Easter Sunday seems like a good day to discuss the redeeming/salvation aspects of topic maps. It could be a very short post because in my view, topic maps offer us neither redemption nor salvation.
It has been a popular theme in Internet circles that better access to information will lead to better decision making. If we could just “see” things from other perspectives, we would not be bound by our parochial interests.
Topic maps offer the potential to transcend and preserve evidence of semantic barriers. Not only can we “see” semantic barriers but move beyond them. Heady stuff. But, better access to information will not necessarily make us better people.
Ask your local rabbi, priest, imam, or other religious leader. Their traditions have labored for centuries, if not millennia, to help us choose better conduct over other choices, with mixed results. They had access to all the information any one needs to be a better person. But we have been unwilling to take the advice.
Now with topic maps or the Semantic Web or (your choice), we are going to wake up and say, “I can be a better person!” Hardly. I have every confidence we will continue to be selfish, vain, parochial, inconsistent and, at times, foolish.
Let’s not mistake topic maps or any other tool, as a source of redemption or salvation. The path to redemption or salvation lies within us and the choices we make.