Towards Seamless Knowledge
Integrating Public Sector Portals in Norway
Being the Story of How
the Topic Maps Family of
Standards is Creating a
Semantic Web Today
Steve Pepper
Chief Strategy Officer, Ontopia
Convenor, SC34/WG3
Editor, XML Topic Maps
<pepper@ontopia.net>
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Shape of Things to Come
•
Brief overview of Topic Maps
•
Topic Maps for Web Sites, Portals and Intranets
•
Public Sector Portals in Norway
– Stian Danenbarger’s ZTM Story
– The National Knowledge Base Story
•
Towards Seamless Knowledge
– a.k.a. Global Knowledge Federation
– Not quite the same as the Semantic Web
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
What is Topic Maps?
•
An International Standard for the formal
representation of knowledge
•
More importantly…
•
What is Topic Maps used for?
•
(What are topic maps used for?)
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
Organizing large bodies of information
Capturing organizational memory
Representing complex rules and processes
Supporting concept-based eLearning
Managing distributed knowledge and information
Aggregating information and knowledge
= Seamless Knowledge
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Basic Model of Topic Maps
•
Some pool of information or data
–
any type, format, or location
•
A knowledge layer, consisting of:
•
Topics
–
•
composed by
a set of topics representing the key
subjects of the domain in question
composed by
Associations
–
•
P.S.
Topics, associations and occurrences have types,
and all types are also topics…
representing relationships between
subjects
Tosca
Puccini
born in
Occurrences
–
links to information that is somehow
relevant to a given subject
Madame
Butterfly
Lucca
knowledge
information
•
= The TAO of Topic Maps
Let’s look at this in the Omnigator…
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
current topic
(multiple) types
multiple names
multiple
occurrences
multiple
associations
Topic Maps-based Web Sites, Portals, and Intranets
Turns out that this is a pretty good model for web sites and portals:
1.
The topic/association layer provides very intuitive navigation (because it matches the way
people think – associatively)
2.
Topics act as points of collocation for everything that is known about a particular subject:
One page per subject provides “one stop shopping” for information
3.
Links from one page to another are generated from associations (like “see also”
relationships in a back-of-book index)
4.
The function of portals – to integrate and provide pointers to other sources of information –
corresponds neatly to how occurrences work
•
Navigating the portal = Navigating the topic map
•
Each page represents a topic
–
•
Displays its characteristics (names, occurrences, associations)
When it represents a topic type
–
Constitutes an index of that type
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Rationale for Topic Maps Portals
•
Let the “index” drive the presentation!
–
•
Users navigate intuitively from topic to topic
–
–
–
•
Having found the appropriate topic, they
Immediately see all related and relevant information
Can dip down into information resources for more detail
Publisher benefits:
–
–
–
•
Let the topic map structure govern the application
Easier content maintenance (simply update the topic map)
Easier link maintenance (links are in separate layer, not in content)
New portals easy to derive from same content
User benefits:
–
–
–
Easier, more intuitive navigation mirrors associative way of thinking
Shorter click-through; multiple paths to same information
Far greater structural consistency means less confusion
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Basic Architecture for a Topic Maps Portal
topic
map
data and
documents
© 2004 Ontopia AS
topic
map
application
server
client
users
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Rise and Rise of Topic Maps Portals in Norway
•
In Norway, this concept has been put into practice on a scale that
is now verging on the industrial…
•
There are over a dozen topic maps portals in production
•
More are on the way…
•
And while the rest of the world is asking questions like
– “Metadata”?
– “Taxonomies”?
– “Ontologies”?
•
…in Norway, customers are saying “Topic Maps”![1]
•
How did this situation come about?
[1] This is a shameless plug for the presentation by Lars
Marius Garshol at 11 AM tomorrow based on his excellent
paper: Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!)
