[topicmapmail] Wiki/WebLog application built on top of topicmaps...

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Guy Murphy
| 
| I'd like to tentatively announce a Wiki/WebLog application built on
| the .NET platform using a TopicMap[-like] back-end, for anybody that
| might have an interest.

This sounds very interesting. I'll have a look when I'm online again.
For now the "[-like]" part of what you write sounds a bit disturbing.
Why make it 50% topic maps? Why not 0% or 100%? I have difficulty
seeing the benefit of doing it any other way.

Do you implement XTM import and/or export? If not, why not? And, if
not, what's the relationship between your Wiki-like thing and topic
maps? 
 
| I say TopicMap[-like] as the back-end doesn't implement some of the
| fine-points of the TopicMap model... associations aren't topics for
| instance... but it has topics, occurrences, associations etc.

Well, associations aren't topics in topic maps, either, so I wonder
what you mean by this. If you want to know how to implement topic maps
in your back end, look at the SAM:
  <URL: http://www.isotopicmaps.org/sam/ >
 
| The application is very close to beta now, with most major features
| being complete I am currently working on DateTime associations [...]

Why model this as associations rather than occurrences? That way you
don't have to create lots of topics you don't really need.

| As a side note if I were to do this application again I would choose
| an Association DataModel rather than a TNM one for the reason that
| I've found that an annoying aspect about enforcing bidirectional
| relationships is that one side can't be uninterested in the
| relationship. By way of concrete example...

Note that topic maps are called "topic maps", not "topic navigation
maps". That name went out of use back in 1999.
 
| We have a simple relationship of... created(user, topic)... which is
| formed between a topic representing a user and the topics they
| create.
| 
| Now 100 topic creations later, each topic that's created has a
| single highly useful link by virtue of the "created" association to
| the user that created it... the user on the other hand has 100
| "created" associations from their topic, 95 of which they aren't
| remotely interested in.... Now I'm aware that others might be
| interested in what topics a user has created, but I'm looking to
| fulfil pragmatic user requirements not purity of form.

That's fine, but why is this a problem. You don't have to display
these relationships when we are looking at a User topic. You can just
filter them out, put them on a separate page, or do whatever you like.
So how does this become a 
 
| It would seem that the Associative DataModel (such as that used by
| Semantica) offers me more choices than the TopicMap.

How?

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >