Topic maps management in spatial-temporal multimedia blogs

Web-based blogging has entered the mainstream of society as an easy way to publish information, and it is exponentially increasing the data volume and its related complexity. Spatial-temporal information (Where and When contexts) contained inside multimedia postings needs to be better semantically handled by search engines or by end-users as current web blogs still lack semantic support. The semantic web community has promoted Topic Maps as a technology that reduces the lack of semantics regarding optimization of information creation, exchange, navigation, merging, and dissemination. This paper introduces a new layer that combines blogging standards (e.g. RSS and Atom) with the Topic Maps data model for semantic-augmented and interoperable information exchange support. In addition, the paper includes examples from the Isfahan Islamic Architecture DataBase (IIADB) project, the pilot user of the topic maps layer bridging the semantic gap of multimedia postings in a historical and architectural context.