The Topic Maps standard is an international standard (ISO/IEC 13250) first published in January 2000.

Topic Maps is a standard representation for interchanging finding aids, such as indexes, glossaries, thesauri, relational databases.

Co-editors: Michel Biezunski, Martin Bryan, Steven R. Newcomb.

Brief history of Topic Maps

1991-1993: An effort led by Steven R. Newcomb starts within a group of Unix vendors called the "Davenport Group". This initiative, called "SOFABED" (Standard Open Formal Architecture for Browsable Electronic Documents) studies how the HyTime standard can be used to represent interoperable indexes, glossaries, thesauri and tables of contents. HyTime is an extension of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and stands for " Hypermedia/Multimedia Time-based Structuring Language".

1993-1995: A new group is formed, called "Conventions for the Application of HyTime". The document, co-edited by Michel Biezunski and steven R. Newcomb, issued in 1995, contains the basic model used for Topic Maps.

1996-2000: A new standard project, ISO/IEC 13250 (Topic Maps) is processed through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and is published in January 2000. The model inherited from CApH is formalized and augmented during that period. Topic Maps are described as an application of SGML and HyTime.

2000-2002: During the time the Topic Maps standard was processed inside ISO, XML was born. This simplified version of SGML, published as a W3C recommendation in 1998, is optimized for use on the Web. In January 2000, as soon as the ISO Topic Maps standard, an effort starts in an independent group called TopicMaps.Org, chaired originally by Michel Biezunski and Steven R. Newcomb, to publish an XML version of the Topic Maps standard. Murray Altheim and Sam Hunting are associate editors. The version is published in December 2000, slightly amended in February 2001. Steve Pepper and Graham Moore are appointed as editors, and Eric Freese becomes the chair of TopicMaps.org. In 2001, the XML version of Topic Maps (called "XTM") is proposed to ISO for incorporation in the Topic Maps standard. In 2002, the XML version is incorporated as part of the standard.

The Topic Maps Standard, provided on the Web by SC34 chairman

Work in progress at ISO (December 2002)

The group responsible for the work on Topic Maps is the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34/WG3. Work in progress includes:

Improved interoperability between applications. Creation of a "Standard Model" that explicitly declares how the Topic Maps syntax should be interpreted by applications. Foundations are made explicit through a work started under the name "Processing Model For Topic Maps" (PM4TM). Projects of a Topic Maps Constraint Language and a Topic Maps Query Language are under construction.

The discussion list where these issues are discussed is available to the public. For information, contact Michel Biezunski.

OASIS Work in Progress on Topic Maps

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) has several working groups on Topic Maps related issues.

• The purpose of the Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee is to promote the use of Published Subjects by specifying requirements, recommendations, and best practices, for their definition, management and use.
• OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects for Geography and Languages (GeoLang) TC
• OASIS Vocabulary for XML Standards and Technologies TC (XMLvoc TC)