Topic Maps-driven Websites are Different

lars.helgeland@bouvet.no

Ted Nelson: Web sites are seen as decorated directories.

Our everyday challenge: Build the ideal, hypertext based knowledge portal

Existing technology has failed to meet expectations regarding the original ideas of hypertext

Obtain new tools that render possible new solutions

Topic Maps may be the tool for building these web sites

Web sites became copies of technical structures

Most of these structures are hierarchical

To avoid these shortcomings, someone invented the concept of portlets.

Portlets made it possible to place related information beside each other

They can be seen as aquariums placed beside each other

Looks nice, but there are not necessarily any connections between the content of the two

Portlets works fine for stock brokers

How is knowledge natively organized?

Nobody knows

Knowledge is not natively hierarchical

Building hierarchies are skills you learn at school.

Knowledge is generally understood as concepts associated with each other

The same way Topic Maps are built

To avoid the shortcomings, content must be separated from presentation

from here

to here

180 degrees

Find the shortest path!

Presentation is a visual aid to support the understanding of information

Only separation of content and presentation makes innovation possible

It should be possible to make different perspectives into the same information..

.. and see the information from different angles

Examples of how to make the most out of Topic Maps

Postens intranett

Norway Post’s intranet

Made hierarchical navigation available

Utdanningsdirektoratet

Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training

Subjects

Type

Entry points

Type

Høyre

Conservative Party of Norway

Forbrukerportalen

Norwegian Consumer Council.

Subjects

Assosiatedarticles

Questions and answers

Assosiatedarticles

Automatic classification

All these different types of navigation were made possible by using Topic Maps

Would you still like to be restricted by traditional Web Content Management systems?

We need to see portals as layered architecture, where content is independent of both presentation and the underlying technology structures.

Topic Maps is the obvious solution for what Ted Nelson and his earlier fellows were searching for

Information architects and interaction designers are not restricted by technical limitation

Topic Maps-driven websites are different

The barriers are now broken