1. The Myth of Topic Maps: What
Works and What Doesn’t?
Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO
Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony
131 Adams NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108
j_ven_eman@accessinn.com
www.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com
505-265-3591 / 505-256-1080 - fax
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 1

2. Innovations in search?
How about, “Innovations in
understanding?”
2

3. Semantic
Web?
September 27, 2005
“Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”
By Smith
About Professional baseball
Entertainment
Business
Summary In brief ...
Story There was a time ...
Price 1.98

4. Price?
a 1.98?
a Price of what?
• Newspaper?
• Stadium seat?
• Article?
?
a $, , Ÿ, £?
a Wholesale? Retail? Sale?
a How?
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 4

5. Meaning and retrieval start with a
knowledge organization system (KOS)
 Uncontrolled list Not complex - $
 Name authority file
 Synonym set/ring
 Controlled vocabulary
 Taxonomy
 Thesaurus
Ontology Topic Map Highly complex - $$$$
LOTS OF OVERLAP!
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 5

6. Meta Data
a Data about data
a Information about information
a Natural
a Added
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 6

7. Data about ‘stuff’ - like what?
a Author name
a Date of creation
a Language used in the creation
a Title of the creation
a Subject of the creation
a Keywords...
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 7

8. Narrowing the focus
a Keywords (aka subject headings, index
terms, identifiers, etc.) are one type of meta
data.
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 8

9. For example...
a A bibliographic database record usually
includes information such as author, title,
language, date of creation, and subject area.
a So does a traditional library card catalog
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 9

10. But did you think about…
a The legend on a street map?
a The yellow pages in a telephone book?
a The aisle signs in a supermarket?
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 10

11. Meaning of meta data
a Meta data is information
that points to an answer
or a solution
a Meta data makes
statements about an
information resource or
object
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 11

12. Sidebar - meta data or metadata?
a ‘Metadata’ is “a word coined by Jack E.
Myers to represent current and future lines
of products implementing the concepts of
his MetaModel, and also to designate his
company, The Metadata Company, that
would develop and market those products.”
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 12

13. Metadata™
a A term not used prior to 1969
a Used first in 1973
a Registered U.S. Trademark (in 1986),
owned by Jack Myers
a Metadata™ granted incontestable status in
1991
a Designed to be a term with no particular
meaning
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 13

14. Natural Meta Data Added
<DOC Date=09/27/05>
<TI> “Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”</TI>
<Byline> Smith </Byline>
<ST> Professional baseball </ST>
<ST> Entertainment </ST>
<ST> Business </ST>
<AB> In brief ... </AB>
<Text> There was a time ... /Text>
< </DOC>
Object

15. Meta data as indexing language
List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus
INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS
Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l
Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l
Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s
Associative rel’s
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 15

16. Taxonomy / thesaurus
a Main Term (MT) Aka subject term, heading, node,
category, descriptor, class
a Top Term (TT)
a Broader Terms (BT) TAXONOMY
a Narrower Terms (NT)
a Related Terms (RT)
• See also (SA)
THESAURUS
a Scope Note (SN)
a History (H)
a NonPreferred Term (NP)
• Used for (UF), See (S)
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 16

17. Term record
Various views

19. Taxonomy, Thesaurus, & Ontology
a Taxonomies and thesauri are not ontologies
a They are entities
a Ontology – science of describing kinds of entities
• “an explicit and formal specification of a
conceptualization”
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 19

20. Ontology
a From philosophy – the science of describing
• Kinds of entities in the world
• How they are related
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 20

21. OWL
a Web Ontology Language
a W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004
a http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-owl-guide-20040210/
a http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-owl-ref-20040210/
a http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-webont-req-20040210/
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 21

22. OWL
a OWL output
• Provides semantic meaning to these kinds of
entities
• Web resource
• Accessible to automated processes
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 22

23. OWL Ontology
a May include
• Classes
• Properties
• Instances
a Capture semantics
a Multiple, distributed, related ontology schema
a Normative OWL exchange syntax RDF/XML
• Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 23

24. Structure of
controlled vocabularies
List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus
INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS
Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l
Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l
Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s
Associative rel’s
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 24

25. Taxonomy term record
a <TermInfo>
a <T>Agrotechnology</T>
a <BT>Biotechnology</BT>
a <NT>Animal management technologies</NT>
a <NT>Controlled environment agriculture</NT>
a <NT>Genetically modified crops</NT>
a </TermInfo> Source: www.DataHarmony.com
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 25

26. Thesaurus term record
a <TermInfo>
a <T>Agrotechnology</T>
a <BT>Biotechnology</BT>
a <NT>Animal management technologies</NT>
a <NT>Controlled environment agriculture</NT>
a <NT>Genetically modified crops</NT>
a <RT>Agricultural science</RT>
a <RT>Food technology</RT>
a <UF>Plant engineering</UF>
a <Scope></Scope>
a <Editorial_Note></Editorial_Note>
a <Facet></Facet>
a <History></History>
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 26
a </TermInfo> Source: www.DataHarmony.com

27. OWL term record
</PreferredTerm>
<PreferredTerm rdf:ID="T131">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Agrotechnology</rdfs:label>
<BroaderTerm rdf:resource="#T603" newsindexer:alpha="Biotechnology"/>
<NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T252" newsindexer:alpha="Animal
management technologies"/>
<NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T1221" newsindexer:alpha="Controlled
environment agriculture"/>
<NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T2166" newsindexer:alpha="Genetically
modified crops"/>
<Related_Term rdf:resource="#T127" newsindexer:alpha="Agricultural
science"/>
<Related_Term rdf:resource="#T2020" newsindexer:alpha="Food technology"/>
<Non-Preferred_Term rdf:resource="#T3898" newsindexer:alpha="Plant
engineering"/>
</PreferredTerm> Source: www.DataHarmony.com
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 27

