[SCL] Background Techie References

[Murray Altheim]

I promised some references during the telecon. If I missed any or anyone
has a question, let me know.

## Published Subject Indicators (PSIs):

    OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects TC - Deliverables
    http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/index.htm

this is a list of PSI-related documents. You might rather use the following:

    Published Subjects - Definitions, Requirements and Examples
    http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/general.htm

Section 2 of this is a "gentle intro". Check out section 2.2 in particular.

## Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs):

    http://purl.org/

The PURL home page has both a "brief" and a "longer" intro to PURLs. The
brief is very brief. The longer version provides some of the history and
rationale. To each his/her own.

## Topic Maps

Topic Maps were first described in ISO 13250:2000 Topic Maps. This is
now in "second edition". The ISO standard uses an abstract syntax
called in SGML parlance a "meta-DTD". There are SGML tools for
determining whether a given DTD conforms to the meta-DTD, and trans-
forming between them, etc. in theory. Anyway, XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0
are a serialization syntax for ISO Topic Maps. NewsML (used by Reuters
in keeping track of their news stories) is another Topic Map
application. I think Steve Newcomb has said that HTTP-GET can be
considered as a Topic Map application under some strange circumstance.
MS Word can be considered a Topic Map application (just kidding...).

Anyway, here's some links. The only one you probably need to read
over is the XTM 1.0 spec. The TM community is currently in the throes
of working over abstract models, query and template languages, etc.

   XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0 Specification
   http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/

   Home of SC34/WG3 Information Association
   http://www.isotopicmaps.org/

The specs. The latter includes links to pretty much every one of
them, and there are a slew of 'em (some would say a slough...)

   A Gentle Introduction to Topic Maps (section 2.1)
   http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/#desc-intro

That certain man we spoke so admiringly of in the telecon today
anonymously wrote section 2.1 of XTM 1.0 (dis is a sikrit. shh.)

   What Are Topic Maps? by Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopia.
   http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/09/11/topicmaps.html?page=1

a good general introduction, a bit on the techie side.

Murray

......................................................................
Murray Altheim                    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK               .

   [...T]here will be a simulated biological attack on Chicago, with
   thousands of patients showing symptoms of serious illnesses
   beginning to appear in the city's hospitals on Tuesday. [...] The
   exercise is planned to end on a positive note, with suspects being
   arrested at the end of the week.
             -- "US drills for terror attacks", BBC News, 12 May 2003

   The terrorist attack is taken for granted, but endlessly postponed.
   The true catastrophe is that we are living under a permenent threat
   of catastrophe. -- Slavoj Zizek, The New Yorker, 5 May 2003 [38-47]