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“We’re weaving together portals, search, security, business intelligence, maps and data warehouse technologies in a way that users can manage their readiness.”

— Coast Guard Commander Janet Stevens

In this report

What is a Topic Map?

In an effort to get information into the right hands, the Office of Naval Intelligence has implemented a knowledge management tool called a topic map. Topic maps fall under a 2000 standard from the International Standards Organization dubbed XML Topic Maps. Not surprisingly, XTM uses XML to represent relationships among data.

As the graphic shows, topic maps are like super indices of information that draw from disparate raw data sources (1) to describe a subject (topic) or subjects (2) that a user wants to know more about. How the subjects relate to one another and to the underlying data (commonly referred to as occurrences) provides the links, or associations (3), that ultimately make up the topic map itself (4).

In practice, a live topic map can help users visualize mass amounts of data to help better understand an agency’s institutional knowledge. Topic maps have been called “the GPS of the information universe.”