[sc34wg3] Topic Map - Reference Model ?

[Anne Marie Cregan]

Dear WG3 Topic Mappers,

Firstly let me say what a delight it has been to meet a fair proportion of 
you in Amsterdam and to get to know you and learn more about the Topic Map 
work.  I am very appreciative to those of you who listened to my 
presentation on OWL and Topic Maps on Monday, and who gave their opinions 
and feedback.  Some of the issues will no doubt need to be considered on a 
more fundamental level, which is where the TMRM comes in and might provide 
some guidance.

However, being new to the Topic Map WG3 community, I am somewhat unclear 
about what the TMRM is all about, and attending the TMRM WG3 meeting on 
Tuesday left many of my questions unanswered.  It seems to be potentially 
a very interesting piece of work that I might like to contribute to, but 
I'm not sure where to start at the moment.

So, I would like to invite anyone so inclined to respond to the following 
questions and hopefully shed some light on the matter.  Perhaps t his may 
generate some discussion which woul be helpful for everyone, as it may 
help to clarify the various positions that are out there, and perhaps to 
identify where the common ground is.

The questions I would invite you to respond to are:
1. What do you see as the purpose of the TMRM?
2. What form do you envisage the TMRM taking? I know there is a 
mathematical model that Robert Barta is working on, but do you see there 
being other parts, and if so, what form would they take, what would the 
function of each part be, and how would they fit together?

3. What do you  think is the best way to "ground" subjects? That is, to 
unambiguously and unequivocally identify them in a a way t hat is useful 
and convenient for the rest of the TM-related methodologies?

4. What would you ultimately want to be able to do with the TMRM? That is, 
do you have any use cases in mind that you envisage the TMRM would 
address?

I appreciate that there are probably no definitive answers to these 
questions right now as the model is still at an early stage of 
development, but I am interested to learn everyone's viewpoint and perhaps 
through this process, to clarify where the areas of consensus and of 
disconnection are.  Also, there may be more questions that need to be 
asked that are not on the list above, so please raise them if you feel 
this is the case.

Many thanks for your thoughts, and best regards,

Anne Cregan
PhD student
UNSW/NICTA
Sydney, Australia

PSYou are all very welcome to visit me at NICTA in Australia any time.