Re: [Wikidata-l] [Wikitech-l] Topic Maps

Markus- Congrats because SMW 1.7 is a real bellringer - can't wait to upgrade. I was thinking that "named subobjects" can parallel wiki pagenames, [[#interwiki:en:ns:pgnm]]. Some namespaces would be nice to reserve would be #Dublin Core:, #OWL:, #SKOS:, #Topic Map: etc and their information elements easily defined. And should SF be able to associate forms with subobject namespaces (and categories), it seems a page can maintain a virtual wiki. What a coup! Topic maps distinguish type, subjects, scopes, names, associations & occurrences - an ISO model of an index at the back of any reference book. A minimalist implementation is to associate subjects, like categories, in a page's #DublinCore:Subject property. Subjects can be SKOS objects defined in Subject: namespace, where eg the Library of Congress Subject Headings are defined. Markup is just [[Subject:subjectname]] on any page or within any subobject. [By within, I mean a #^text property for content that's copied into a page should it be "moved" from subobject to page -- this text can contain category and subject markup too]. To be fully wiki, {{pgnm#DublinCore}} might transclude the same material as {{pgnm/DublinCore}} using this #^text property. Their idea of "type" in <xtm:scope>:<xtm:type>:<xtm:name> maps to wiki namespaces more naturally than categories can. Today, categories confuse plural lists of things with singular types of thing, causing a few practical problems. Singular nouns seem best defined in Type namespace with instances located in an appropriately named MW namespace or MW namespace alias. Note, MW can handle 64K namespaces, maybe for a seriously good dictionary of common nouns and noun-phrases like Wiktionary? A few grammatical ideas. A tilde unary operator that does a "like" page or object selection, and filters for categories and subjects that apply to pages & subobjects alike, seems valuable. A magic word {{ANAMESPACE}} ("A" prefix = "A-box") might be nice too to identify a subobject's namespace. page filters [[~{{FULLPAGENAME}}#DublinCore:]] [[Category:Active]][[Subject:LCSH Science]] subobject filters [[~{{FULLPAGENAME}}#DublinCore:]] [[#Category:Active]][[#Subject:LCSH Science]] both filters [[{{NAMESPACE}}:+]] [[Category:Active ]][[Subject:LCSH Science]] [[#Category:Active]][[#Subject:LCSH Science]] One alternative subobject naming is {{FULLPAGENAME}}#{{FULLPAGENAME}} which is a Dublin Core object ie [{{FULLPAGENAME}}#{{FULLPAGENAME}}] |?Contributor|?Coverage...|?Subject|?Title|?Type So [[Subject:pgnm]] markup for a page can be stored in the Subject property in a {{FPN#FPN}} or {{FPN#DublinCore}} object. Another approach is that mediawiki build a Category-like mechanism, with its own set of tables and indexes, for Subjects. This may boil down to which part of the wiki stack a [[Subject:pgnm]] tag best processed. I think a [[Subject:pgnm]] could be a useful addition to wiki markup so I hope that doesnt get obscured. Wikidata may want to incorporate ideas concerning Topic Maps - strategically it's possibly an easy big win, so I'll bother them too.