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Stian Danenbarger’s ZTM Story
•
Where it all started
•
Back in late 2000, the Norwegian Network for IT-Research and
Competence in Education ITU wanted a new web site
•
They had rather special requirements…
•
They contacted a consulting company called Creuna for a pilot
project
•
The person in charge was Stian Danenbarger
•
Stian had recently discovered Zope and thought it would provide a
good basis for doing content management and portal projects…
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Zope: Architecture and Characteristics
• RAD for web apps
• Scripting (Python, Perl)
• Object publishing
• Web UI for all three layers
• Transactions and “undo”
• Fine grained security
• Role based
• Supports clustering
• Open source
• Commercial support
<www.zope.org>
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Zope CMF: Characteristics
CMF = Content Management Framework
Component architecture containing, among other things:
•
Basic Content Service (publishable objects)
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Cataloging Service (real-time indexing)
•
Workflow Service (approval processes)
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Site Design Service (template handling, ”skins”)
•
Syndication Service (content exchange using RSS)
<cmf.zope.org>
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
ITU wanted something a little out of the ordinary…
artikler
prosjekter
emner/tema
teknologi
mennesker
miljøer
dokumenter
aktiviteter
utdanningsnivå
verktøy
metoder
teorier
Notes and quotes from the prestudy:
–
–
–
–
“…is part of…”
“…consists of…”
“…looks like...”
…etc.
Examples:
– “Has same author”
– “Have worked together”
– “Belongs to same category”
“Relationships between objects and various groups of objects offer users
multiple paths to the same content and stimulate cross-site content exploration.”
“Visualisation of this network is supposed to give the user a conceptual model
of the network, and give a feeling of being in a ‘relational space’.”
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
About the same time, XTM 1.0 was pre-announced
Topic Maps Core arrives
05:03, 7 Dec 2000 UTC | Simon St.Laurent
Topicmaps.org has delivered a stable set of core deliverables, along with a draft of
XML Topic Maps 1.0 and the XML Topic Maps Processing Model.
XTM is built on ISO 13250, which defines “a standardized notation for
interchangeably representing information about the structure of information
resources used to define topics, and the relationships between topics.... A topic map
defines a multidimensional topic space -- a space in which the locations are topics,
and in which the distances between topics are measurable in terms of the number of
intervening topics which must be visited in order to get from one topic to another,
and the kinds of relationships that define the path from one topic to another, if any,
through the intervening topics, if any.”
The core deliverables includes the parts of XTM which are "not subject to any future
change that would invalidate any XTM document or XTM application that conforms",
while XTM 1.0 includes both those core deliverables and additional content which are
still subject to "Authoring Group (AG) Review process."
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
And a light bulb went on for Stian Danenbarger
•
To cut a long story short:
•
Ontopia and Creuna worked together to build and integrate a
Python-based Topic Maps engine into Zope CMF
•
The result was a web-based content management and publishing
system that was entirely driven by topic maps
•
This tool is called ZTM (Zope Topic Maps)
–
–
•
It is an Open Source project on SourceForge
For more details contact stian.danenbarger@bouvet.no
…and ITU got the web site it was looking for:
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
current topic
occurrences
associations
The success of ITU started a trend
•
ITU was “bleeding edge” in early 2001
– Stian calls it a “technical base jump” (without a parachute)
– ...not for everyone...
•
Since then Topic Maps Portals have become a proven and well
established technology
– …at least in Norway...
•
ITU was followed by web sites for the Norwegian Research
Council, the Norwegian Consumers Association and many
others…
– Some of these are based on ZTM
– Others are based on other Topic Maps engines
•
At present there are over a dozen, with more on the way
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Some Topic Maps Portals in Norway
•
In production
•
Under development
•
http://www.itu.no
http://www.luna.itu.no
(Ministry of Education)
•
Skatteetaten
(Tax Office)
•
http://www.forskning.no
http://www.nysgjerrigper.no
(Research Council of Norway)
•
Statsministerens kontor
(Office of the Prime Minister)
•
Statistisk Sentralbyrå
(Bureau of Statistics)
•
IFE/Halden
(Nuclear Reactor Project)
•
Kulturnett Norge
(Ministry of Culture)
•
http://forbrukerportalen.no
(Consumers Association)
•
http://www.skifte.no
(Norwegian Defence)
•
http://www.hoyre.no++
(Norwegian Conservative Party)
•
http://matportalen.no
(Ministry of Agriculture)
•
http://www.udi.no
(Ministry of Justice)
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Example: www.forskning.no
•
Norwegian government portal to popular science and research
information
– Owned by the Norwegian Research Council
•
Purpose:
– To present science and research information to young adults
– Intended to raise interest and recruitment
•
Content of forskning.no
– Main content is articles about science and research subjects
– There is also a dual classification system used as a navigational structure
•
The site is entirely topic map-driven
– Navigation structure is a topic map
– All text and multimedia content organized by the topic map
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Dual Classification
Medicine
Science
Human body
Volcanoes
Clinical Med.
