[topicmapmail] An Idea about TopicMap intelligent views

[Thomas B. Passin]

Alan Hardy wrote:

> Oh yes, the point. Mind maps, although sometimes terse and subjective to the
> creator, are an amazing visual tool for representing a subject to a user.
> Now if you could use Topic Maps to store the data model and use a common
> subject ontology. This would be an excellent starting point, allowing
> individual users to submit to a common knowledge store, using a simple tool.

I am an avid user of mind maps, and I am always interested in ideas in 
this area.  A mind map contains less information than a topic map. 
How's that, you say?  A mind map has edges that connect to edges - in 
effect, the node at the junction has been shrunk down to invisibility. 
So the nodes have no properties except for the edges that connect to the 
junction.

Beyond that, the edges may represent relations, topics, qualifiers, or 
alternate between them.  This is wonderful for capturing flashes of 
human thinking, but the information that says what any given edge is 
supposed to represent is not there except by implication.

So the way I see it, a topic map -> mind map conversion is one-way, 
being lossy.  Thus a mindmap could be considered a view of a topic map, 
but the reverse will not necessarily work.

As for a common subject ontology, that is always good for an argument! 
There are a number of reports of studies that have found that there is 
not much overlap in terms (and maybe concepts, I'm not sure) between 
several people, even in areas they know well (e.g., Tony Buzan cites 
work where bankers were asked to give associations about "money").

I think that to use a common ontology in an easy, everyday way, a person 
would have to get really familiar with it.  This is not likely to happen 
on any large scale in an organization.  Heck, I cannot always figure out 
where to file a given bookmark, even though I myself created the 
classifying folders in the bookmark collection!

But then, how to manage without a common ontology?  Hmm, a real conundrum!

Enough for now!

Cheers,

Tom P