[topicmapmail] Contextualized Topic Maps.

[Thomas Schwotzer]

Hi,

> No change. It's always been this way. From XTM 1.0:
> 
>   "An association is a relationship between one or more topics, each
>    of which plays a role as a member of that association. The roles
>    a topic plays in associations are among the characteristics that
>    can be assigned to it and are therefore governed by scope."
>    http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/#desc-association

I'm afraid its hairsplitting. Anyway:
"The roles a topic plays in associations are among the characteristics
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
that can be assigned to it and are therefore governed by scope."

Roles played by a topic can be scoped, not the association itself.
That's different, isn't it?

I often read about "associations between topics" which is in my
understanding a linguistic shortcut for "two topics both playing
roles in one association".

Furthermore, both roles can be scoped even with different scopes.
Thus, validity of a relation between both topics can depend
on two scopes not just one. There can be more than just a single
scope for one association.

Am I wrong? I'm sorry, if so.

>> Of course, I can solve all these things with an application e.g.
>> by defining some TOLOG statements.
>>
>> But what is required to make a Topic Map Engine a bit more context
>> aware? I don't have a solution. Are there classes of context types
>> which deserve additional concepts? Conceptually, I would never
>> propose to enhance the TM standard. It is fine as it is.
>> I think of defining some kinds of context types which can be
>> formalized by topics and associations. Topic Map Engines which
>> are aware of these context types can perform some additional
>> functions.
> 
> 
> Yes, I think we are in agreement. TMs provide the basic structural
> foundation upon which you can build ontologies, in a similar way to
> how RDF provides the basis of OWL.

Right. I think in this direction.

>> An example: One of my students (Holger Hammel) combined a
>> a Topic Map Engine with a geografic information system (GIS) in
>> it diploma thesis. In this system location is a context type.
>> The locations, coordinates, areas etc. are mostly defined by topics
>> and associations. Thus, for the Topic Map Engine it was an ordinary
>> Topic Map. But the LBS-TM Engine knows better and can interpret
>> some special types of topic and associations as location context.
>> This system can be asked for information of a given subject
>> (semantical context) at a location (spatial context). The result
>> is a topic map fragment which only contains information which
>> are related to the subject and relevant at a the location.
>>
>> Actually, the fragment does not contain any location information
>> anymore. It was decontexualized.
> 
> 
> Sounds like a very cool application. I'm certain people on this list
> would be happy to have a link to information about the project.

The thesis can be found here:
http://ivs.tu-berlin.de/~thsc/lbsxtm/
It's written in German, sorry.
I guess he should write an English paper about it.
There was also an article in a German magazin this year:
iX 02/04.

>> Sorry, it was a lengthy reply, again.
> 
> You almost tie the record!  :-)
I work hard on it. :-)

Regards, Thomas
-- 
Thomas Schwotzer
University of Technology Berlin
Intelligent Networks and Management of Distributed Systems
http://ivs.tu-berlin.de/Schwotzer
fon: +49-30-314-79833 fax: +49-30-314-24573