Re: [xtm-wg] The Future of TopicMaps.Org

[Steve Pepper <pepper@ontopia.net>]

At 07:23 11.05.2001 -0400, Patrick Durusau wrote:
>It seems like the discussion has trickled off on your suggestion and I
>am wondering if there is any sense of a consensus on how the XTM effort
>(as opposed to TM.Org in particular) should proceed?

My impression is that OASIS is seen as a favourable solution, by
most (if not all), especially if that solution can be synergistic
with continuing work in ISO (SC34) and initiatives within the W3C
(SM and RDF).

OASIS has a concept of "member sections". CGM-Open is one, I
believe. TopicMaps.Org would fit the bill quite nicely. OASIS
also have technical committees that could do work on things
like interoperability, conformance, and applications (e.g.
standardizing templates for carefully defined classes of topic
maps, such as the ISO and ANSI standards for thesauri).

To continue as a member of TopicMaps.Org one would have to join
OASIS, but this can be done relatively cheaply (at least for
individuals) through the International SGML/XML Users' Group.
(And most of the companies that have sponsored TopicMaps.Org
are already members of OASIS.)

Inside OASIS we would also be able to leverage that organization's
networking and marketing resources and experience. That is very
important as far as building the community and the market is
concerned.

Regarding further standardization, other than the kind of
vertical or horizontal applications mentioned above, I think
SC34 is the right forum. Liaisons could be established with
OASIS and some people, I am sure, would work in both. We just
got news that two new topic map projects have received ISO
approval (sTMQL - Standard Topic Map Query Language) and a
Technical Report on the conceptual model (which could in
theory be extended to cover the processing model). At the
SC34 meeting in Berlin we will be appointing editors for each
of these.

I am a little less certain about the best way to go forward
with the W3C. Eric Freese and I had a good talk with Dan Conolly
and Eric Miller in Austin, but the furore surrounding the exeunt
(right) of the former editors of XTM from TopicMaps.Org, and
their refusal to engage in constructive discussion, prevented
us from taking that further. I'm hoping that heads and tempers
will have cooled by XML Europe in two weeks time, and that we
might be able to get a dialogue going again.

We still need to understand the details of how an OASIS member
section would function. Eric F. and I will be having meetings
with representatives of OASIS in Berlin. Following that, the
TopicMaps.Org Authoring Group (and some of its subgroups) will
hold their own meetings to discuss this and other matters. I
think you can expect a proposal to be put forward for balloting
by the AG shortly afterwards.

I believe our key goals should be to:

1. Be able to guarantee the stability of XTM
2. Reunite the topic map community
3. Build the market

TopicMaps.Org was, at best, (let's be honest) a self-appointed
group of techies on a mission, a SWAT team whose goal was to adapt
topic maps as defined in ISO 13250 for the Web. We did that. We
did it very openly, and in such a way that anyone who was prepared
to put in the effort could come along. And it worked. (True, tempers
flared towards the end of the process. But that's normal.)

Now we need to build credibility and do everything we can to avoid
a situation in which new self-appointed groups, organizations, or
(worst of all) *vendors* (spit) set themselves up as the custodians
of topic mapping.

See y'all in Berlin!

Steve

--
Steve Pepper, Chief Technology Officer <pepper@ontopia.net>
Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34/WG3  Editor, XTM (XML Topic Maps)
Ontopia AS, Waldemar Thranes gt. 98, N-0175 Oslo, Norway.
http://www.ontopia.net/ phone: +47-23233080 GSM: +47-90827246


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