28. Statements about what?
Sports
Baseball
Amateur baseball
Little league
Professional baseball
MLB
“Is MLB a sport,
entertainment, or
business?” Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 28

29. Topic Maps
a ISO standard - ISO 13250:2002
a For merging back-of-the-book indexes
a Collection of structured markup
a Describing KOS
a Associating KOS with information
resources (objects)
a Separation of KOS from objects
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 29

30. Topic Maps
a Three main concepts
• Names of things
• Occurrences of the named things
• Associations between names
a Three additional constructs
• Identity
• Facet
• Scope
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 30

31. Topic map
Sports
Baseball
Amateur baseball
Little league
Professional baseball
MLB
“Is MLB a sport,
entertainment, or
business?” Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 31

32. Topic with occurrence
Professional baseball descriptor-for
Topic map layer
Information resources layer
“Is MLB a sport,
entertainment, or http://www.newindexer.com/mlb.htm/
business?”
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 32

33. Topics, associations, occurrences
article
MLB doctype
Sports
use-for http://www.newindexer.com/mlb.htm/
member-of
discriptor-for
Professional baseball
author-of
related-to
member-of Professional athletes
Baseball
member-of
Amateur baseball Smith
member-of Little league http://www.swaa.org
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 33

34. Problems with Semantic Web
a Complexity a KOS biases
a Lack of tools a Lack of agreement
a Lack of skills a Lack of interest
a Limited resources a Good enough
a Gaming the system a Topic Maps vs. OWL
a The syllogism trap
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 34

35. Lack of agreement
a “Symbionese Liberation Army credited with
offing an SUV”
• About - ‘revolutionaries’ or ‘freedom fighters’
• About - ‘revolutions’ or ‘freedom movements’
a “Symbionese Liberation Army accused of
firebombing SUV”
• About - ‘terrorists’ or ‘anarchists’
• About - ‘terrorism’ or ‘anarchy’
A
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 35

36. The syllogism trap
a Humans are mortal
a Greeks are human
a Therefore, Greeks are mortal
a New Mexicans speak Spanish
a The author lives in New Mexico
a Therefore, ...
Source: Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview”
www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_syllogism.html/ and
Dave McComb, presentation at DAMA-I, May 2005 www.wilshireconferences.com
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 36

37. Topic Maps vs. OWL
a TMCL a OWL
a Topic maps a RDF Schema
a XTM, HyTM, LTM a RDF
a ISO a RDF/XML, N3
a SOAP, WSDL
a W3C
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 37

38. Next best thing(s)
a Full-text and applied indexing languages
a Social book-marking
a Make do
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 38

39. Social book-marking
a del.icio.us
a www.citeulike.org
a www.firststopwebsearch.com
a www.flickr.com
a www.furl.net
a www.jeteye.com
a www.zniff.com
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 39

40. (Courtesy: Jill O'Neill, www.nfais.org)
http://www.jeteye.com/jetpak/7963049,,8454213,1124839709963,,email,,view.html

41. Full-text search and applied
indexing languages
a Full-text search engines - getting better
a Thesauri applied using machine automated
indexing - easier, faster, cheaper
a Taxonomic navigation
• Faceted navigation
• Table of contents drilldown - taxonomy views
a Query disambiguation
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 41

42. Full-text search and applied
indexing languages
a Long history
a Many richly developed thesauri with legs
a Tools that work
a Large body of professionals
a Almost as rich
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 42

43. Almost as rich
Hierarchical View
Term Record

44. ANSI/NISO Z39.19-200x
DRAFT STANDARD SUBJECT TO CHANGE

45. Organizational objectives
a ASIS&T -- virtual library
• Subject matter
a ASRT -- internal information control
• Organization chart
a Naval Postgrad -- Homeland security degree
• Curriculum outline
a SLA -- Web content
• Public Web navigation
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 45

46. SLA website and thesaurus

47. SLA search

48. Naval Postgraduate School’s Homeland Security Taxonomy

49. Naval Postgraduate School’s Homeland Security Taxonomy

50. Tools that work!

51. Myth of topic maps
a Not a myth
a They do work
a Limited adoption
a Narrow, tightly defined niches
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 51

52. Thank you!
The Myth of Topic Maps: What
Works and What Doesn’t?
Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO
Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony
131 Adams NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108
j_ven_eman@accessinn.com
www.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com
505-265-3591 / 505-256-1080 - fax
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 52

53. Resources
a www.accessinn.com
a www.dataharmony.com
a www.iso.org
a www.ontopia.com
• Lars Marius Garshol, “Metadata? Thesaurui?
Taxonomies? Topic Maps!”
• Steve Pepper, “The TAO of Topic Maps”
a www.topicmaps.org
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 53

54. Resources
a Cory Doctorow, “Metacrap: Putting the Torch to Seven
Straw-men of the Meta-utopia,” http://
www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm
a Russell Glass, “Is Anyone Going to Tag all of this Stuff?,”
http://zoominfo.blogs.com/soughtafter/2005/03/semantic_web_is.html
a Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and
Worldview,” www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_sllogism.html
a Pete Norvig, “Semantic Web Ontologies: What Works and
What Doesn’t,”
www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P7480_0_3_0_C
Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 54