Topic Map Technology for Municipal Management Information Systems

Experience shows that data warehouse solutions and reporting systems widely-used in enterprises can support the information needs of municipal managers only to a certain degree. Their need for information need is generated, in part, by ad hoc press reports, citizen requests or actions of the political opposition. Regularly produced reports or figure based information do not often provide satisfactory answers to unpredictable questions. The development of a management information system for the municipality in Stuttgart, Germany, concentrates on ad hoc information retrieval which is semantically supported by topic map technology. The article describes the characteristics of unstructured ad hoc information needs and shows on a conceptual level how topic maps can be developed as an instrument to support municipal management.