Tutorials

  • Understanding Topic Maps

    Presented by Steve Pepper

    A comprehensive introduction that explains what topic maps are and what kinds of problems they address. The tutorial covers both basic constructs (topics, associations and occurrences) and more advanced topics, such as scope and identity. It concludes with an extensive review of real world Topic Maps applications. (Skill level: Beginner)

  • Creating Topic Maps

    Presented by Steve Pepper

    Never written your own topic map? Thwarted by conceptual muddle, the lack of a defined process for constructing a topic map, and the tedium of authoring topic maps using XTM? This tutorial will get you past all of these obstacles and inspire you to go home and create your own first topic map. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Introduction to Ontology Design

    Presented by Kevin Trainor

    Learn the basics of how to model ontologies with Topic Maps, including rules of thumb for using topic types, association types, occurrence types, and role types; guidelines for documentation; a methodology that can be applied to any ontology creation project; and the role of ontology design in a larger Topic Maps application project. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Practical Ontology Design

    Presented by Kevin Trainor

    Starting from the theoretical understanding gained from the Introduction to Ontology Design, learn how to turn theory into practice by interactively creating an ontology for a real-world use case, and in so doing encounter, discuss and solve some of the most basic design issues that tend to arise. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Topic Map Design Patterns

    Presented by Kal Ahmed

    The ideas from Software Design Patterns can enable pattern-based reuse and better communication in Topic Maps projects. Many systems encounter the same problems, and patterns let us capture and share important knowledge. The relationship between patterns, best practices and reusable components is also discussed. (Skill level: Advanced)

  • Topic Maps in Library Science

    Presented by Sam Gyun Oh

    Learn about the relationship between Topic Maps and concepts that are of central importance to librarians and library scientists. Someone once asked whether librarians can save the world (from infoglut). The answer suggested by this tutorial is: Yes, provided they learn how to apply the power of Topic Maps! (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Open Source Topic Map Portals

    Presented by Arnar Lundesgaard

    Zope Topic Maps (ZTM) is an open source project to build a user-friendly Topic Maps-driven content management system. The system is widely used for web sites in Norway. This tutorial will teach you how to install a server and build an ontology for your own publishing needs. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Topic Maps for Information Architects

    Presented by Alexander Johannesen

    Despite being originally conceived long before the Web took off, Topic Maps has proven to be an ideal technology for structuring web sites. This tutorial teaches how information architects, interaction designers and front-end programmers can themselves reap the benefits of Topic Maps and pass those benefits on to their customers. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Application Development with Ruby Topic Maps

    Presented by Benjamin Bock

    A hands-on tutorial presenting RTM and the RTM on Shoes desktop application framework in which participants explore a sample application and follow the development of another. Time permitting, there will be a discussion about the future of RTM, focusing on integration with Java and the synergies between the Shoes and Rails applications. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Ruby Topic Maps in Action

    Presented by Dmitry Bogachev

    Workshop participants will develop a semantic blog using RTM on Rails (web application framework) and a blog ontology. We will explore the concepts of subject-centric computing, and demonstrate the advantages of subject-centric newsfeeds with XTM export, compared to traditional RSS and Atom feeds. (Skill level: Intermediate)

  • Querying Topic Maps with TMQL

    Presented by Robert Barta

    The Topic Maps Query Language (the “SQL” of Topic Maps) is designed to enable efficient access to semantic content inside a Topic Maps-based store. This tutorial, by one of the editors, starts by introducing the more conventional language features and then demonstrates how applications can benefit from TMQL in general. (Skill level: Advanced)

  • Constraining Topic Maps with TMCL

    Presented by Graham Moore

    TMCL is the constraint and schema language for Topic Maps. This tutorial, by one of the editors, teaches the language model and syntax and provides an introduction to the basic constraint constructs before going on to demonstrate their use in a number of worked examples. (Skill level: Advanced)