Re: RDF/Topic Maps: what's an Application? (was: Re:[topicmaps-comment] RE: OASIS vs W3C)

[Tony.Coates@reuters.com]

On 03/10/2001 20:11:02 "Steven R. Newcomb" wrote:

>I take your point, but I'm wondering whether you missed
>my point.  I was not trying to focus attention on the
>possibility of implementing RDF using Topic Maps, nor
>on the possibility of implementing Topic Maps using
>RDF.  I was trying to focus attention on the questions:
>
>* What would each of these very specific kinds of
>  Applications look like?
>
>* How would we declare each of these Applications
>  formally?
>
>* More generally, what provisions do/should RDF and
>  Topic Maps make for the formal declaration of such
>  Applications?

I don't think I did correctly appreciate your original point.  At first, the question of "what would a topic map application look like", or alternatively "how would I recognise a topic map application if I tripped over one" struck me as an impossibly broad and generic question, one which would never be answered and would delay the development of topic map applications unduly.  That said, I did think of an answer that satisfies me, so I thought I would mention it to see if anyone else considers it suitable.

Much business and development work these days is focussed on processes.  Those of you who have done CMM or ISO 9000/9001 will be only too familiar with this.  Basically, a process is something which takes some inputs and produces (after some time/expense/etc.) some outputs.  Well-defined processes are ones where you know the inputs you will have and the outputs that will be expected before you start the process.

As such, I would take a process-oriented view of what a topic map application is.  By application, I mean the broad meaning of "usage", rather than just the restricted meaning of "executable program or code module".  In my view, an application of topic maps is a process which satisfies one or more of the following:

1. One or more of the inputs to the process is a topic map;
2. One or more of the outputs of the process is a topic map;
3. One or more of the outputs of the process is dependent on (or was transiently dependent on) one or more topic maps.

A simpler way to summarise this is to say that an application of topic maps is a process where one where one or more topic maps were involved somehow, such that changes to that/those topic map(s) could have led to changes to the output(s) of the process.

Next question: is what I have written above helpful, or is it just more useless generalisation with little application to reality?  Let me know what you think.

     Cheers,
          Tony.
========
Anthony B. Coates
(1) Content Distribution Architect - Project Gazelle
(2) Leader of XML Architecture & Design - Chief Technology Office
Reuters Plc, London.
Tony.Coates@reuters.com
========



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