[topicmapmail] situational topic maps

[Dr. Heiko Beier]

Dear Martin,

thank you for raising the issue of "situational" topic maps.

I don't know whether I completely got your idea of "situational". In our
(moresophy) view one of the key advantages of a topic map is that it allows
to tailor information to the needs of a user in certain situation. In
difference to other methods like process modelling etc. this is not
restricted to certain pre-defined situation patterns like processes (i.e.
events and activities) but can be extended to any kind of topics describing
the context of a situation. moresophy is actually making money from this
very idea: optimizing information quality by providing people with
information they actually need - in contrast to what search engines offer
them.

The power to do this lies in the topic map standard itself. "Situational
modeling" is just an application of it. Of course it is very useful to have
a comfortable environment for designing topic maps, like our L4 Modeller,
which very much supports the use of roles. Roles are a very good means to
implement "situational context".

The reason why you couldn't find more relevant information on our server
regarding this issue, might be that much of our documents/case studies etc.
are currently in german only (on moresophy.de, not .com). However, knowing
that dutch people use to speak fluent german, it might be worth while to
have a look at our german webpage.

---
Dr. Heiko Beier (CEO)
moresophy GmbH
Meglingerstr. 20
81477 Munich / Germany
Tel: +49-89-523041-70
Fax: +49-89-523041-89
Internet: www.moresophy.com





-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
Von: topicmapmail-admin@infoloom.com
[mailto:topicmapmail-admin@infoloom.com]Im Auftrag von Martin Schouten
Gesendet: Montag, 25. Oktober 2004 15:32
An: topicmapmail@infoloom.com
Betreff: [topicmapmail] situational topic maps


Dear mailing list readers,

My name is Martin Schouten and I am a graduate student at Utrecht University
in the Netherlands. I am following a master course called Business
Informatics, and soon I will doing my thesis. However, I first have to
complete another task, which is doing a little research for a lecturer at
our faculty. The research topic is (surprise surprise) topic maps. More
specifically, I want to know if there are (commercial) tools that support so
called (by me) "situational Topic Maps", which is nothing more that a view
on a topic map for a specific situation (i.e. a project outcome for some
client). This concept linked to the notion of situational methods, which are
methods (practices, techniques, procedures etc.) for a specific situation.
I know a little bit about topic maps, since I followed some courses which
involved XML, RDF and TM theory.

To get to the point of the story: I need to know what commercial
applications or tools exist that support a view of a topic map for a certain
situation. Now, I find a lot of interesting information on Topic Maps and
research related to it, I know that the ISO created the Topic Map Standard
(and topicmap.org makes the XML based XTM specification), that the W3
created RDF (and it's "ontology-extensions" DAML+OIL), but everything still
seems to be in a research and experimental phase. There are hardly any
companies promoting the use of topic map solutions. The only ones I keep
finding are Ontopia, Moresophy, Empolis and Mondeca.

Do you anything about their products apart from the things they mention on
their websites? Till now, I find the Ontopia site the most informative. If
you anything else that may help me, I would be very happy if you would share
it with me.

Well, thanks in advance and I hope you can help me!

Sincerely,

Martin Schouten

Ps: Murray, thanks for your response to this e-mail today!