http:// © 2004 ontopia as towards seamless knowledge integrating public sector portals in norway...

http://www.ontopia.net/

© 2004 Ontopia AS

Towards Seamless Knowledge

Integrating Public Sector Portals in Norway

Steve PepperChief Strategy Officer, OntopiaConvenor, SC34/WG3Editor, XML Topic Maps

<[email protected]>

Being the Story of How the Topic Maps Family of Standards is Creating a Semantic Web Today


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS

What is Topic Maps?

• An International Standard for the formalrepresentation 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

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

MadameButterfly

P.S.Topics, associations and occurrences have types, and all types are also topics…

Let’s look at this in the Omnigator…

current topic

multiple names

(multiple) types

multipleoccurrences

multipleassociations


© 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


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS

Basic Architecture for a Topic Maps Portal

topicmapappli-cation

server users

topicmap

clientdata and

documents


© 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!)


© 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…


© 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

<www.zope.org>


© 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)

<cmf.zope.org>


© 2004 Ontopia AS

ITU wanted something a little out of the ordinary…

mennesker

dokumentermiljøer

emner/temaprosjekter

artikler

verktøy

teknologi

metoder

aktiviteter

teorier

utdanningsnivå

mennesker

dokumentermiljøer

emner/temaprosjekter

artikler

verktøy

teknologi

metoder

aktiviteter

teorier

utdanningsnivå

“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”


© 2004 Ontopia AS

About the same time, XTM 1.0 was pre-announced

Topic Maps Core arrives05:03, 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."

http://xmlhack.com/author.php?id=2

http://www.topicmaps.org/about.html

http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/core.html

http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/xtm1-20001204.html

http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/xtmp1-20001204.html


© 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 [email protected]

• …and ITU got the web site it was looking for:

mailto:[email protected]

current topic

occurrences associations


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS

Some Topic Maps Portals in Norway

• In production

• http://www.itu.nohttp://www.luna.itu.no(Ministry of Education)

• http://www.forskning.nohttp://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)


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS

The Dual Classification

The Brain

Human body

Science

Volcanoes

Hormones Neurology

Clinical Med.

Medicine

Odontology

Oncology


© 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

http://www.hoyre.no/


© 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)


© 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


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS


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


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

Architecture of the National Knowledge Base

CapLex

Sámi Radio

Norskbiografiskleksikon

NR

KPaxnorge.no

Klasse5B

Ibsensenteret

Norsk filateliforening

Ola og Kari Nordmann

Extensionof SNL

Store Norske Leksikon(SNL: Great Norwegian Encyclopaedia)

2. Foundation of occurrences (from SNL)

Nation

alL

ibrary

3. Extensions from external sources

4. Extensions of the framework

1. Backbone of topics and associations (extracted from SNL)

Frameworkfor Health,

licensedfrom

HealthCanada

5. And so it continues...

How it might all

work

The Norwegian National Knowledge Base

SNL

SNL

SNL

SNL

Skiencoun-

cil

CapLex

CapLex

NBL

Henrik Ibsen

Hedda Gabler

Skien

Et dukkehjemA doll’s house

wrote

born in

wrote

“reality”

topic map

information

knowledge

other topic mapsare merged in ...

Ibsen-centre

Ibsen-centre

Ibsen-centre

Ibsen-centre

Ibsen-centre

Ibsen-centre

Et dukkehjemHelmerHelmer

Dr. RankDr. RankMrs. LindeMrs. Linde

KrogstadKrogstadNoraNora


© 2004 Ontopia AS


© 2004 Ontopia AS

COMPUTERDOMAIN

Subject identity – the magic that makes it possible

• Every topic represents a subjectin the “real world”

• Subject indicators establish which subject a topic represents

• They work for both humans and computers

• Published subjects make it possibleto connect topics across topic maps, e.g.

http://psi.kunnskap.no/authors/ibsen

information

composed by

born in

composed by

knowledge

Puccini

Tosca

Lucca

MadameButterfly

“REALITY”


© 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.o

ntopia

.net

/oper

a/pucc

ini.h

tml

subject identifier

topichttp://

www.ontopia.net/© 2004 Ontopia AS


© 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…


© 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)


© 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!


© 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


© 2004 Ontopia AS

Netherlands Next?

• Topic Maps have achieved critical mass in Norway

• Where next?

• The Netherlands seems to have a similar profilein 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

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

http:// © 2004 ontopia as towards seamless knowledge integrating public sector portals in norway...

Documents

topic maps portals

topic type

xml topic maps

tao of topic maps

appropriate topic

basic model of topic

topic maps family of

topic mapsbased web