Building a Topic Map Repository

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Building a Topic Map Repository

• Xia Lin Drexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PA

Jian Qin Syracuse UniversitySyracuse, NY
Presented at Knowledge Technologies Conference,
Seattle, Washington, March 2002
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Current Environment

• Topic map as a knowledge structure for content
  representation
• The idea is easy to understand TAO.
• The standard has been established.
• There is a great demand for a good content
  representation structure and tools.
• Topic maps are useful, but not practical yet.
• How many good and useful topic maps can you find
  on the Web?

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Issue 1 Standards

• Topic maps are ISO standard -- ISO/IEC
  132502000.
• XML Topic Maps(XTM) defines an abstract model and
  XML grammar for topic maps.
• XTM does not define topic maps at the
  implementation level.
• Each implementation may interpret XTM
  differently or define their own metadata with
  the framework of XTM.

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Issue 2 Implementation

• Topic Map implementation is hard.
• There are no magic solutions for content
  representation.
• It is labor-intensive and involves many manual
  activities to create a complete TAO.
• There are no good tools for topic map creation.
• XML is not designed to let end-users work
  directly on objects contained in a XML file.

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Topic Map Repository

• Objectives
• to integrate disparate knowledge structures
• To facilitate the creation of topic maps
• to promote user interactions with knowledge
  structures for more effective searching,
  browsing, and navigation.

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Features of the Repositories

• A scalable and expandable architecture
• A neutral platform for integrating and displaying
  multiple knowledge structures.
• The interoperability with other knowledge
  repositories.
• Providing direct access to create, edit, and
  personalize the look and feel of interfaces and
  topic maps (without knowing XML and XTM).
• Directly linkage to the Web or designated Web
  sites to allow effective utilization of topic
  maps.

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The architecture
Knowledge Repository
topic maps
MYSQL Database
Java Servlets/JSP
Integrated Displays
Wrappers
Wrappers
Topic maps
Wrappers
Topic Maps
XSLT
XML Schema
Personal Customization tools
Other Repositories
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XTM Implementation

• XTM is too flat
• There are no levels of topics defined.
• Many topics are used to provide definitions and
  scopes of content topics.
• No clear separation of metadata and data.

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TAO Enhancement

• T Adding layers to topics.
• A Defining specific association types
• Parent-child
• Synonyms
• O Adding default occurrences
• Connect topics to search engines through
  pre-defined search strategies.

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Hierarchically-enhanced Topic Map structures
Theme
Knowledge Class (Topic map)
Branch (category)
Topic
Topic Topic
(order)
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Define A Search Strategy for each Topic

• soft links
• Static urls are often broken after a while.
• Links through search engines will often recover
  it.
• Links through search engines will also find new
  relevant documents
• If the query link is appropriately constructed.

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Some basic Strategies

• Search by the topic term alone
• Search with the term and a scope term
• Search with the term and all its synonyms
• Search with the term and all the terms in its
  upper hierarchy
• Search with the term and all the terms in its
  lower hierarchy
• Search with the term and all the sibling terms

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System Management

• Login
• Access control
• Editing tool
• Multiple display formats
• Import/Export functions

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System Demo
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Future Development

• Multiple Knowledge Structures
• Contains not only topic maps, but also
• Thesauri
• Ontologies
• Cross-reference between topic maps.
• Thesaurus-assisted topic map construction.

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Future Development

• Visual Displays
• Based on semantics
• Based on co-occurrence frequencies
• Integration with other systems

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