tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post6025039287819538713..comments2015-02-17T08:10:32.958+00:00Comments on What I Think About...: RDF - An alternative to Topic Maps?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965922935328480623noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post-74410603904140691652008-11-08T12:52:00.000+00:002008-11-08T12:52:00.000+00:00There's an open source Topic Maps engine in progre...There's an open source Topic Maps engine in progress here: http://code.google.com/p/sharptm/<BR/><BR/>This project is porting TMAPI to .NET: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tmapinet/<BR/><BR/>Also, this engine has C# support: http://tmplusplus.sourceforge.net/Lars Marius Garsholhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15442220825022305581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post-21984549504099731502007-07-16T10:54:00.000+01:002007-07-16T10:54:00.000+01:00This discussion refers to the fact that there hasn...This discussion refers to the fact that there hasn't been a single book (other than conference proceedings) published on the subject of Topic Maps since 2002 (this was from a search of Amazon UK - a reasonable place to look for a book).<BR/><BR/>In terms of tools for Topic Maps, the only .NET implementation I could find was by Networked Planet. This is a highly priced commercial application. Disappointingly there don't appear to be any open-source .NET Topic Maps tools available. As I’ve touched on in some of my blog posts, I do think that Topic Maps sound like a very useful and powerful technology and if anyone could point me in the direction of some then I’d happily take a look.<BR/><BR/>I'm sure that research into Topic Maps is continuing and that commercial activity is taking place in the area – however I don’t think anyone could describe it as being a hot bed of activity.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11965922935328480623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post-91472289872137544472007-07-09T09:09:00.000+01:002007-07-09T09:09:00.000+01:00I find this discussion a bit odd, to say the least...I find this discussion a bit odd, to say the least. Topic Maps are not in some sort of decline, very far from it. They are seeing more commercial use than they ever did before, and there's definitely no lack of research into the subject.<BR/><BR/>There are four annual conferences with Topic Maps content: the Oslo user conference, the academic TMRA conference in Leipzig, the AToMS conference in Asia, and the Extreme Markup conference in Canada. The TMRA proceedings are published as a book by Springer every year.<BR/><BR/>There is also a lot of commercial activity on Topic Maps. To take one example, the company I work for, Bouvet, sold 4M USD worth of man-hours on Topic Maps last year. It will be more this year, and we are definitely not alone.<BR/><BR/>So if you don't see Topic Maps activity it's because you are looking in the wrong places.Lars Marius Garsholhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15442220825022305581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post-86815327281501131722007-06-17T23:06:00.000+01:002007-06-17T23:06:00.000+01:00Hi Marijane - thanks for your comment (it's nice t...Hi Marijane - thanks for your comment (it's nice to know that someone is actually out there!). As you rightly point out, research into Topic Maps is still continuing, it's just that it seems to have lost a bit of momentum over the last couple of years. <BR/><BR/>However, I think that this is a trend that is often shown in many new areas of technology - a flurry of initial activity, followed by a gradual decline in interest. The same appears to have happened to RDF and OWL, although both these technologies are also still progressing.<BR/><BR/>The downside of course is that the documentation and tools that are available can become outdated and, in some cases, even obsolete. Since my area of expertise is in C# and ASP.NET I'd like to able to work with RDF or Topic Maps using these technologies - however, since the majority of RDF and Topic Maps were written before the widespread adoption of C#, there are very few tools available in this language (especially when compared against the number available in Java) and, in the end, I think that my choice of technology will actually be directly related to the tools available. Hopefully I'll be posting more on this in the near future.<BR/><BR/>Thanks again for taking the time to comment and good luck with the course.<BR/><BR/>SteveStevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11965922935328480623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5355607642937633928.post-76354269780209502622007-06-14T05:07:00.000+01:002007-06-14T05:07:00.000+01:00Greetings Steve,I found this post while googling f...Greetings Steve,<BR/><BR/>I found this post while googling for information about Topic Maps and RDF, and I just wanted to comment on your remark about how work on Topic Maps has gone quiet.<BR/><BR/>You may be interested to know that while work on Topic Maps is quiet, it is also currently active. It is my understanding that several updates to ISO 13250 are slated to be posted on July 2nd. <BR/><BR/>In addition, Patrick Durusau is teaching a distance course in Topic Maps at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science this summer. I am a masters candidate in UIUC's LIS distance program, and a student in said class. This may be indicative of a trend of renewed interest in Topic Maps, but I cannot say for sure.<BR/><BR/>Regards,<BR/>Marijane Whitemeejieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05059370339366142877noreply@blogger.com