This project is investigating the use of HyTime for the purpose of supporting content-based or semantic navigation in a networked information environment. HyTime is a standard (ISO/IEC 10744:1992) for representing the structure of hypertext and multi-media documents. HyTime extends Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) with semantic extensions at the meta level. HyTime semantic links are roughly analogous to relationships that might appear in the schema of a conventional database. The investigation consists of four steps: (1) definition of HyTime links on real-world data, (2) assessment of the utility of HyTime links for content-based navigation, (3) construction of a simple prototype demonstration of HyTime on real-world data, and (4) initial consideration of the feasibility of integrating HyTime information with database data. The goal for this work is to provide semantic or content-based navigation for users of the National Information Infrastructure or similar networked-environment and to consider the potential for semantic links between the world of documents with the wmrld of database objects.
