[topicmaps-comment] Notions have existence .....

[David Dodds <drdodds42@hotmail.com>]

Steve said
"The big value of the topic maps paradigm is that it can
be used to delegate the work of recognizing
relationships between subjects, and to preserve the
value of that work. People can make businesses out of recognizing these 
relationships, and everyone can benefit from their contributions."

My presentation at XML Orlando in Dec discusses this very thing, the
"recognizing these relationships".

David Dodds



>From: "Steven R. Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com>
>To: drdodds42@hotmail.com
>CC: topicmaps-comment@lists.oasis-open.org, topicmapmail@infoloom.com
>Subject: Re: [topicmaps-comment] Notions have existence .....
>Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 18:08:02 -0500
>
>[David Dodds:]
> > I am interested in the potential problems with
> > identifying the subject of a topic ina wya that
> > everybody can understand what the CHARACTERIZATION of
> > the subject is.  If you and I talk about extinct dodo
> > bird eggs and design a subject indicator "extinct
> > dodo bird eggs", how does someone who speaks only
> > Swahili or Irdu supposedly to know , oh yea, its a
> > topic about the specifica subject "extinct dodo bird
> > eggs". I mention a native speaker of Irdu or Swahili
> > because in a sense that where the standard computer
> > is coming from.  IT DONT SPEAK ENGLISH, and the
> > string "extinct dodo bird eggs" has no more meaning
> > that does 1234-6789-43-55-49 as a subject indicator
> > for the same thing. Sure the computer can compare
> > strings and number-symbols and "look for" ones that
> > are indentical, but is that all we awant to mean by
> > understanding the subject indicator?!
>
>It's true that the Swahili-only speaker will find the
>string "dodo bird eggs" useless as a subject indicator.
>However, it's possible that exactly the same subject
>will appear in a topic map whose subject indicators are
>expressed in Swahili.  What the topic maps paradigm
>brings to the table is the possibility for someone who
>speaks both English and Swahili to contribute value to
>the situation by creating a *third* topic map that
>specifies the merging of our topic map with the one in
>Swahili.  This third topic can, for example, contain a
>topic that has two subject indicators, one of which is
>our subject indicator (the string "dodo bird eggs"),
>and the other of which is the expression of the same
>thing in Swahili that was used as a subject indicator
>in the Swahili-only topic map.
>
>The bilingual person who writes the third topic map is,
>of course, expressing her opinion that the two subjects
>are identical.  Topic maps make such opinions
>representable, interchangeable, and useful.  All we
>need computers to do, here, is to recognize that any
>two topics that share any single subject indicator must
>be merged, and merge them.  The virtue of the paradigm
>is that the value of the work of creating the third
>topic map (no matter how it was created, by machine or
>by human, or both) can be preserved, at least to a
>large extent, even when we (or our Swahili-only topic
>map author) produce new versions of the first two topic
>maps.
>
>The big value of the topic maps paradigm is that it can
>be used to delegate the work of recognizing
>relationships between subjects, and to preserve the
>value of that work.  People can make businesses out of
>recognizing these relationships, and everyone can
>benefit from their contributions.
>
> > Another way of me stating my quandry is that I dont
> > see how we topic mappers are avoiding the infinite
> > regression of homunculi / "understanders" in our
> > means to specifying/conveying subject indicator.
>
>No humunculi are required; just topic map authors that
>we happen to trust, and our own intelligence.
>
>-Steve
>
>--
>Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant
>srn@coolheads.com
>
>voice: +1 972 359 8160
>fax:   +1 972 359 0270
>
>1527 Northaven Drive
>Allen, Texas 75002-1648 USA


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