Re: [tm-pubsubj-comment] Subject-Oriented Applications

[Murray Altheim <m.altheim@open.ac.uk>]

Bernard Vatant wrote:

> Thinking about use of PSIs beyond topic maps, in the spirit of my recent post about W3C
> OWL, I was wondering.
> 
> Read the following current definitions ...
> 
> -- A subject indicator is a resource that is referred to *by a topic map author* to
> provide an unambiguous indication of the identity of a subject to a human being.
> -- Any resource can become a subject indicator by being referred to as such *from within
> some topic map*, whether or not it was intended by its publisher to be a subject
> indicator.
> 
> They are very topic-map oriented ... now get rid of what is *highlighted*. Does it still
> make sense? It seems.
> 
> Who or what application would refer to a subject indicator apart topic maps? Don't ask ...
> Any user or application needing both human-readable and computer-processable identity for
> a subject ... intelligent agents, ontologies, web services, unameit application 10 or 50
> years from now. In any case, I think we should open the door to any of those applications,
> and therefore get rid of exclusive reference to topic maps in the definition of subject
> indicator. I suggest the following.
> 
> Preliminary definition:
> -- A subject-oriented application is any document, language, software, technology, system
> ... using abstract representations of subjects (e.g. called topics) as fundamental
> objects.


Yikes. Now you need to define "abstract representations of subjects"
as well as "fundamental objects." This trail leads off into a jungle.


> This notion allows the generalization of definitions:
> 
> -- A subject indicator is a resource that is referred to, in a subject-oriented
> application, in order to provide an unambiguous indication of the identity of a subject to
> a human being.
> 
> -- Any resource can become a subject indicator by being referred to as such by a
> subject-oriented application, whether or not it was intended by its publisher to be used
> as a subject indicator.
> 
> -- A published subject indicator is a subject indicator that is published and maintained
> at an advertised address in order to facilitate interoperability of subject-oriented
> applications.
> 
> I've put those suggestions between the lines on psdoc page. Of course if this
> generalization is accepted by the TC, we should review the whole prose of the introduction
> ...


I understand the desire to extricate "topic maps" from these 

definitions, but I don't see that "subject-oriented application"
is really an improvement, since it's too vague. Are topic maps
"subject-oriented"? Is Encarta "subject-oriented"? I would tend
to define these things in terms of what they *are* not how they
might be used, and hence avoid needing to define the application
at all.


Murray

......................................................................
Murray Altheim                         <mailto:m.altheim @ open.ac.uk>
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK

      In the evening
      The rice leaves in the garden
      Rustle in the autumn wind
      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu