[microformats-discuss] xFolk (RC1) and Topic Maps

[Rob .]

To prove del.icio.us is an ISO Topic Map, I've written some Ruby code
to convert del.icio.us content into two topic map exchange formats:
the XML Topic Map syntax (XTM), and the Linear Topic Map Notation
(LTM). Consequently this allowed me to import delicious bookmarks into
topic map tools.

In modelling del.icio.us as a topic map, I identified a single topic
association - bookmark: a user *bookmarks* a resource under a tag on a
particular date, labeling the resource with a title and description.

For simplicity I considered each tag as a separate bookmark. Under my
model, the bookmark association ('xfolkentry') has these topics as
association role players:
 user      (not in xFolk?)
 resource  (url in xFolk 'taggedlink' href)
 tag       (xFolk 'tag')
 date      (not in xFolk?)

I modelled title and description as occurrences of the _resource_
topic in the scope of the user. Occurrence and scope are two more
topic map concepts. You can view occurrences as a way of associating
some text to a topic. Scope is a way of qualifying an assocation or
occurrence. So the map has two more topic types:
 title       (text of xFolk 'taggedlink')
 description (xFolk 'description')
 
My suggestion for the xFolk model is that we add the user that created
the bookmark, and add markup to surround the bookmark date. Without
this we are limiting the possibilities for services and scripts.

I'm happy to discuss topic maps further and give XTM and LTM examples
if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Rob