NetworkedPlanet Announce Visual Topic Map Schema Editor
NetworkedPlanet have today released the first version of the NPCL Schema Editor for Visual Studio 2005. This freely-downloadable add-in for Microsoft's Visual Studio product provides developers and information architects with a graphical tool for defining a topic map schema (often also referred to as an ontology) using the Networked Planet Constraint Language (NPCL).
The tool enables the schema developer to create a new schema using simple drag-and-drop operations and to visualise schemas graphically. The output of the tool is an XML file which can then be directly imported into the TMCore Information Management Server where it can be used to generate ontology-driven interfaces for topic map editing.
The schema language NPCL is now used in all of NetworkedPlanet's information integration products including the integrations with EPiServer and Microsoft SharePoint. By making it easier to develop a schema language it is our hope that developers and architects will be able to make better use of the power that lies behind ontology-driven development.
Future extensions to the editor are planned to support direct generation of SharePoint and EPiServer-based solutions from an annotated ontology.
For the developer's low-down on the NPCL Schema Editor please see the postings on our OnTopic blog.
Update
Thanks to bug reports from a couple of early adopters of the NPCL Schema Editor. There is now an updated version available for download. If you have a previous version of the schema editor installed you must first uninstall it using Add/Remove Programs before installing the new version.
The NPCL Schema Editor version 1.0.0.2 is now available for free download from here.
If you do find any issues with installing or using the software, please contact us at contact@networkedplanet.com.
Networked Planet Announces release of EPiServer Module 3.0 Alpha for EPiServer CMS 5.0
We are pleased to announce the availaility of TMCore EPiServer Module 3.0 Alpha, compatible with EPiServer CMS v5 RC3.
Networked Planet are committed to ongoing support of new 3rd party product versions, exploiting new features to enable more powerful solutions.
The release can be download from http://www.networkedplanet.com/download/EPiServerModule/EPiServerModule-3.0.zip.
There is some further technical information in the OnTopic blog.
New features
This alpha has enhancements to the topic pickers, improved schema performance and Firefox 2.x support. However, we are currently considering new value added features to add to the product before the final release. Here are some of the things we are considering:
- Topic auto-suggest feature - using analysis of the text to suggest topics to connect to.
- Treating documents in EPiServer CMS as topics and allowing them to be associated with page topics.
- Social book marking extension - allowing end users to create their own topics / tags and use them to organise episerver content
- Faceted Search interface - a powerful control for slicing and dicing through content.
- Forms based query builder - a web control for building topic map queries.
If there are other things you would like us to consider please email contact@networkedplanet.com.
Release plan
We will develop and test a set of features inline with the EPiServer RC's and intend to release TMCore EPiServer Module 3.0 shortly after EPiServer CMS 5.0 final is released
NetworkedPlanet Sponsors TMRA 2007
NetworkedPlanet are proud to be sponsoring this year's International Conference on Topic Maps Research and Applications, TMRA 2007.
TMRA 2007 is a scientific and industrial forum whose main object is connecting the key players in the Topic Maps community. It is also a great opportunity to hear leading researchers and developers talk about what is happening and what will be happening in the realm of Topic Maps.
For more information on the conference please visit the TMRA conference website .
Royal Academy of Music orders TMCore SharePoint Module to power new online music encyclopaedia
- NetworkedPlanet's topic maps-based platform to link together over 100,000 individual documents.
- 'RAMline' project to provide knowledge portal on any artist or work in musical history, from Beethoven and The Beatles to the sounds of tomorrow.
NetworkedPlanet, a leading vendor of information management tools and products, has announced an order for its TMCore information management solution from the Royal Academy of Music to power its new online multi-dimensional music index - the RAMline. The platform will provide an intelligent navigation system for what has the potential to become the largest and most comprehensive online music resource on the internet, linking profiles, discographies, performances and musical compositions of any artist or genre. The TMCore topic map engine will make it easy for users - initially academics and Academy students and in the future, music enthusiasts worldwide - to locate and browse over 100,000 individual in-house and external resources, such as sound clips, images, websites, and details of live performances.
Among the in-house resources that will be drawn together to form the site will be the Academy's existing music libraries, collections, and teaching materials, as well as new content created by its students as part of their research assignments. External resources such as online dictionaries and record company databases will also be integrated into the system. As each new resource is added, the system attaches topic, theme and relationship metadata to each one, enabling it to be categorised as part of a larger grid of files - all connected semantically.
