{"id":6727,"date":"2013-01-22T08:11:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T08:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawin.org\/?p=6727"},"modified":"2013-01-22T08:11:32","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T08:11:32","slug":"topic-maps-in-the-encyclopedia-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawin.org\/topic-maps-in-the-encyclopedia-of-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Topic Maps in the Encyclopedia of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

A topic map is a set of topics and associations between them. The set drives navigational and analytical tools. Thus, topic maps may be seen as a generalized way of implementing indexes, glossaries, thesauri, taxonomies, ontologies, and other systems of creating, collecting, curating, and navigating topics and associations that are of interest to communities of users.<\/p>\n

Topic Maps are the ideal supporting technology for web portals, providing a conceptual
\nand technical framework for navigation, search, classification, and interaction
\ndesign.<\/p>\n

Users are able to move around the resources on the site tracking topics of interest rather than merely browsing the material linearly or through text searching. In a topic map, web-based resources are grouped around items called “topics”, each of which represents some subject of interest.<\/p>\n

Topics in a topic map are linked together with hyperlinks called “associations”. There can be different types of association in a topic map, representing the different kinds of relationship in the real world. For instance, in the Encyclopedia topic map, the topic which represents a particular person may be linked to a topic which represents a chapter of a book which mentions that person. This association is labelled to indicate that it represents a “mention”.<\/p>\n

Application areas can be found where there is rich, highly granular content whose relationships cannot be adequately represented or navigated with fielded data or “tags”: document dumps, large corpora, legal blogs, litigation services, etc.<\/p>\n

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The Underlying Topic Map<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

The Encyclopedia Topic Map is a web presentation of an underlying “topic map”, best understood as a kind of subject-oriented database – a database designed to organize information around subjects of interest to taxpayers. Each subject has a “topic page”in the Topic Map. This page provides central access to everything that the Topic Map knows about the subject. It may have links to the topic pages of related topics, as well as to relevant forms, instructions, and publications.<\/p>\n

The Topic Map production process adapts to the different kinds of information produced by the various groups at the Encyclopedia, and incorporates input and feedback from professionals and users. Adherence to the principles of the ISO Topic Maps standard protects the value of this knowledge, allowing it to be exploited and maintained under changing conditions.<\/p>\n

Features<\/p>\n