[topicmapmail] Creating topic maps

[Are Gulbrandsen]

Hi Pranav

Pranav Lal:
> Any one any thoughts?

I wrote the article "Conceptual Modeling of Topic Maps with ORM  
Versus UML" [1] for the TMRA'05 conference. Here I discuss how ORM  
(Object Role Modeling) has the potential to be used for Topic Maps  
ontology modeling, mentioning business rules as an interesting  
application area. Some of the pieces in the puzzle are still missing  
however, so nobody has yet made the tools that would let you  
transform an ORM model to a TMCL schema (and back).

> I need to map business processes and I am thinking about using  
> topic maps.

In recent years, ORM has gotten much interest as a tool for modeling  
business rules, and ORM is now the basis (metamodel) for the emerging  
OMG specification "Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business  
Rules" (SBVR).

> I would like to give the user of the process a graphical  
> representation of the
> process and the relationship amongst the various elements in that  
> process.
> However, I would like to be able to create this process in text  
> format and
> to review it too in text format. This would help in 2 ways;
> (1) I could put up the text of the process on a web site if need be,

ORM is a conceptual modeling approach that has both a verbal and a  
graphical syntax.

A key feature of ORM is the ability to translate all parts of the  
model to natural language sentences. This make it easier to  
communicate the model to domain experts, and is a good validation  
mechanism. This seems to be a main reason why ORM was chosen as the  
basis for the OMG SBVR specification.

> (2) personally, I use a screen reader so drawing tools or tools  
> such as mind
> manager that create mind Maps are not accessible. Microsoft Visio is a
> possible option but is that the right tool for the job?

Visio is the most used tool for ORM modeling.

In my own project we have made a Topic Map based knowledge base for  
systems operation, administration and maintenance documentation. Here  
we have modeled (and documented) with ORM and manually translated the  
ontology model to LTM (The Linear Topic Map Notation).


Best Regards,
Are D. Gulbrandsen
The XML-group,
Center for Information Technology Services
University of Oslo


[1] "Conceptual Modeling of Topic Maps with ORM Versus UML"
Published article:
Are D. Gulbrandsen, Conceptual Modeling of Topic Maps with ORM Versus  
UML, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Volume 3873, Feb 2006,  
Page 93, DOI 10.1007/11676904_8, URL http://dx.doi.org/ 
10.1007/11676904_8

Presentation held at "TMRA'05 - International Workshop on Topic Maps  
Research and Applications":
http://www.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/~tmra05/PRES/AG.pdf
(The article is much more up to date as the last SBVR draft was  
published after the conference.)