Antony Pitts, Senior Lecturer in Creative Technology at the Royal Academy of Music, commented: "The RAMline project is hugely ambitious - it aims to bring together all of the Academy's internal and external resources, and will offer a completely new way of looking at music history. It has the potential to become the largest and most comprehensive online music resource on the internet, which will serve as a learning and research tool for our students and, in the future, a knowledge portal for the public. Using topic maps allows us to create, locate and access each resource rapidly and easily."
"The scale and nature of this project are ideal to demonstrate fully the benefits of topic maps," added Kal Ahmed, Founder of NetworkedPlanet. "As the index grows, navigation becomes more and more problematic, especially considering much of the content is stored in different locations. Adding topic maps to each resource - either when it is created or when its details are imported into the system - allows extra metadata properties to be attached to it, such as genre, date or city. A detailed 'map' can then be created between this metadata, allowing rapid navigation according to keywords, relationships and themes."
The user interface to the index will have an innovative design, with each musician, composer and work given a dynamically-generated timeline - allowing deep and powerful navigation. The TMCore server will store and manage 'topic maps' of the entire content of the RAMline. Each topic contains metadata which holds information about the file, links to related documents and links to other topics, creating a map of knowledge. This map can be browsed or searched by end-users to find information resources via key concepts. The result is a detailed index of the information resources across a number of systems via a single unified information portal.
About The RAMline
In 2006, the Academy began building a unique index of digitised archives and online resources, together with a specialised tool that allows this index to be browsed and searched intuitively by students, staff and visitors. As well as an ever-expanding catalogue of musicians and of musical works, the RAMline links to manuscript sources and published editions, live performances and recordings, musical criticism and comment. The RAMline simultaneously displays a timeline of musical history and the life-cycle of any piece of music, from antiquity to the present, and will be used to chart each student’s musical profile at the Academy and beyond. The RAMline is the focus of a Teaching and Research Award from the University of London's Centre for Distance Education.
About the Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music is Britain's senior conservatoire, and since 1822 has prepared students for successful careers in music according to the constantly evolving demands of the profession. Academy musicians study for University of London degrees in varied programmes including instrumental performance, composition, jazz, musical theatre and opera. The Academy's student community is truly international, with over 50 countries represented. The Academy has recently invested substantially in creative technology and collaborates closely with the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.
For more information, please visit www.ram.ac.uk
TMCore07 SP2 Now Available
We are pleased to announce the release of the latest update for our TMCore07 Enterprise Information Server.
Service Pack 2 (SP2) moves TMCore07 over to the .NET 2.0 platform enabling better integration with enterprise scale servers including 64-bit architectures. A number of minor bugs have also been addressed in this release.
All licensed users of TMCore07 (Full or Lite edition) can contact NetworkedPlanet Support at contact@networkedplanet.com for download instructions. Please note that .NET 2.0 is REQUIRED for this update and that any .NET 1.1 applications will have to be recompiled using the .NET 2.0 Framework.
If you would like to evaluate the TMCore07 Enterpise Information Server, please visit our evaluation request page to request an evaluation license.
TMCore helps power new Norwegian government portal
Oslo, Norway. The Minister of Government Administration and Reform Heidi Grande Røys presented the Norwegian government's new portal on Monday February 12 2007. Regjeringen.no (Government.no) is a portal with innovative technology and an architecture that makes it considerably easier for users to find what they are looking for. The innovative technology includes Networked Planet's TMCore Topic Map engine, the Networked Planet EPiServer Module, along with the EPiServer Content Management system and the FAST Search engine. The site is open to the public and can be found at Regjeringen.no.
About The Ontology Library
The NetworkedPlanet ontology library has been set up to provide you with sample and starter ontologies to learn from and to use in your own topic map projects. Although it is currently quite small, we will be adding to this library over time so be sure to subscribe to the site headlines to get notification of new additions as they are made.
TMCore EPiServer Module v2.0 Released
TMCore EPiServer Module v2.0 Released
NetworkedPlanet launches the latest version of the EPiServer Topic Map module. The TMCore EPiServer Module provides seamless integration with one of the premier web content management solutions on the Microsoft .NET platform.
