Topic Maps for Navigating E-Journals

[Gerry Mckiernan]

                   _Topic Maps for Navigating E-Journals_

     This weekend I was reminded of a new ISO/IEC standard for Topic Navigation Maps  (TNMs) or Topic Maps (TMs) [ISO/IEC 13250: 2000]

[  http://www.iso.ch/cate/d21485.html ] (2000)

 [ http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0058.htm] (1999)

"This International Standard provides a standardized notation for interchangeably representing information about the structure of information resources used to define topics, and the relationships between topics. A set of one or more interrelated documents that employs the notation defined by this Standard is called a Topic Navigation Map (TNM). In general, the structural information conveyed by TNMs includes:

     * Groupings of addressable information objects. Objects so grouped are  
        said to form a topic (or, are said to share the semantics of the topic).

      * Relationships between topics ( associations ).

  In TNMs, a topic consists of locations where information relevant to a particular concept can be found. A TNM defines a multidimensional topic space - a space in which the only locations are topics, and in which the distances between topics are measurable in terms of the number of intervening topics which must be visited in order to get from one topic to another, and the kinds of relationships that define the path from one topic to another, if any, through the intervening topics, if any."

[ http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0058.htm ]

    In addition to the standard itself (or prior versions), there are a number of relevant  Web resources, documents, and initiatives easily identifiable from 
 a Web engine search (e.g., google.com). Among the more relevant are 

Infoloom FAQ [Topic Maps]
[ http://www.infoloom.com/faq.htm ]

Learn More About Topic Maps 
[http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/learn_more.html ]

Topic Maps: Bridging Information and Knowledge Management
by Hans Holger Rath

[  http://www.sys-con.com/xml/archives/0106/Rath/index.html]
[ http://www.sys-con.com/xml/archives/0106/Rath/index_d.html]

XTM: XML Topic Maps
[ http://www.doctypes.org/xtm/home.html] 

The XML Cover Pages ((XML) Topic Maps)
[ http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/topicMaps.html ]

    With the association of Topic Maps with XML and the planned migration to the use of  XML by some e-publishers, it seems logical to me that Topic Maps are / will the Next Big Thing for access and navigation within/between/among e-journals

    While the paint has only recent dried on the Topic Map standard and 
efforts for expressing Topic Maps in XML are still underway, I'd be very interested in learning about Any and All efforts, plans, and/or thoughts  of using Topic Maps  to navigate e-journals.

[The use of Topic Maps in other digital environments (e.g., with controlled vocabularies) would also be of interest]

   As Always, Any and All contributions, suggestions, comments, queries, 
pardons, Cosmic Insights, etc. etc. etc. are Most Welcome!

[Thanks Alex Sigel ( Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Bonn, Germany) for informing me about Topic Maps and his work in this and related areas [  http://index.bonn.iz-soz.de/~sigel/])

   Regards,

/Gerry McKiernan
Topical Librarian 
Iowa State University Ames
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

                     "The Best Way To Predict the Future is to Invent It" 
                                                 Alan Kay