Michel Biezunski and Steve Newcomb have presented the Topic Maps Reference Model splitting down the Topic Maps objects into a smaller generic molecule.

Putting this new model into perspective, Michel Biezunski opposed it to the Standard Application Model (SAM) -based on a infoset paradigm to be "what the industry is expecting" and consistent with XML community usages- as what was needed on a more theoretical point of view.

While classical Topic Map models differentiate notions such as topics, resources, associations, scopes, ... these objects are often similar and partially interchangeable and the Reference Model goes behind their differences to define a new concept named "assertion" more generic which can be used to build the others.

Reference Model assertions are thus the basic building bloc or molecule of Topic Maps like RDF statements are the basic molecule of RDF and this new model might also be used to build a bridge between RDF and Topic Maps at a deeper level than proposed during the Knowledge Technology nocturne.

If that was the case, the work presented by Nikita Ogievetsky at Extreme Markup 2001 could be a good starting point since it was already built on the similarity between Topic Maps topics, members and scopes.

Other stories:

• Toward a RDF schema for Topic Maps
• RDF and Topic Maps, so similar and so different!
• Representing XML Topic Maps as RDF