Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t? 31 October 2007 A304 - 2:45-3:30 PM PDT Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO Access Innovations, Inc. / Data.

Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t?

31 October 2007

A304 - 2:45-3:30 PM PDT

Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO

Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony

505.998.0800 / www.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com

[email protected]

Copyright 2007 Access Innovations, Inc.

New Technologies Meta data W3C

OWL SKOS

Topic Maps


Meta data What is it in this context? How does it work in a semantic

environment?


“Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”


Semantic Web?“Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”

About

October 31, 2007

Professional baseball

Entertainment

Business

By Smith

Story Arial

Summary In brief ...

1.98


1.98? Price? Price of what?

Newspaper? Stadium seat? Article?

$, , Ÿ, £? Wholesale? Retail? Sale? How?

?


“Meaning” starts with a knowledge organization system (KOS)

Uncontrolled list Name authority file Synonym set/ring Controlled vocabulary Taxonomy Thesaurus

Not complex - $

Highly complex - $$$$

LOTS OF OVERLAP!

Topic MapOntologySKOS


Meta Data - the “Meaning Markers” Data about data Information about information Included Added


Data about ‘stuff’ - like what? Author name Date of creation Language used in the creation Title of the creation Subject of the creation Keywords...


Narrowing the focus Keywords (AKA subject headings, index

terms, identifiers, etc.) are one type of meta data.


For example... A bibliographic database record usually

includes information such as author, title, language, date of creation, and subject area.

So does a traditional library card catalog


But did you think about… The legend on a street map? The yellow pages in a telephone book? The aisle signs in a supermarket?


Meaning of meta data Meta data is information

that ‘points’ to a explanation or a resolution

Meta data makes statements about an information resource or object


Sidebar - meta data or metadata? ‘Metadata’ is “a word coined by Jack E.

Myers to represent current and future lines of products implementing the concepts of his MetaModel, and also to designate his company, The Metadata Company, that would develop and market those products.”


Metadata

A term not used prior to 1969 Used first in 1973 Registered U.S. Trademark (in 1986),

owned by Jack Myers Metadata granted incontestable status

in 1991 Designed to be a term with no particular

meaning

Meta Data

“Is MLB a sport, entertainment, or business?”<TI> </TI>

<ST>

<ST>

<ST>

</ST>

</ST>

</ST>

<DOC Date=10/31/07>

</DOC>


Entertainment

Business

<Byline> Smith </Byline>

<Text> There was a time ...</Text>

<AB> In brief ... </AB>

Included Added

Object


Meta data as indexing language

List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus

INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS

Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l

Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s Associative rel’s


Aka subject term, heading, node, category, descriptor, class

Taxonomy / thesaurus Main Term (MT) Top Term (TT) Broader Terms (BT) Narrower Terms (NT) Related Terms (RT)

See also (SA) Scope Note (SN) History (H) NonPreferred Term (NP)

Used for (UF), See (S)

TAXONOMY

THESAURUS

Term record

Various views


New Frontiers from the World Wide Web

Consortium:OWL & SKOS

Term record

Various views

The old frontier?


Taxonomy, Thesaurus, & Ontology

Taxonomies and thesauri are not ontologies They are entities Ontology – science of describing kinds of

entities “an explicit and formal specification of a

conceptualization”


Ontology

From philosophy – the science of

describing Kinds of entities in the world

How they are related


OWL Web Ontology Language

W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004

http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-owl-guide-20040210/

http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-owl-ref-20040210/

http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/Rec-webont-req-20040210/



Taxonomic classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Strigiformes

Families: Strigidae

Tytonidae

Copyright 2007 Access Innovations, Inc.Spotted Owl


Web Ontology language - OWL

OWL output Provides semantic meaning to these kinds of

entities

Web resource

Accessible to automated processes


OWL “…is intended to provide a language that

can be used to describe the classes and relations between them

that are inherent in Web documents and applications.”


OWL Formalize a domain by defining

Classes Properties of those classes

Define individuals Assert properties about them

Reason about these Classes and Individuals


OWL Ontology May include

1. Classes2. Properties3. Instances

Capture semantics Multiple, distributed, related ontology schema Normative OWL exchange syntax RDF/XML

Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language

Topic

SKOS


Structure of controlled vocabularies

List of words Synonyms Taxonomy Thesaurus

INCREASING COMPLEXITY / RICHNESS

Ambiguity control Ambiguity control Ambiguity cont’l Synonym control Synonym control Synonym cont’l

Hierarchical rel’s Hierarchical rel’s Associative rel’s


Hierarchical View

Term


<TermInfo> <T>Agrotechnology</T> <BT>Biotechnology</BT> <NT>Animal management technologies</NT> <NT>Controlled environment agriculture</NT> <NT>Genetically modified crops</NT> </TermInfo> Source: www.DataHarmony.com

Taxonomy term record


<TermInfo> <T>Agrotechnology</T> <BT>Biotechnology</BT> <NT>Animal management technologies</NT> <NT>Controlled environment agriculture</NT> <NT>Genetically modified crops</NT> <RT>Agricultural science</RT> <RT>Food technology</RT> <UF>Plant engineering</UF> <Scope></Scope> <Editorial_Note></Editorial_Note> <Facet></Facet> <History></History> </TermInfo> Source: www.DataHarmony.com

