The semantic web has been above my radar for some time now. Still I find it hard to grasp the available standards. My focus has been primarily on XTM (XML Topic Maps). Sure, I’ve read the TAO and played around with online examples. I even presented the concepts of the semantic web to 20 non-tech colleagues.
But… crafting a nifty simple XTM document myself? Not yet. It’s verbose. It’s hard.
Tonight, I found an apprehensive introduction: The Topic Maps Handbook (pdf). Pages 12 to 15 will get you up to speed with your first XTM. I chose ATC definitions as a domain for my topic map (see below). It’s a start.
Next step is visualization. I’m considering XSLT => dot => PNG
. More on that later, if I succeed.
(more…)