Whats the difference between topic maps and ontologies?
The term “ontology” has been used to mean a large number of different things, from the philosophical study of being to specific kinds of mathematical models, so we can’t really answer this question without knowing what the person asking the question meant by “ontology”. Philosophical meaning: in this case, the difference is obviously very big. Topic maps are a technology and a data model, with a certain amount of philosophical underpinning, but by no means a full “ontology” in the philosophical sense. Computer science meaning #1: in this view, an ontology is a model of the universe in terms of entity types, property types, and relationship types where each type really is expected to exist in the modelled domain. In this sense of the term, topic maps really are ontologies, and there isn’t really much of a difference between topic maps and ontologies. Computer science meaning #2: in this view, an ontology is a model of the kind described above together with a formal logical description o
