Lutz Maicher Knihy

The papers in this volume were presented at the workshop “Topic Map Research and Applications 2005” held on October 6-7, 2005, in Leipzig. TMRA 2005 was the first workshop of an annual series of international workshops dedicated to topic maps in research and industry. As the motto “Charting the Topic Maps Research and Applications Landscape” suggests, the aim of TMRA 2005 was to identify the primary open issues in research, learn about who is working on what, bring together researchers and application pioneers, stimulate the systematic tackling of such issues, and foster the exchange of ideas in a stimulating setting. Besides the scientific track, open-space sessions were foreseen as playgrounds for visionaries. A report from this look into future is added to this volume. TMRA 2005 was organised by the Zentrum für Informations-, Wissens- und Dienstleistungsmanagement Leipzig to support exchange of experiences, results, and technology in the field of topic maps. The 24 papers (1 invited, 17 full papers, 5 work-in-progress reports, and 1 report on the open-space sessions) presented at TMRA 2005 and in the present volume were selected from more than 35 submissions. Every submission was carefully reviewed by three members of the Program Committee. Before publishing, the editors introduced an additional editorial loop after the workshop to ensure the highest quality and latest insights.

The papers in this volume were presented at TMRA 2007, the International Conference on Topic Maps Research and Applications, held October 11–12, 2007, in Leipzig, Germany. TMRA 2007 was the third conference in an annual series of international conferences dedicated to Topic Maps in science and industry. The motto of TMRA 2007 was “Scaling Topic Maps.” Taken literally the motto implies developing Topic Maps approaches that scale to large data and user volumes. This is a very real and useful research problem which is addressed by many of the contributions to the conference. But there is an even broader interpretation of the motto: wide adoption of Topic Maps in academia and industry. This is an equally important problem, and one that the TMRA conference series exists to help solve. And there is a more fanciful view on the motto. To “scale” can also mean to climb, so for the attendees the conference provided a way to “scale the mountain of Topic Maps.” In all these ways TMRA 2007 helped to scale Topic Maps.

The papers in this volume were presented at TMRA 2006, the International Conference on Topic Maps Research and Applications, held October 11–12, 2006, in Leipzig, Germany. TMRA 2006 was the second conference of an annual series of international conferences dedicated to Topic Maps in research and industry. Topic maps are continuously gaining more and more attention in science and ind- try; they are “crossing the chasm.” The TMRA series provides a platform for resear- ers in the topic maps community to meet for exciting exchanges in a stimulating setting. The uniqueness of TMRA is its focus on both sides of the same coin: scientific research on topic maps and upcoming applications in industry. In the autumn of 2005 the first TMRA conference took place in Leipzig. The p- ceedings have been published in this LNAI series as volume 3873. It was amazing to see how ideas and solutions from TMRA 2005 matured within the last year to full products or projects. The overall success of TMRA 2005 encouraged us to improve this conference series for the topic maps community: More people were attracted, and the scientific quality was enhanced. The TMRA 2006 program attracted a very international crowd of about 80 att- dees, hosted in the completely new media campus of the Leipzig Media Foundation.