[sc34wg3] Best practices for representing occurrences. or why occurrences are not associations?

[Sam Hunting]

On 23 Feb 2003, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:

> | 2. Define that <resourceRef> in occurrence element is a shortcut for
> | reified as topic resource with subject address equals to URI from
> | <resourceRef>
> 
> We could do that, but I am hesitant to do so, I must admit.
> Essentially it means giving up the TAO model, which has proved to be
> very useful.

Well, maybe the "TAO" has passed its sell-by date, and it is time to give
it up.

Personally, and FWIW, I've always felt that the "TAO" was very focused on
the *how* of topic maps, as opposed to the *why* of topic maps -- and that
this was unfortunate, since, after all, it's the benefits of topic maps
that lead users (as opposed to implementors) to adopt them, not the beauty
of a model.

The *why* of topic maps, for me, has been bound up in what bibliographers
call the collocation objective -- "making everything known about a subject
accessible from a single location." (http://www.isotopicmaps.org/rm4tm/)

>From the user's perspective, achieving the collocation objective means
that they actually find rather than merely search. So I was very pleased
to see the primary exponent of this view of bibliographic systems and what
they can do, Elaine Svenonius, cited on this list the other day by Steve
Pepper. We were very lucky to hear Elaine speak at Extreme in Montreal.
Her book is titled "The Intellectual Foundation of Information
Organization," and it is available on Amazon among other places.

Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Co-Editor, ISO Reference Model for Topic Maps 

Topic map consulting and training: www.etopicality.com
Free open source topic map tools:  www.gooseworks.org

XML Topic Maps: Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web.
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-74960-2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------