Re: Semantic Bleachers: was Re: Afghanistan War Diary as topic map in Maiana

Lars,

On Sun, 2010-10-31 at 00:53 +0200, Lars Heuer wrote:

<snip>

> > Although it is an old suggestion, that pops up every now and again, why
> > don't we do a public topic map project?
> 
> Since nobody has time for it? People are eager to waste their time at
> official meetings since they are paid for wasting time at the
> conferences. But if you try to find volunteers in a (anyway small)
> community, you may be lost.
> 

Hee, hee. Sorry, not even close.

Sure, some meetings are more productive than others. But, like the lack
of semantic interoperability, that is part and parcel of the human
condition.

At least I am not suggesting that using URIs for meeting agendas will
make meetings (necessarily) more productive, the participants more
considerate, the processes more democratic (and/or insert your favorite
-ic), etc.

All we can do is suggest "subjects," ask for volunteers, etc. Either it
will or it won't work. 

> > The Afghanistan War Diary would be good but many of us lack the
> > expertise, background and interest to contribute to its substance.
> > Someone on this list may have that expertise so it could be one of a
> > such projects.
> 
> Yes, it could. But maybe the Afghanistan War Diary isn't the right
> project to show what Topic Maps is about? If nobody as a clue about
> this particular topic we shouldn't promote it as project which shows
> "what's Topic Maps is about".
> 

Well, but I am not unsympathetic to choosing the Afghanistan War Diary
as a possible topic map, to be embellished by others. 

It is a hot news item these days and there is always the chance that you
can get some official type to start acting out poorly considered plans
because you posted part of it online.

Which gets you more PR etc. 

Unfortunately you need more provocation than what the current conversion
offers.  

> Sorry for the sarcasm, but trying to show the differences of Topic
> Maps to Google Maps and promoting to search for coordinates may be ...
> well ... difficult.
> 

True, there are GIS systems with far more sophisticated notions of
location. 

> [...]
> > Suggestions on general themes/data sets?
> 
> I'd suggest to create a proper translation of DBpedia to Topic Maps.
> DBpedia has become a focal point of LOD and if Topic Maps want to play
> a role in the recent movement we should try to provide a mappish view
> on that data.
> 

Interesting choice. 

<sarcasm about LOD and DBpedia deleted/>

What would you suggest as a "mappish view on that data" or what
information should we look at adding to it? 

Doable but not sure how interesting it would be, but generally authors
of articles in CiteSeer list their email addresses. Domain lookups could
provide geographic locations that could then be mapped using Geonames. 

I think where there are high concentrations of CS authors is generally
well known but perhaps adding in self described key words might make it
more interesting. 

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Patrick