[topicmapmail] Contextualized Topic Maps.

[Murray Altheim]

Carlo Moneti wrote:
> * Murray Altheim wrote:
> 
> 
>>I think the idea of scoping topics is a bit of a non-sequitor, and
>>is perhaps a mistaken understanding of the Topic Maps paradigm.
>>In the real world as well as in Topic Maps, topics simply *exist*
>>(in TM, Topics are proxies for their subjects). I believe what
>>you really want is the ability to provide a context in which those
>>Topics play a role in an Association.
> 
> 
> Is scoping topics really unapplicable? Suppose I have a repository of 
> documents, and I want to see the "reviewed" ones and not the "unreviewed".  
> What would be the recommended approach?

You've provided the answer in your reply. You've given each of those
Topics a characteristic of either "reviewed" or "unreviewed". This
could be expressed in XTM as either adding a topic representing
either of those two characteristics to each of the Topics in the
XTM document, or you could avoid "polluting" the Topics themselves
by creating Associations between those Topics and their character-
istics. As to what's recommended, there's a number of ways to do
this; which one is best is probably pretty application-dependent.

This kind of thing isn't specific to Topic Maps, BTW. Frame systems
do something similar, and Faceted Classification would do something
like this by simply adding a facet to the entity.

Murray

......................................................................
Murray Altheim                    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK               .

     Coca-Cola's new brand of "pure" bottled water, Dasani,
     was revealed earlier this month to be tap water taken
     from the mains. Then it emerged that what the firm
     described as its "highly sophisticated purification
     process", based on Nasa spacecraft technology, was in
     fact reverse osmosis used in many modest domestic water
     purification units. Yesterday, the entire UK supply of
     Dasani was pulled off the shelves because it has been
     contaminated with bromate, a cancer-causing chemical.
     "Things get worse with Coke" -- The Guardian
     http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1174127,00.html

     Prof Steve Squyres, principal scientific investigator
     for the rover said evidence from bromide salts in the
     rock pointed to evaporation. This, he said, suggested
     a past environment where water came and went.
     "Mars rover sits on ancient beach" -- BBC News
     http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3560867.stm

     Martians drank Dasani!