Naive approach to representing XTM 1.0 as RDF

(cross posted to xtm-wg@yahoogroups.com)

After a fascinating dinner between RDF and XTM executives and a night
dreaming of XTM and RDF, I have decided, before the breakfast, to try a
simple approach described a while ago in an article published on XML.com
to translate an extract of the XTM topic map I have presented at KT 2001
into RDF.

This is nothing but a quick hack that basically consist in replacing ids
by rdf:about, xlink:href by rdf:resource and moving some elements around
to work around the RDF limitations about references included in embedded
description.

I find the result quite encouraging, though and the topic map structure
appears well in the generated triples (to give it a try, just past the
RDF document into the online SIRPAC interface [2] that will also give
you a graphical representation of these triples).

I attach:

  - a copy of the portion of XTM used for this example (map.xtm)
  - a copy of the RDF version of this example (map.rdf)
  - the result of the SIRPAC interface (without the picture:
SiRPACServlet.html).

Again, the right way to define a RDF representation of Topic Maps is
probably to derive a syntax from the TM data model rather than using a
simple transformation working on the syntax like I have done, but I see
this as an encouraging sign or proof of concept to show that Topic Maps
can be represented in RDF.

Eric

[1] http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/10/04/linking/index.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/RDF/Implementations/SiRPAC/
-- 
See you in Austin (Knowledge Technologies 2001)
              http://www.gca.org/attend/2001_conferences/kt_2001/mon.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric van der Vlist       Dyomedea                    http://dyomedea.com
http://xmlfr.org         http://4xt.org              http://ducotede.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<topicMap xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
	<topic id="news.story.topic">
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Topic XMLNews-Story</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="object.title">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#news.story.topic"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Objet</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="story">
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Article</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="related">
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Sujets voisins</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="from">
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Sujet</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="to">
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>Voisin</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
	</topic>
	<topic id="object.title-topic+maps">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>topic maps (object.title)</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
		<occurrence id="object.title-topic+maps-1">
			<instanceOf>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#story"/>
			</instanceOf>
			<resourceRef xlink:href="http://xmlfr.org/actualites/tech/001207-0002"/>
		</occurrence>
		<occurrence id="object.title-topic+maps-2">
			<instanceOf>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#story"/>
			</instanceOf>
			<resourceRef xlink:href="http://xmlfr.org/actualites/tech/000706-0002"/>
		</occurrence>
	</topic>
	<association id="assoc-object.title-topic+maps-2">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#related"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#from"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-topic+maps"/>
		</member>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#to"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-xml"/>
		</member>
	</association>
	<association id="assoc-object.title-topic+maps-6">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#related"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#from"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-topic+maps"/>
		</member>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#to"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-xlink"/>
		</member>
	</association>
	<association id="assoc-object.title-topic+maps-7">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#related"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#from"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-topic+maps"/>
		</member>
		<member>
			<roleSpec>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#to"/>
			</roleSpec>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title-xtm"/>
		</member>
	</association>
	<topic id="object.title-xtm">
		<instanceOf>
			<topicRef xlink:href="#object.title"/>
		</instanceOf>
		<baseName>
			<baseNameString>xtm(object.title)</baseNameString>
		</baseName>
		<occurrence id="object.title-xtm+1.0-1">
			<instanceOf>
				<topicRef xlink:href="#story"/>
			</instanceOf>
			<resourceRef xlink:href="http://xmlfr.org/actualites/tech/001207-0002"/>
		</occurrence>
	</topic>
</topicMap>