1. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Towards Seamless Knowledge Integrating Public Sector Portals in Norway Steve Pepper Chief Strategy Officer, Ontopia Convenor, SC34/WG3 Editor, XML Topic Maps Being the Story of How the Topic Maps Family of Standards is Creating a Semantic Web Today

2. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

3. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

4. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS The Basic Model of Topic Maps Some pool of information or data –any type, format, or location information Associations –representing relationships between subjects composed by born in composed by Occurrences –links to information that is somehow relevant to a given subject = The TAO of Topic Maps A knowledge layer, consisting of: knowledge Topics –a set of topics representing the key subjects of the domain in question Puccini Tosca Lucca Madame Butterfly P.S. Topics, associations and occurrences have types, and all types are also topics… Let’s look at this in the Omnigator…

5. current topic multiple names (multiple) types multiple occurrences multiple associations

6. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

8. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS The Rationale for Topic Maps Portals Let the “index” drive the presentation! –Let the topic map structure govern the application 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: –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

10. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Basic Architecture for a Topic Maps Portal topic map appli- cation server users topic map client data and documents

11. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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!)

12. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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…

13. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

14. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Zope CMF: Characteristics CMF = Content Management Framework Component architecture containing, among other things: Basic Content Service (publishable objects) Cataloging Service (real-time indexing) Workflow Service (approval processes) Site Design Service (template handling, ”skins”) Syndication Service (content exchange using RSS)

15. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS ITU wanted something a little out of the ordinary… “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’.” 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”

16. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS About the same time, XTM 1.0 was pre-announced Topic Maps Core arrives 05:03, 7 Dec 2000 UTC | Simon St.LaurentSimon St.Laurent Topicmaps.orgTopicmaps.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.core deliverables XML Topic Maps 1.0XML 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."

17. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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.nostian.danenbarger@bouvet.no …and ITU got the web site it was looking for:

18. current topic occurrences associations

19. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

20. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Some Topic Maps Portals in Norway In production http://www.itu.no http://www.luna.itu.no (Ministry of Education) http://www.forskning.no http://www.nysgjerrigper.no (Research Council of Norway) 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) Under development Skatteetaten (Tax Office) Statsministerens kontor (Office of the Prime Minister) Statistisk Sentralbyrå (Bureau of Statistics) IFE/Halden (Nuclear Reactor Project) Kulturnett Norge (Ministry of Culture)

21. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

22. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS The Dual Classification The Brain Human body Science Volcanoes Hormones Neurology Clinical Med. Medicine Odontology Oncology

23. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS

24. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Example: Norwegian Conservative Party One topic map… 450 portals! Targeted content delivery – based on scoping by domain name Example: http://hurum.hoyre.no http://www.hoyre.no

25. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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 publisher asked the Government for support, citing the importance of a Norwegian language knowledge base for the future of Norwegian culture 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 SNL (Store Norske Leksikon)

27. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS The Architecture of kunnskap.no It will have a well-structured but flexible backbone –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 It will have a quality assured foundation –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

28. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

29. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

30. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

31. Architecture of the National Knowledge Base CapLex Sámi Radio Norsk biografisk leksikon NRK Pax norge.no Klasse 5B Ibsensenteret Norsk filateliforening Ola og Kari Nordmann Extension of SNL Store Norske Leksikon (SNL: Great Norwegian Encyclopaedia) 2. Foundation of occurrences (from SNL) National Library 3. Extensions from external sources 4. Extensions of the framework 1. Backbone of topics and associations (extracted from SNL) Framework for Health, licensed from Health Canada 5. And so it continues... How it might all work

32. The Norwegian National Knowledge Base SNL Skien coun- cil Cap Lex NBL Henrik Ibsen Hedda Gabler Skien Et dukkehjem A doll’s house wrote born in wrote “reality” topic mapinformation knowledge other topic maps are merged in... Ibsen- centre Et dukkehjem Helmer Dr. Rank Mrs. Linde Krogstad Nora http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS

33. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Knowledge Aggregation through Merging Demo of merging in the Omnigator…

34. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS COMPUTER DOMAIN 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 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 information composed by born in composed by knowledge Puccini Tosca Lucca Madame Butterfly “REALITY”

35. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Life, the Universe and Everything The Computer Domain The Topic Map Domain The Semantic Superhighway 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 subject 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 http://psi.ontopia.net/opera/puccini.html subject identifier topic http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS

36. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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…

37. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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)

39. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Coming Soon: Seamless Knowledge

40. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS The Building Blocks of Seamless Knowledge Topic Maps –Semantically structured data that can be “viewed as topic maps” –(By the way, this includes RDF, RDBs and XML) Published Subjects – The Semantic Superhighway –Globally unique identifiers for arbitrary subjects Topic Maps Remote Access Protocol (TMRAP) –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!

41. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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

43. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS 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?

44. http://www.ontopia.net/ © 2004 Ontopia AS Topic Maps at XML Europe 2004 Tuesday 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) Wednesday morning –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