Mastering Topic Maps, or How to be an SGML/XML Super Geek

So what the samhill are Topic Maps?

The new ISO standard ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps defines a model and architecture for the semantic structuring of link networks. Dubbed the "GPS of the information universe", topic maps will become the solution for organising and navigating large and continuously growing information pools, and provide a "bridge" between the domains of knowledge representation and information management.

Formally speaking, the ISO standard defines a model and interchange syntax for Topic Maps. The basic concepts of the standard are topics, occurrences of topics, and relationships ("associations") between topics. A topic map in its interchange form is an SGML (or XML) document (or set of documents) in which different element types are used to represent topics, occurrences of topics, and associations between topics.

Like most super geek XML/SGML technologies, they aren't as frightfully complex as they first appear (my theory is that SGML folks have long felt, perhaps justifiably, that real programmers and CS-types look down on matters as mundane as SGML, so they complexify unnecessarily to compensate). What you really need to begin to understand Topic Maps is example code in a clean elegant language. The Python implementation of a Topic Maps processor did the trick for me. Most folks will need to see Perl code (<shudder/>).

Topic Maps are going to be one of the Next Big Things in the SGML/XML world; that doesn't mean they'll actually be useful (as these things go, actual usefulness can be very hard to predict), but knowing what they are, and how to work with them, will be profitable for anyone crazy enough to figure them out.