JErlang: Erlang with Joins by Hubert Ploiniczak should interest anyone implementing distributed topic map systems.
The value of having a distributed architecture (did I hear “Internet?”) has been lost on the Semantic Web advocates. With topic maps you can have multiple locations that “resolve” identifiers to other identifiers and pass on information about something that has been identified.
Most existing topic maps look like data silos but that is more a matter of habit than architectural limitation.
I should put in a plug for the Springer Alert Service, which brought the article with the same title, JErlang: Erlang with Joins to my attention. Highly recommended as a way to stay current on the latest CS research. Remember articles don’t have to say “topic map” in the title or abstract to be relevant.
PS: Topic map observations: The final report and article have the same name. In topic maps the different locations for the items would be treated as subject locators, thus allowing them to retain the same name but being distinguished one from the other. Note that the roles differ with the two subjects as well. Susan Eisenbach is the supervisor of the final report and is a co-author of the article reported by Springer.