The TMCore EPiServer Module delivers a simple, powerful model for EPiServer editors and administrators to exploit the flexibility of topic maps within their web site, providing concept based navigation and search as well as improved link management.
NetworkedPlanet has been working closely with our business partners in order to deliver exciting new features and an improved user experience in this latest release.
The EPiServer Module highlights:
- All new AJAX based topic association editing environment.
- Full exploitation of the new features of TMCore07.
- Configuration and data consistency checking and automatic repair utilities, integrated in with EPiServer's administrator tools.
- Powerful topic map navigation data controls that provide a simple mechanism for querying the topic map and rendering the results using the standard template-based data-bound ASP.NET controls.
The Topic Map advantage enables organisations to organise and find their information in a non-hierarchical, multi-dimensional way. The TMCore engine can be used as an integration platform with content from multiple system aggregated and delivered through the power of the EPiServer platform.
The TMCore EPiServer Module is compatible with ASP.NET 1.1 & 2.0 and EPiServer 4.60 and later.
If you would like to request an evaluation license for the EPiServer Module and TMCore, please complete the evaluation form at: http://www.networkedplanet.com/products/evalreq.aspx.
NetworkedPlanet launches TMCore07
NetworkedPlanet launches major new enterprise-wide knowledge and information
management solution
- TMCore07 ensures information workers can find, access and organise data from disparate business systems
- Compatible with .NET platforms, SharePoint and EPiServer products.
- Enables the Norwegian Department of Education to put its
curriculum on the internet to show parents what their children are
learning
NetworkedPlanet, the leading vendor of information management tools and
products, has launched TMCore07, a major new enterprise-wide knowledge and
information management solution. For the first time, TMCore07 allows
organisations, such as those in finance and public sectors, to instantly find,
access and organise business-critical data from multiple systems or information
silos and deliver it to employees via an integrated knowledge network. The
solution rapidly gives information workers the relevant data and documents they
need to make better business decisions and ensures they can share insights and
knowledge across the enterprise.
TMCore07 is fully compatible with a range of web-service interfaces, and integrates with Microsoft SharePoint and EPiServer products. Available from just £3,000, it provides organisations with a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution for business systems integration,
web content management, and intranet-based knowledge management.
Our new TMCore07 solution builds upon the success of
previous versions to deliver a solution that addresses the knowledge and
information management needs of a wide range of organisations, with the added
flexibility that gives them greater scope to develop processes as the need
arises,The solution loosely
couples with existing systems, so there is no invasion of established
infrastructure and it enables users to pull information from any silo within the
framework of the implementation.What is more relevant for a growing number of organisations though is the linkage of information between the silos, which gives users a unique data-driven, goal-oriented approach to finding relevant information. For example, the Norwegian Department of Education have put the entire content of their national curriculum onto the internet. TMCore07
on EPiServer allows parents to search the entire content anywhere in the country to see what their children are learning.
Kal Ahmed, Founder, NetworkedPlanet.
The TMCore07 solution tags key documents and information by user-selected topics and couples them with other material on the basis of specific relationships. This provides the user
with a quick and direct way to locate and present previously inaccessible data
as a single layer of information, regardless of the scale of the search.
TMCore is NetworkedPlanet's server platform for developing enterprise-scale knowledge and information management applications. The TMCore server stores information about any kind of "topic" - employees, departments, services, documents etc. Each topic holds information about itself, links to related documents and can also be connected to any other topic creating a knowledge web of relationships and information resources that can be browsed or searched by end-users.
New NetworkedPlanet Blogs
Three new blogs have been added to the NetworkedPlanet website to help us keep bringing you fresh information and new articles.
The two principle blogs are the NetworkedPlanet News and OnTopic. The former is for product and company news whereas the latter focuses on technical and developer issues. Our hope is that over time the OnTopic blog will become a repository of hints and tips and technical articles to help developers working with TMCore. It will also be the place that we announce beta releases and technical tools and goodies, so it might be worth adding the 
ATOM feed to your favourite RSS aggregator.
The third blog is called OffTopic and is the place for less work-releated news - if you are interested in what the NP team do in their spare time (Spare Time? What's that ? Ed.), this is the place to visit.
We hope you enjoy the new blogs!
