Re: [geolang-comment] Welcome!

[Mary Nishikawa <nisikawa@fuchinobe.oilfield.slb.com>]

Hi,

Some of you may know me a little already being a member of the TM Published 
Subjects Technical Committee. I am EDMS (sigmalink/Epic) Support in 
Schlumberger, Japan, Technical Editor and a corresponding member of the XML 
Competence Center in SchlumberSema.

As far as DTD development goes, I learned everything on the job in the past 
two years by analysis and testing of three versions of DTDs that Isogen had 
developed for us, and It was exciting to contribute to the process.

Topic Maps caught my interest at the Extreme Markup Conference August 
2001.  You must realize that Topic Maps were introduced to me just as we 
were finalizing an "extremely" modular and flexible documentation model. 
Later in the month, I was introduced to an xml schema for Topic maps and 
had discussions about an xml schema model that was to be the basis of a 
Topic Map Engine in the works in Sema (now part of Schlumberger). I later 
studied Martin Bryan's xml Schema for Topic Maps since it was similar to 
what we were doing in house and I have to say, his explanation and examples 
really helped me to understand the ISO 1350 Topic Map Specification better.

I agree that there is a  benefit in using XTM syntax for the sake of 
interoperability but I did feel something lacking;  it really needs PSIs 
for an implementation.  I began to take a look at  Murray's language.xtm 
and country.xtm, and had such a good time analyzing them that I thought, 
let me follow these and make one for regions of the world too.

I think that if we can create PSIs of legacy classifications for everyone's 
use, topic maps will become more pervasive and could actually be 
implemented. The syntax itself seems to beg for them. Geography and 
Language are important and useful,  so this is a good place to begin.

Creating XTM representations of legacy classifications may not sound 
glamorous to some but sometimes it is the simple things that can light the 
fire  to begin a momentum towards better information organization within 
the corporate walls or anywhere.

-- Mary