href=“…#psi-display”></parameters><variantname><resourcedata>KUL</resourcedata></variantname></variant></topic>

  17. Topic Maps • Topic Occurrences • A collection of information relevant to a given subject (topic) • The link between the topic layer and the information pool • Occurrence types: definition, mention, article, picture, video, …

  18. Topic Maps • Example occurrences<topic id=“kul”>…<occurs><instanceof><topicref xlink:href=“#definition”/></instanceof><resourceref xlink:href=“http://www.kul.be/kul_intro.htm”/></occurs> <occurs><instanceof><topicref xlink:href=“#logo”/></instanceof><resourceref xlink:href=“http://www.kul.be/kul_logo1.gif”/></occurs>

  19. Topic Maps • Topic Associations • Describe relationschips between topics • Docarch is part ofKUL • Jan Engelen is head ofDocarch • Association types: part-of, head-of, is-in, born-in, … • Association members play roles: • Members: Docarch, KUL, Jan Engelen • Roles: department, university, professor

  20. Topic Maps • Example associations<association><instanceof><topicref xlink:href=“#part-of”/></instanceof><member><rolespec><topicref xlink:href=“#university”/></rolespec><topicref xlink:href=“#kul”/></member><member><rolespec><topicref xlink:href=“#department”/></rolespec><topicref xlink:href=“#docarch”/></member></association>

  21. Topic Maps application • Building blocks • Topic Map Authoring • As with XML, 2 steps: DTD and XML documents following the DTD • Step1: Topic Map design • topic types, association types, occurrence types, … (f.e.: City) • Step 2: Topic Map editing • ‘Real topics‘ (f.e.: ‘Paris’) • Topic Map Processor • Topic Map loading, storage and processing • Topic Map Viewer / Presentation • Different views (access) to different users

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