RE: [xtm-wg] ANNOUNCE: www.topicmaps.net: New informative web site on topic maps

["Mason, James David (MXM) " <mxm@ornl.gov>]

Without responding specifically to any points in either Michel's posting or
Holger's message (no need to: I don't have any particular complaints), I
want to throw something else into the hopper. (It's something I've been
thinking about since Austin, and these messages just give me an excuse to
say it.)

I really think SC34 is the right place to do most of this work. That's not
just because I have a vested interest in keeping SC34 going. It's because I
belive that it provides the right mechanisms and gives the right exposure to
both the work in progress and the final results. I actually believe that XTM
ought to be folded back into 13250, once the incompatibilities are fixed, as
a normative annex.

While I'm enthusiastic about much of what's been accomplished by XTM (which
is why I'm presenting something I've done with it at the Berlin conference),
I am worried about the organization. Being relatively lightweight, it could
move fast and get some work done. That's good. But it doesn't provide some
of the protections to both the work and the participants that larger
organizations like ISO and the W3C do. We've already seen some of the
effects of that in the departures of Michel and Steve, who are now sort of
sitting off by themselves.

One of the goals of XTM was rapid development of an XML application. That
seems to have been accomplished.

Another goal was to bring that application to the attention of the W3C.
That's partially accomplished, but only partially accomplished, and I see it
as actually being put in jeapordy by the current situation.

I think that bringing Topic Maps into the W3C, including RDF harmonization,
can best be done through SC34. The mechanisms are actually in place: JTC1
and W3C have liaisons and agreements for producing joint work. It's worked
well in SC24, with Web-CGM and SVG. It didn't happen with SC34 (or rather
JTC1/WG4) in the case of XML, but that had to do more with personality
matters that I'd rather not get into (except to say that it was on both
sides). There actually has been a good bit of talk in the past six months
about how to get XML back into ISO and established as an ISO standard.

I think that starting on various modeling efforts (including TMQL and CM) in
SC34 is the best thing for both 13250 and XTM. At this point we just have a
couple of strawmen (the ballots on making the projects official don't end
for another couple of weeks). Assuming that the projects are approved, I'd
like to see all the model materials, including the ones at
http://www.topicmaps.net/, fed into the process.

It's less than two months until the SC34 meeting in Berlin. I'm expecting to
see you all there.

(I have added a couple of names to Holger's distribution because they're
implicated by reference.)

Jim