[sc34wg3] TMQL Enterprise Information Integration

[Patrick Durusau]

Greetings!

There is also a wealth of useful TMQL information in the use case 
document: http://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/sc34/open/0449.htm.

One in particular that I would like to single out goes by the unlikely 
term *immaterialized topic map.*

Fortunately the reader doesn't stumble over that bit of phraseology 
until fairly late in 3.4, Enterprise Information Integration.

In a nutshell this section restates the obvious point, lost on a number 
of other data integration strategies, that converting existing archives 
to some new format to achieve data integration works, but at great cost 
and risk to the original data. So much so that it happens but not often.

The point here is that existing information archives can be viewed "as 
though" they were topic maps and so subject to the same merging rules as 
any other topic map, up to and including additional merging rules.

There was a recent post about the use of topic maps in libraries to 
FRBRize their catalogs. Given that most such catalogs are already held 
in deeply embedded data structures on which other systems rely, the 
ability to view them "virtually" as topic maps offers an low threat 
level way to demonstrate the value add that topic maps brings to an 
information system.

I would rank this in the "must have" requirements for TMQL.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick at durusau.net
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)