[topicmapmail] Survey of Actual Scope Use in Topic Maps

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Marc de Graauw
|
| I have made a small survey of the way existing Topic Maps actually
| use scope. 

Excellent! I've long wanted to do something similar, and to extend it
to also cover current practice with regard to reification, the
structuring of associations, and the use of subject indicators.
Anyway, it's great that someone has taken the first step.

| It is no science: the sample is rather small (17 Topic Maps) and
| probably not wholly representative since Topic Maps for
| demonstration purposes are over-represented.

If you are interested in extending the coverage, here are some more
topic maps you may look at:
  <URL: http://www.ontopia.net/omnigator/models/topicmap_complete.jsp?tm=factbook.hytm >
  <URL: http://www.ontopia.net/omnigator/models/topicmap_complete.jsp?tm=i18n.ltm >
  <URL: http://www.ontopia.net/omnigator/models/topicmap_complete.jsp?tm=tm-standards.xtm >
  <URL: http://zope.it.bond.edu.au//research/borgtom/publications/literature >

Just use the "Export" link in the Omnigator if you want local XTM
versions of the Omnigator TMs. 

Kal also has some topic maps on the TM4J site (for the web site
itself, for topic map literature, and for the XML Schema browser), but
I don't know if those are on the web anywhere. (One is in the TM4J
CVS, so I could send it to you.)

There is also an interesting topic map on the XML 2001 (Orlando)
conference CD-ROM.

| Nevertheless the survey yields some (perhaps unsurprising) results
| which my gut feeling tells me are not too far from the truth.

Too far from current practice, you mean? :)
 
| Almost 30 % of Topic Maps (5 in the sample) do not use scope at
| all. Of those Topic Maps using scope (12 in the sample) about 60 %
| uses scope for natural language of names. Another 40 % uses scope
| for controlled vocabularies. Scope is used for association name
| direction in 33 % of those Topic Maps. (Since a Topic Map may use
| scope in more than one way, the percentages do not add up to 100 %.)
| Other uses of scope are incidental.

What does the "eml" category actually mean? I saw the description, but
it didn't tell me anything, I must admit.

In any case some conclusions seem clear:

 - very few topic maps use scope to avoid the TNC, and so probably
   they would break if the TNC were applied,

 - the use of scope is so far in its infancy.

In addition it appears that the idea of using scope for controlled
vocabularies is relatively popular.

Not sure what that means, though.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
ISO SC34/WG3, OASIS GeoLang TC        <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >