Topic mappers need to read the Federated Search Blog on a regular basis.
First, “federated search” is how a significant part of the web community talks about gathering up diverse information resources.
Think of it as learning to say basic phrases in a foreign language. It may not be easy but your host will be impressed that you made the effort. Same lesson here.
Second, it has a high percentage of extremely useful resources. Two examples that I found while looking at the site this morning:
- 100 Useful Tips and Tools to Research the Deep Web From the site:
Meta-search engines use the resources of many different search engines to gather the most results possible. Many of these will also eliminate duplicates and classify results to enhance your search experience.
- Federated search blogs, presentations, and a report
Third, we need to avoid being too narrowly focused. Semantic integration needs vary from navigation of known information resources to federation of information resources to integration based on probes of document sets too large for verification (those exist, to be covered in a future post).
Topic maps have something unique to offer those efforts but only if we understand the needs of others in their own terms.