Odontology
Hormones
The Brain
Neurology
Oncology
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Example: Norwegian Conservative Party
•
One topic map…
•
450 portals!
•
Targeted content
delivery – based on
scoping by domain
name
•
Example:
http://hurum.hoyre.no
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.hoyre.no
http://www.ontopia.net/
The National Knowledge Base Story
•
•
A couple of years ago the publisher of the
Norwegian National Encylopaedia (SNL)
got into financial trouble and was unable
to continue maintaining its online
encyclopaedia
•
The Norwegian Minister of Culture was
sympathetic but decided to put the project
out to tender. A Request for Proposal was
issued.
•
Two proposals, from rival commerical
publishers, got to the final round, but in the
end both were rejected on the grounds that
choosing one of them would result in unfair
competition.
•
A call for new approaches was made.
•
Topic Maps are emerging as a serious
contender for the foundation of a National
Knowledge Base
The publisher asked the Government for
support, citing the importance of a
Norwegian language knowledge base for
the future of Norwegian culture
SNL (Store Norske Leksikon)
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Architecture of kunnskap.no
•
It will have a well-structured but flexible backbone
–
–
–
•
It will have a quality assured foundation
–
–
–
•
The backbone is a kind of Semantic Superhighway
It will be owned and controlled by a neutral organization
The state will be responsible for it
This will consist of neutral content of high quality
This too will be owned and controlled by a neutral organization
The state could be responsible for it
It will have extensions
–
–
–
This is supplementary material that will be very varied
In theory anyone should be able to contribute
This is made possible by the Topic Maps-based architecture
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Role of Topic Maps in kunnskap.no (1)
Backbone:
•
A basic set of topics and associations
– This constitutes a “Knowledge Web” for navigation
•
For every subject, a subject identifier is defined, e.g.
“http://psi.kunnskap.no/authors/ibsen”
– These are published (as PSIs) and provide an infrastructure of
common “binding points” for subjects
– They constitute the Semantic Superhighway
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Role of Topic Maps in kunnskap.no (2)
Foundation:
•
Quality assured content from the largest and most respected
encyclopaedia in the Norwegian language
•
Each article in SNL becomes an occurrence of a topic in the
backbone
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Role of Topic Maps in kunnskap.no (3)
Extensions:
•
Either more occurrences of topics already in the backbone
– i.e. articles, pictures, video that complements the content in the foundation
– ... or contradicts it!
– (these are automatically attached to the backbone)
•
Or complete topic maps which are automatically merged with
www.kunnskap.no
•
Both kinds of extension can – in theory – be provided by anyone
– And thanks to scope users will always know the source of the extension and
thus be able to choose who they wish to trust
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
1. Backbone of topics and associations (extracted from SNL)
of the(from
National
2.Architecture
Foundation of occurrences
SNL)
Knowledge Base
How it
might all
work
3. Extensions from external sources
4. Extensions of the framework
5. And so it continues...
Ola og Kari Nordmann
Store Norske Leksikon
(SNL: Great Norwegian Encyclopaedia)
Extension
of SNL
Klasse
5B
NRK
National
Library
Norsk filateliforening
Ibsensenteret
norge.no
Norsk
Pax
biografisk
leksikon
CapLex
Sámi Radio
Framework
for Health,
licensed
from
Health
Canada
The Norwegian National Knowledge Base
“reality”
topic map
wrote
wrote
Nora
Henrik
Ibsen
Hedda
Gabler
Dr. Rank
Skien
Cap
Lex
SNL
NBL
Cap
Lex
Mrs. Linde
knowledge
SNL
SNL
Ibsencentre
Ibsencentre
information
Ibsencentre
Ibsencentre
SNL
Skien
council
© 2004 Ontopia AS
Helmer
Et dukkehjem
A doll’s house
born in
other topicKrogstad
maps
are merged in ...
Ibsencentre
Ibsencentre
http://www.ontopia.net/
Knowledge Aggregation through Merging
•
Demo of merging in the Omnigator…
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Subject identity – the magic that makes it possible
• Every topic represents a subject
in the “real world”
• Subject indicators establish which
subject a topic represents
“REALITY”
• They work for both humans and
computers
• Published subjects make it possible
to connect topics across topic maps,
e.g.
http://psi.kunnskap.no/authors/ibsen
composed by
COMPUTER
DOMAIN
composed by
Tosca
Puccini
born in
Madame
Butterfly
Lucca
knowledge
information
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Life, the Universe and Everything
The Semantic Superhighway
subject
•
The “backbone” of the National
Knowledge Base is an extensive
set of PSIs (published subject
indicators)
•
These are defined by
authoritative institutions from
various fields
•
They provide “binding points” of
subject identity, consisting of
subject indicators and subject
identifiers
–
–
Subject indicators are used by
humans
Subject identifiers are used by
computers
The Computer Domain
subject identifier
Giacomo Puccini,
Italian composer,
b. Lucca 22nd Dec
1858, d. Brussels,
29th Nov 1924.
