Re: [topicmaps-comment] Topic Map or not for a taxonomy

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@comcast.net>]

[Heimo Hanninen]

> Jumping (back) into another topic, triggered by an interesting article
named
> "A Taxi in Knowledge Land"
> by Thomas Bandholz some weeks ago, ref:
> http://195.14.240.28/123/03-05-03.html
>
> I found that story very inspiring, since I happen to work on a similar
> project.
> We are designing a data structure (and the process) for taxonomies to
> drive quite a fat web portal. So far I haven't found too much information
> about
> similar projects. I kind of wanted to share my thoughts and findings so
far
> and
> looking forward any comments, thanks.

James Mason published a very interesting paper :
Ferrets and Topic Maps: Knowledge Engineering
for an Analytical Engine

http://www.y12.doe.gov/~mxm/open/Papers/Ferret.PDF

This is an application for automatically classifying (in the sense of "Top
Secret") documents according to established guidelines.  The project was
started without topic maps, but later they decided that they needed more
power and started using topic maps.

Here is the abstract:
"The "Ferret" analytical engine, developed originally by the Y-12 National
Security
Complex of the U.S. Department of Energy to seek classified data and
associations in
documents and present its findings in the light of formal rules, requires a
structured information
base that represents not just individual facts but a set of implications and
a collection of rules.
The fundamental knowledge base is evolving towards forms that enhance
flexibility and
portability. The developers early realized that the knowledge base can be
captured in XML by a
series of trees that represent taxonomies, analytical structures, and
specific indicative facts, but
over this a topic map is needed to express links across the trees. Above
this, the classification
rules could form another topic map that points into the lower layers. In its
latest form, however,
the knowledge base has come to be entirely represented in a topic map.

The "Ferret" engine combines sophisticated searching with rule-driven
analysis and
reporting. In its original application, the Ferret engine performs the
equivalent of 5,000
simultaneous searches while reading documents at several thousand words per
second. The
analysis traces implications of concepts discovered in searching and applies
the rules for
interpreting implications and the actions to be taken when a significant
piece of information is
found. Because the topic maps that represent this knowledgecan be switched
easily, Ferret can
be reprogrammed to many tasks, including selection and categorization,
scanning of e-mail and
newsfeeds, diagnostics, and query expansion, in addition to the original
classification application."

A company has been formed to sell the basic engine, which is apparently
quite flexible.  This is the most advanced system I've heard about for
capturing taxonomies and doing useful things with them using topic maps.

This is worth looking into.

Cheers,

Tom P
>