How are topic maps used/integrated within content management systems?
Topic maps provide a uniquely powerful means of organising and relating content independently of the content itself or its location. By providing a topical organisation of documentation, it is possible to break out of the strait-jacket of the folder hierarchy provided by most CM systems and provide a more flexible categorisation system. The applications of this use of topic maps within a CM system may be either author-oriented or end-user oriented. For content creators and managers, a topical organisation of content may enable different users to organise content in different ways (for example, an author may organise content by urgency, and editor by project and a translator by language). For content users, topic maps provide multiple routes through documentation enabling a user with a particular interest to follow that interest from one piece of information to another. For both sets of users, a topic map can also serve as a representation of the content in miniature – the fundamental c