Best known for his
operas, of which
Tosca is the
most . . .
subject indicator
Puccini
© 2004 Ontopia AS
topic
The Topic Map Domain
http://www.ontopia.net/
Social Advantages of an Open Knowledge Base
•
No preferential treatment of any commercial actor
– Solution attractive for proponents of “free competition”
– and for the “open source” and “open content” communities
•
Allows the participation of any information provider
– Commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations
– Minority and voluntary organizations
– Other communities of interest; every age group
•
The proposal is still “under discussion”
•
Meanwhile, the Open Knowledge Base is coming into being in an
unexpected way…
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Towards Seamless Knowledge
•
As the number of portals multiplies, the amount of overlap
increases…
•
Take these three portals as an example:
– forskning.no (Research Council)
– Forbrukerportalen (Consumers Association)
– Matportalen (Department of Agriculture, biosecurity)
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Coming Soon: Seamless Knowledge
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Building Blocks of Seamless Knowledge
•
Topic Maps
–
–
•
Published Subjects – The Semantic Superhighway
–
•
Globally unique identifiers for arbitrary subjects
Topic Maps Remote Access Protocol (TMRAP)
–
•
Semantically structured data that can be “viewed as topic maps”
(By the way, this includes RDF, RDBs and XML)
REST and SOAP based protocols for requesting and delivering fragments of topic maps
Topic Maps Query Language (TMQL)
–
–
Permits more powerful TMRAP requests
First Working Draft just around the corner
•
Working implementations based on several Topic Maps engines are expected to be
released in the next couple of months
•
Omnigator users: Your Omnigators will soon be able to talk to each other!
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
The Latest Development
•
A major new public sector portal will shortly be launched
–
–
•
Kulturnett.no is the Ministry of Culture’s official internet offering
It will be 100% Topic Maps driven
A comprehensive ontology has been developed and will be published
–
–
–
–
–
Every topic type and association type will have a Published Subject Identifier, e.g.
http://psi.kulturnett.no/ontologi/museum
Every instance will have a Published Subject Identifier, e.g.
http://psi.kulturnett.no/museum/munch-museet
Every topic page will have an icon for the PSI which will link to a Published Subject
Indicator (in accordance with the recommendations of the OASIS Published Subjects
TC)
Users will be encouraged to adopt these identifiers
Content will be aggregated and syndicated on this basis
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Netherlands Next?
•
Topic Maps have achieved critical mass in Norway
•
Where next?
•
The Netherlands seems to have a similar profile
in terms of adoption of new technology
•
The Dutch Tax Office has already started
•
The Dutch Police seem to be interested…
•
Maybe it’s your turn now?
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/
Topic Maps at XML Europe 2004
•
Tuesday morning
–
–
–
–
–
•
Wednesday morning
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
Knowledge Technologies track (9.00-12.30)
Topic Maps are Emerging – Why Should I Care? (Holger Rath)
Towards Seamless Knowledge – Integrating Public Sector Portals (Steve Pepper)
Ontology-Driven Topic Maps (Bernard Vatant)
Virtual and Federated Topic Maps (Robert Barta)
Knowledge Technologies track (9.00-12.30)
Using Topic Maps and XML to Implement a Closed-Loop Search Service for the Dutch Tax and
Customs Administration Website (Matthias Breebaart)
BrainBank Learning – A Topic Maps Builder for the Learner (Stian Lavick)
Topic Maps for Business Process Model Development: An Application Case Study (Antony Scott)
Corporate Brains – A Case Study of a Real World TM Project (Elmar Seestädt & Andreas Hölscher)
Content Management track (11.00)
Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! (Lars Marius Garshol)
Exhibition
–
–
Ontopia’s booth (with Dutch partners Diderot Track and Morpheus):
Tuesday 10.00-14.00, 16.00-20.00, Wednesday 10.00-14.00
© 2004 Ontopia AS
http://www.ontopia.net/