xmlhack: Topic Maps Core arrives

Topicmaps.org has delivered a stable set of core deliverables, along with a draft of XML Topic Maps 1.0 and the XML Topic Maps Processing Model.

XTM is built on ISO 13250, which defines:

"a standardized notation for interchangeably representing information about the structure of information resources used to define topics, and the relationships between topics.... A topic map defines a multidimensional topic space -- a space in which the locations are topics, and in which the distances between topics are measurable in terms of the number of intervening topics which must be visited in order to get from one topic to another, and the kinds of relationships that define the path from one topic to another, if any, through the intervening topics, if any. "

The core deliverables includes the parts of XTM which are "not subject to any future change that would invalidate any XTM document or XTM application that conforms", while XTM 1.0 includes both those core delivrables and additional content which are still subject to "Authoring Group (AG) Review process."