The Myth of Topic Maps

The Myth of Topic Maps: WhatWorks and What Doesn’t?Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEOAccess Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony131 Adams NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108j_ven_eman@accessinn.comwww.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com505-265-3591 / 505-256-1080 - fax Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 1

Innovations in search?How about, “Innovations inunderstanding?” 2

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

Meaning and retrieval start with aknowledge 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

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

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

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

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

Meta data as indexing languageList of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESSAmbiguity 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

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

Term recordVarious views

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

OWLa Web Ontology Languagea W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004a 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

OWL Ontologya May include • Classes • Properties • Instancesa Capture semanticsa Multiple, distributed, related ontology schemaa Normative OWL exchange syntax RDF/XML • Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 23

Structure of controlled vocabulariesList of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESSAmbiguity 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

Taxonomy term recorda <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

Thesaurus term recorda <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. 26a </TermInfo> Source: www.DataHarmony.com

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

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

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

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

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 Smithmember-of Little league http://www.swaa.org Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 33

Problems with Semantic Weba Complexity a KOS biasesa Lack of tools a Lack of agreementa Lack of skills a Lack of interesta Limited resources a Good enougha Gaming the system a Topic Maps vs. OWLa The syllogism trap Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 34

Lack of agreementa “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

The syllogism trapa Humans are mortala Greeks are humana Therefore, Greeks are mortala New Mexicans speak Spanisha The author lives in New Mexicoa Therefore, ...Source: Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview”www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_syllogism.html/ andDave McComb, presentation at DAMA-I, May 2005 www.wilshireconferences.com Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 36

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

Full-text search and appliedindexing languagesa Full-text search engines - getting bettera Thesauri applied using machine automated indexing - easier, faster, cheapera Taxonomic navigation • Faceted navigation • Table of contents drilldown - taxonomy viewsa Query disambiguation Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 41

Full-text search and appliedindexing languagesa Long historya Many richly developed thesauri with legsa Tools that worka Large body of professionalsa Almost as rich Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 42

Almost as richHierarchical View Term Record

ANSI/NISO Z39.19-200xDRAFT STANDARD SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Organizational objectivesa ASIS&T -- virtual library • Subject mattera ASRT -- internal information control • Organization charta Naval Postgrad -- Homeland security degree • Curriculum outlinea SLA -- Web content • Public Web navigation Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 45

SLA website and thesaurus

SLA search

Naval Postgraduate School’s Homeland Security Taxonomy

Tools that work!

Thank you!The Myth of Topic Maps: WhatWorks and What Doesn’t?Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEOAccess Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony131 Adams NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108j_ven_eman@accessinn.comwww.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com505-265-3591 / 505-256-1080 - fax Copyright © 2005 Access Innovations, Inc. 52

Resourcesa www.accessinn.coma www.dataharmony.coma www.iso.orga 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

Resourcesa Cory Doctorow, “Metacrap: Putting the Torch to Seven Straw-men of the Meta-utopia,” http:// www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htma Russell Glass, “Is Anyone Going to Tag all of this Stuff?,” http://zoominfo.blogs.com/soughtafter/2005/03/semantic_web_is.htmla Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview,” www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_sllogism.htmla 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

The Myth of Topic Maps

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