Fwd: Re: [topicmapmail] Topic map design guidelines?

[Dan Corwin]

Teresa -

I agree these role types need to be standardized.  So I have
published their PSIs as a first installment of a CTM ontology
for expressing Conceptual Graphs in XTM:

   http://www.lexikos.com/psi/ctm/relations/

In doing the other parts, I have found this role set workable
but incomplete.  Its next version will also add PSIs for Strt,
Matr, and Medm (see the Thematic Roles paper).

It also classifies these role types and constrains each one to
show how it applies (or not) to properties and/or major types
of associations emulating English prepositions or verbs ... or
their Spanish equivalents.  :-)

Cheers,
Dan Corwin


Teresa Silio wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> Is it possible to set a set of primitive roles (in order to avoid variations) based on the Linguistic semantic roles?, that is:
> 
> Agent, Patient, Objetc, Source, Intrument, etc.
> 
> Thank you,
> Teresa 
> 
>  Teresa Silio
>  Head of Library and Information Science Services
>  CNIC Fundacion Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Carlos III
>  Ronda de Poniente, 5
>  28760 Tres Cantos, Madrid
>  Tel +34 91 8061880 x 1150
>  Fax +34 91 8035258
>  tsilio@cnic.es
>  http://www.cnic.es
> 
> 
> Jan Algermissen <jalgermissen@topicmapping.com> wrote ..
> 
>>schoenfeld.i@atlas.de wrote:
>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>does anyone knows about a kind of style guide, guidelines or best practices
>>
>>of how to design good topic maps? 
>>
>>Ingo--
>>
>>I suggest that you look at some of the extensive material on data modeling,
>>the general principles apply to data modeling with topic maps also.
>>
>>Some stuff to consider:
>>
>>- what are your classes? (although not a structural part of
>>  the Topic Maps paradigm, classes are still a major design
>>  element)
>>
>>- don't mix classes and roles. 'Person' is a class, while 'Teacher'
>>  is a role.
>>  (see: http://www.infoloom.com/pipermail/topicmapmail/2002q1/003566.html
>>)
>>
>>- define the controlled vocabulary of your domain, avoid ambigous
>>  names
>>
>>- what are properties, what are relationships? Relationships
>>  map directly to associations and participating roles provide
>>  a fine secondary classification of your instances (e.g. "what
>>  persons are teachers?" ==> find all players of role teacher)
>>
>>  Properties of your instances (e.g. Age, Height, Address,...)
>>  can only be expressed by tweaking the semantics of <occurrence>
>>  a bit (in the absence of a dedicated property element in XTM):
>>
>>  <topic>
>>    <occurrence>
>>      <instanceOf>
>>        <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="http://.../Age" />
>>      </instanceOf>
>>      <resourceData>12</resourceData>
>>    </occurrence>
>>  </topic>
>>
>>  This arguably does not leave much room for data typing the '12',
>>  but there is currently no other way.
>>
>>  Hmm...., you could combine your XTM with RDF, given the TM engine you
>>  use supports this. E.g. along the following lines:
>>
>>  In your XTM put:
>>  <topic>
>>    <subjectIdentity>
>>      <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="http://people.org/mary" />
>>    </subjectIdentity>
>>    <!-- ... -->
>>  </topic>
>>
>>  In your RDF put:
>>
>>  <rdf:description about="http://people.org/mary">
>>     <foo:age>12</foo:age>
>>  </rdf:description>
>>
>>  Via RDF schema the semantics and data type of foo:age can be defined.
>>
>>
>>- You should also (from my experience) restrict yourself to
>>
>>  - using a given role only once in an association (no multiple
>>    role players)
>>
>>  - using a given role only in associations of a single type (the
>>    combination of the roles is essentially what constitutes the
>>    type of relationship, so they should not be mixed across
>>    different types). This also enables you to select associations
>>    soly by role: "find all assocications where X plays superclass"
>>    as opposed to "find all assocications of type superclass-subclass
>>    where X plays superclass".
>>
>>Anyhow, just some guidelines I follow. Hope they help a bit.
>>
>>
>>Jan
>>
>>  
>>    
>>
>>Jan Algermissen                           http://www.topicmapping.com
>>Consultant & Programmer	                  http://www.gooseworks.org
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