topicmapsforge.org publishes two topic maps addressing two very different domains: plant varieties listed by the Bundessortenamt (German Federal Agency for Plant Varieties), and 2010 soccer world cup.

The topic map on the soccer world cup provides access to data on all teams, players, referees and stadiums, as well as to the schedule of all matches. The map is available in English and in German, and will be constantly updated during the upcoming tournament, to provide up-to-date information. The web application also seamlessly integrates data offered by the topicmapslab of the Universit of Leipzig, and is meant to be a highly networked information source giving a large number of overviews related to the 2010 soccer world cup.

The second application is a Topic Maps-transformation of openly available data on plant varieties published by the Bundessortenamt (German Federal Authority for Plant Varieties). The map offers a large number of access paths to the wealth of information in the desciptive variety lists. It also offers easy access to a large number of overviews hitherto not available, via the official webfrontend to the authority's data. E.g. the distribution of the susceptibility to mildew in the listed varieties of common winter wheat is now available at the cost of a single mouse click.

Each of the topic maps published in topicmapsforge.org is in fact a web aplication in its own right. The user interfaces are laregely auto-generated from the underlying topic maps, which results in reduced cost for production and maintainance of complex web applications.

The examples are charcterised by self exlanatory data, comprising integral parts of highly networked access paths to their content. Both applications demonstrate a new quality of navigation and information retrieval from complex information ressources enabled by knowledge-oriented information systems.

Check out the maps on the 2010 soccer world cup , and on the German Variety Lists yourself!