Thesaurus term record


<PreferredTerm rdf:ID="T131"><rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Agrotechnology</rdfs:label><BroaderTerm rdf:resource="#T603" newsindexer:alpha="Biotechnology"/><NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T252" newsindexer:alpha="Animal

management technologies"/><NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T1221" newsindexer:alpha="Controlled

environment agriculture"/>

<NarrowerTerm rdf:resource="#T2166" newsindexer:alpha="Geneticallymodified crops"/>

<Related_Term rdf:resource="#T127" newsindexer:alpha="Agriculturalscience"/>

<Related_Term rdf:resource="#T2020" newsindexer:alpha="Food technology"/>

<Non-Preferred_Term rdf:resource="#T3898" newsindexer:alpha="Plantengineering"/>

</PreferredTerm> Source: www.DataHarmony.com

OWL term record


SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System SKOS Core Guide

W3C Working Draft 2 November 2005 http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-

20051102/

SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification W3C Working Draft 2 November 2005 http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-spec-

20051102/


SKOS May include

1. Classes (RDFS)2. Properties (RDF)3. Instances??

Express structure and content of concept schemes Multiple, distributed, related SKOS schemes Normative SKOS exchange syntax RDF/XML

Resource Description Framework/Extensible Markup Language

OWL


SKOS Specifically for “concept schemes”

Thesauri Classification schemes Subject headings lists Taxonomies Terminologies Glossaries And other types of controlled vocabularies


SKOS Models concept schemes

A set of concepts OPTIONALLY includes statements about

semantic relationships between concepts Directionality implied - interpretations -

(‘skos:Concept’ and properties) Not people, organizations, places, etc.


Source:


DH SKOS Output<skos:Concept rdf:about="#T1">

<skos:prefLabel>Agriculture</skos:prefLabel><skos:altLabel>Agribusiness</skos:altLabel><skos:altLabel>Agronomy</skos:altLabel><skos:altLabel>Farming</skos:altLabel><status>Accepted</status>

</skos:Concept>



<skos:prefLabel>American music</skos:prefLabel><skos:broader rdf:resource="#T66" local:alpha="Music styles"/><skos:related rdf:resource="#T27" local:alpha="Country and western music"/><skos:related rdf:resource="#T51" local:alpha="Jazz music"/><skos:related rdf:resource="#T99" local:alpha="Rhythm and blues music"/><skos:related rdf:resource="#T101" local:alpha="Rock music"/><status>Accepted</status>

</skos:Concept>



<skos:prefLabel>Architecture</skos:prefLabel><skos:broader rdf:resource="#T113" local:alpha="Visual and performing arts"/><skos:scopeNote>Refers to the art and practice of designing and building structures</skos:scopeNote><status>Accepted</status>

</skos:Concept><skos:Concept rdf:about="#T4">

<skos:prefLabel>Band music</skos:prefLabel><skos:broader rdf:resource="#T49" local:alpha="Instrumental music"/><skos:related rdf:resource="#T5" local:alpha="Bands (Music)"/><status>Accepted</status>

</skos:Concept>

A Brief Discussion of Topic Maps


Statements about what?

Baseball

Amateur baseball

Little league


Sports

MLB


Topic Maps ISO standard - ISO 13250:2002 For merging back-of-the-book indexes Collection of structured markup Describing KOS Associating KOS with information

resources (objects) Separation of KOS from objects

Topic Maps Three main concepts

1. Names of things2. Occurrences of the named things3. Associations between names

Three additional constructs1. Identity2. Facet3. Scope

OWL

Topic with occurrence



http://www.newindexer.com/mlb.htm/

descriptor-for

Topic map layer

Information resources layer

Topics, associations, occurrences


Baseball

Sports

member-of

member-of

MLB

use-for http://www.newindexer.com/mlb.htm/

doc-type

Amateur baseball

Little leaguemember-of

descriptor-for

Professional athletes

related-to

Smith

author-of

member-of

http://www.swaa.org

article

Problems with Semantic Web Complexity Lack of tools Lack of skills Limited resources Gaming the system The syllogism trap

KOS biases Lack of agreement Lack of interest Good enough Topic Maps vs. OWL

Lack of agreement “Symbionese Liberation Army credited with

offing an SUV” About - ‘revolutionaries’ or ‘freedom fighters’ About - ‘revolutions’ or ‘freedom movements’

“Symbionese Liberation Army accused of firebombing SUV” About - ‘terrorists’ or ‘anarchists’ About - ‘terrorism’ or ‘anarchy’

The syllogism trap Humans are mortal Greeks are human Therefore, Greeks are mortal

New Mexicans speak Spanish The author lives in New Mexico Therefore, ...

Source: Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview”www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_syllogism.html/ andDave McComb, presentation at DAMA-I, May 2005 www.wilshireconferences.com

The syllogism humor trap I am a nobody Nobody is perfect Therefore, I am perfect

Bonus:I don't approve of political jokes.

