RE: [xtm-wg] Re: please let ISO define the "isness" of topic maps

["Graham Moore" <gdm@empolis.co.uk>]

I have long campaigned for us to do this. I really want this to happen and
it has my full support in time and effort.

We have reached a point now where we realise the folly of syntax only, that
we realise that we can no longer communicate clearly about the beast we have
created. XTM DTD 1.0 is our Tower of Babel - None of us can truly speak
about it in the same way, there is no single language.

In building the 'isness', which I should attribute to an insightful man,
Marytn Cutcher, who worked at ICL, we define our common language. A point of
reference that allows us as unambigously as possible to build upon. We can
now create TMQL etc with confidence that we have a solid foundation.

I would also add that having read, ISO13250, HyTime 2.0 and others it seems
that many lack this foundation - and in comparison with other standards or
community projects such as Sun JSRs which have design based on models with
reference implementations we miss an opportunity to increase the
understading and adoption by the readership. This activity can only help the
adoption of the TopicMap standard and ISO standards in general.

to conclude I refer people back to an earlier posting / discussion where I
proposed that we encode the TopicMap model using several different
notations, these at the time we're suggested as a entity relationship, a
formal mathematical set notation and a triple / node based representation. I
still think this would be a worthwhile activity.

Ok - so when do we get started?

Graham

Graham Moore
VP R & D Empolis GmbH
gdm@empolis.co.uk








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