What I also have dealt with in the last weeks, was representation and semantic augmentation of structured data in semantic networks. I mainly thought about this in the context of organizational learning, where we consider it necessary (as an enabler) to provide users access to information in their current work context. To lay the foundations, I have developed a concept for unified representation of work process models, learning content and communication tools.

For technical realization I have used ISO Topic Maps, which proved to provide the flexibility I needed for these purposes and at the same time are a well-defined, standardized means for representation of whatever content ... or to cite the standard: [...] anything whatsoever, regardless of whether it exists or has any other specific characteristics, about which anything whatsoever may be asserted by any means whatsoever.

As the Topic Map standard has been recently updated to version 2.0 (with major changes in both data model and serialization format), I have implemented a topic map engine (in Java) to cope with these new elements. Together with some of my students, I currently working on a persistency layer, which will provide storage of Topic Maps in XTM-format as well as in relational databased (via Hibernate). When the implementation has reached a mature state, we will probably think of making the engine publicly available.

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