Re: [topicmaps-comment] Re: RDF/Topic Maps: late/lazy reificationvs.early/preemptive reification

[Murray Altheim <murray.altheim@sun.com>]

Piotr Kaminski wrote:
> 
> [Thomas B. Passin]
> > 2) We make each of the member elements of the club association the
> subject
> > of a topic (thus reifying the member).  Now we can assert (using an
> > association) who the sponsor of that person for that club is, and we do
> not
> > have to dismember or change anything we already have in the map, unless
> it
> > is to make sure that we have one member arc per person, nor do we have
> to
> > change the meaning of the original "cluc" association.
> 
> Could you expand on this, perhaps giving an example in XTM format?  It
> sounds like exactly what's needed, though it also resembles manual
> reification.

Going into hopefully only enough detail to point out some direction, you'd 
add an ID on each <member> element and use that as the referent in a topic
that reifies the member:

  <topicMap>
    <topic id="member-of-club"/>
    <topic id="person1"/>
    <topic id="person2"/>

    <association>
      <instanceOf xlink:href="#member-of-club"/> 
      <member id="m1">
        <topicRef xlink:href="#person1"/>
      </member>
      <member id="m2">
        <topicRef xlink:href="#person2"/>
      </member>
      ...
    </association>

    <topic id="reif-m1">
      <subjectIdentity>
        <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="#m1"/>
      </subjectIdentity>
      ...
    </topic>

    <topic id="reif-m2">
      <subjectIdentity>
        <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="#m2"/>
      </subjectIdentity>
      ...
    </topic>
  </topicMap>

That is, if I understand the example correctly...

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                         <mailto:murray.altheim&#x40;sun.com>
XML Technology Center
Sun Microsystems, Inc., MS MPK17-102, 1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025

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