Web and XML Glossary

Topic Maps enable vast information resources (such as the WWW) to be classified and navigated in a consistent manner. They allow for the concepts or topics that underlie a set of information resources to be exposed to those people or applications processing the information. Information resources can be HTML, PDF, XML, SGML and other Data Formats including paper. Topics are the concepts underlying what these resources are concerned with. A topic can reference zero or more information resources. In addition to grouping resources as "topic occurrences", it is possible to have meta level associations. This means that it is possible to define a link, or association, from one topic to another. Topic Maps provide a semantic layer that is not hierarchical, although it could be visualized that way, it facilitates navigation at a level independent from the information resources.