Querying

tolog – a tutorial | By Lars Marius Garshol
A tutorial introduction to the tolog topic map query language, which is implemented in the Ontopia, and which can also be used in the Omnigator.

tolog predicate reference | By Lars Marius Garshol
Reference documentation for all tolog predicates.

tolog – a topic map query language | By Lars Marius Garshol
A paper from XML Europe 2001 that describes a query language for topic maps called tolog. This query language is inspired by Prolog and fully supports the TMQL requirements. It has a clear and simple syntax, and its basic features are easy to implement.

Scope

Towards a General Theory of Scope | By Geir Ove Grønmo and Steve Pepper
A paper from Extreme Markup 2001 that provides the first ever in-depth examination of the topic map concept of "scope": What scope is, how to use it, how it relates to "context", and not least how applications might take advantage of it when processing a topic map.

A Theory of Scope | By Lars Marius Garshol | pdf 140kb
This paper describes an interpretation of scope based on the past few years of research on the subject. Based on this it defines two mathematical operators for scope filtering which correspond to common use cases for scope.

Semantic web

Living with topic maps and RDF | By Lars Marius Garshol
About how to deal with both topic maps and RDF. The paper shows how to do data conversion in both directions, how to convert RDF schemas to topic map schemas, how to use OWL with topic maps, shows how to do queries across both representations, and also shows how it is possible to have vocabularies that can be used with both topic maps and RDF.

Q: A unifying model for RDF and Topic Maps | By Lars Marius Garshol
This paper defines a formal model, called Q, in which Topic Maps and RDF have the same representation, which means that it's possible to hide most differences between the two by using this model. The paper is very technical, and assumes familiarity with both Topic Maps and RDF, so it may be best to read the "Living..." paper first. The slides from the presentation are also available.

Topic maps, RDF, DAML, OIL: A comparison | By Lars Marius Garshol
An in-depth paper about the similarities and differences between these semantic web technologies. It introduces all of the technologies, comparing them to a simple conceptual model that highlights how they compare. A demonstration of how to map data between the technologies is also given.

Ten Theses on Topic Maps and RDF | By Steve Pepper
Ten theses on the relationship between Topic Maps and RDF. This is a second cut at understanding the similarities and differences between these two approaches to making information findable.

Curing the Web's Identity Crisis: Subject Indicators for RDF | By Sylvia Schwab and Steve Pepper
A contribution to the debate on the "Identity Crisis" of the Web, showing how concepts developed as part of XML Topic Maps - in particular, the notion of subject indicators - provide an elegant solution.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 and Topic Maps | By Lars Marius Garshol | pdf 1.3mb
A presentation on what Web 2.0 is, exactly, and how it compares with Topic Maps. Looks at wikis, tagging, and folksonomies, and gives some examples of Topic Maps-based Web 2.0 applications.