The ISO working group on Information Association, which is responsible for topic maps standards, has published a roadmap for work updating these standards. Some of this work is now available in draft form.

The roadmap document prescribes work including the development of a reference model and standard application model for topic maps. Also, formalization and updates to the XML deserialization: XML Topic Maps (XTM) and a formalization of the deserialization to HyTime/SGML.

An early editor's draft of the Standard Application Model for Topic Maps is now available.

This document defines the structure and interpretation of topic map information [in terms of semantics and formal data model]. It supersedes ISO13250 and XTM and is intended to become part of the new ISO 13250 standard.

There is also a new High-level Description of a Draft Reference Model for ISO 13250 Topic Maps. These new documents form the overall shape of the updated topic map standard in progress.

For more information on topic maps, see Topicmaps.net and TopicMaps.org. A lso see this reference and collection of work from ISO/IEC SC34 working groups.

Recent, related articles:

• Topic Maps go quantum
• Topic Maps Reference Model
• Toward a RDF schema for Topic Maps