I've seen too many of them get elected.

Topic Maps vs. OWL TMCL Topic maps XTM, HyTM, LTM ISO

OWL RDF Schema RDF RDF/XML, N3 SOAP, WSDL W3C


Full-text search and applied indexing languages Full-text search engines - getting better?? Thesauri applied using machine

automated indexing - easier, faster, cheaper

Taxonomic navigation Faceted navigation Table of contents drilldown - taxonomy views

Query disambiguation


Full-text search and applied indexing languages Long history Many richly developed thesauri with legs Tools that work Large body of professionals Almost as rich

Tools that work!

Hierarchical View

Term Record

Almost as rich

ANSI/NISO Z39.19-200x

Clearer disambiguation?

Mercury

Planets

Roman god

Metallic element

Temperature

Automobile

TypeOf

BrandOf

IsA

IsA

IsA

Clearer disambiguation? Thesaurus statement

Mercury (planet) mercury (metal) Mercury (automobile) Mercury (mythical being) mercury (temperature)

Clearer disambiguation?

OWL statement<PreferredTerm rdf:ID="T3195">

<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Mercury (Planets)</rdfs:label>

<BroaderTerm rdf:resource="#T3896" newsindexer:alpha="Planets"/>

</PreferredTerm>

Thesaurus to SKOS Thesaurus label

Main Term (MT) Top Term (TT) Broader Terms (BT) Narrower Terms (NT) Narrower Term Instance Related Terms (RT)

See also (SA) NonPreferred Term (NP)

Used for (UF), See (S) Scope Note (SN) History (H)

SKOS Label

<skos:Concept rdf:about=”numeric"> <skos:hasTopConcept

rdf:resource=”numeric" local:alpha=”TopTerm"/>

<skos:broader rdf:resource=”numeric" local:alpha=”BroaderTerm"/>

<skos:Narrower rdf:resource=”numeric" local:alpha=”NarrowerTerm"/>

<skos:related rdf:resource=”numeric" local:alpha=”RelatedTerm"/>

<skos:altLabel>NonpreferredTerm</skos:altLabel>

<rdf:Property rdf:ID=”ScopeNote"> <rdf:Property rdf:ID=”History">

Thesaurus to Ontology (OWL) Thesaurus Label

Main Term (MT) Top Term (TT) Broader Terms (BT) Narrower Terms (NT) Narrower Term Instance Related Terms (RT)

See also (SA) NonPreferred Term (NP)

Used for (UF), See (S) Scope Note (SN) History (H)

OWL Label

<PreferredTerm rdf:ID=”numeric"> <TopTerm rdf:ID=“numeric”> <BroaderTerm rdf:resource=”numeric"

newsindexer:alpha=”BroaderTerm"/> <NarrowerTerm rdf:resource=”numeric"

newsindexer:alpha=”NarrowerTerm"/> <Related_Term rdf:resource=“numeric"

newsindexer:alpha=”RelatedTerm"/> <Non-Preferred_Term

rdf:resource=”numeric" newsindexer:alpha=”Non-preferredTerm"/>

<owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:ID="Scope_Note">

<owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:ID=”History">


Objectives for search & navigation ASIS&T -- virtual library

Subject matter ASRT -- internal information control

Organization chart Naval Postgrad -- Homeland security degree

Curriculum outline SLA -- Web content

Public Web navigation

Naval Postgraduate School’s Homeland Security Taxonomy

Naval Postgraduate School’s Homeland Security Taxonomy

SLA website and thesaurus

SLA search


Myth of topic maps And OWL, SKOS Not a myth They do work Limited adoption Narrow, tightly defined niches

Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t?

31 October 2007

A304 - 2:45-3:30 PM PDT

Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO

Access Innovations, Inc. / Data Harmony

505.998.0800 / www.accessinn.com / www.dataharmony.com

[email protected]

Thank you. Questions?


Activity in the field Ontologies

http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/impls SKOS

http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide/#secref

Topic Maps http://www.topicmaps.org/


Resources www.accessinn.com www.dataharmony.com www.iso.org www.ontopia.com

Lars Marius Garshol, “Metadata? Thesaurui? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!”

Steve Pepper, “The TAO of Topic Maps” www.topicmaps.org


Resources Cory Doctorow, “Metacrap: Putting the Torch to Seven Straw-men

of the Meta-utopia,” http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm Russell Glass, “Is Anyone Going to Tag all of this Stuff?,”

http://zoominfo.blogs.com/soughtafter/2005/03/semantic_web_is.html Clay Shirky, “The Semantic Web, Syllogism, and Worldview,”

www.shirky.com/writings/semantic_sllogism.html Pete Norvig, “Semantic Web Ontologies: What Works and What

Doesn’t,” www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P7480_0_3_0_C

Topic Maps: What Works and What Doesn’t? 31 October 2007 A304 - 2:45-3:30 PM PDT Presented by Jay Ven Eman, Ph.D., CEO Access Innovations, Inc. / Data.

Documents

ceo access innovations

meaning of meta data

data information

added slide

sidebar meta data

resolution meta data

type of meta data

data harmony