[topicmaps-comment] Re: Let's introduce ! [Re: test of OASIS list]

["Steven R. Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com>]

[Bernard Vatant:]
> take a few minutes to say "hello, I'm still there,
> I'll stay involved in TopicMaps.Org in such and such
> a way, I'm representing such and such company,
> organization, project ..." or "count me out, for
> reasons x,y,z ..."

There is reason to believe that this reformed,
OASIS-based TopicMaps.Org will turn out to be
important.  I support it, and I have high hopes for it.

Here's my self-introduction.  

I'm an independent consultant with a history of
co-editing international standards for information
interchange that dates back to 1986, and that includes
ISO/IEC 10743 (Standard Music Description Language) and
ISO/IEC 10744 (Hypermedia Time-based Structuring
Language, "HyTime").  

I've been working on Topic Maps since 1993.  I drafted
the first formal expression of the paradigm, in a
document called "SOFABED", in the context of the
Davenport Group.  I then chaired a splinter of that
group (the remainder of that original group created
DOCBOOK) that developed the Topic Maps paradigm in the
context of the Graphic Communications Associations
(GCA's) "Conventions for the Application of HyTime
(CApH)" activity, drafting several more versions of an
interchange syntax for Topic Maps.  After a two-year
hiatus, I eventually became a co-editor of the ISO
13250 standard for Topic Maps, joining Michel Biezunski
and Martin Bryan in that effort.  When the ISO standard
was adopted in January, 2000, Michel Biezunski and I
co-founded TopicMaps.Org, again under the aegis of the
GCA (now IDEAlliance).  I drafted the Charter of that
group, and I co-edited (with Murray Altheim, Michel
Biezunski, and Sam Hunting) the XTM Specification first
released on December 4, 2000.  In the course of that
work, I wrote the first draft of what later became
known as PMTM4 (co-edited by Michel Biezunski and
myself), which is now being considered in the ISO
context as a prototype expression of the "core model"
of Topic Maps.

The PMTM4 model was basically an integration of the
work of various subcommittees of the original
TopicMaps.Org group, which is now defunct.  Largely the
same group of people constitutes the new TopicMaps.Org.
The present reformation of TopicMaps.Org is kind of a
miracle, if you ask me, but it is not the only miracle
of the Topic Maps story.  For example, in my own mind,
understanding that the original TopicMaps.Org group's
apparently diverse work products could be synthesized
into something as simple, powerful, sensible and
obvious as PMTM4 will always remain one of the peak
experiences of my career.

With Michel Biezunski, I abandoned the original
TopicMaps.Org in order to protect, publish,
standardize, and exploit that incredibly important
PMTM4 model, which had emanated from work in which many
had public-spiritedly invested much.  I do not
apologize for my abandonment of that original
organization.  The stress of abandoning an organization
in which I had invested so much was extreme for me, and
I do regret any unnecessary or unintentional alienation
that was caused by any intemperate words I may have
said at the time.

I'd like to be considered a resource for the reformed
TopicMaps.Org.  Other commitments, including but not
limited to the ISO work, will probably prevent me from
being intimately involved in TopicMaps.Org on a regular
basis.  However, please be assured of my good wishes
and my desire for the new TopicMaps.Org to achieve
every success.  Based on my years of experience with
these same dedicated, passionate people, I believe that
the reformed TopicMaps.Org's role in the exploitation
of Topic Maps will be large, fruitful, visible and
vital.

I'll be lurking, and I'll probably be speaking up from
time to time, too.

In closing, let me offer a piece of advice from an old
soldier: begin by concentrating on something that you
can achieve early, and mobilize your resources toward
that early achievement.  I won't presume to suggest
what that achievement might be.  I'm just (tiresomely?)
uttering the axioms that

(1) a concentrated attack is more likely to achieve
    a victory, and

(2) a victory, even if small, is still a victory.
    Nothing succeeds like success.  The largest
    building begins with the placement of a single
    stone.  Etc.

-Steve

--
Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant
srn@coolheads.com

voice: +1 972 359 8160
fax:   +1 972 359 0270

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