What is Phoenix?

Phoenix is designed to be an XML Topic Mapped Content Management System.

Aren't there enough CMS's out there already?

Yes, but there isn't a single CMS using XML Topic Maps to define its knowledge - since a CMS is a rather large undertaking, the project will be starting out with Authentication modules, user management modules, administrative modules, and profile modules. After that we will see where it progresses.

What are XML Topic Maps anyway?

A topic map is an advanced version of the 'back of book' index you use to find certain names, terms, phrases, or words. Topic Maps are more advanced because they allow us to reify real resources (people, places, and physical things) and computer resources (webpages, encyclopedia entries, &c.).

We want to use Topic Maps because it provides a much cleaner and more efficient way of managing knowledge and information than plain SQL table structures can - XML Topic Maps DO NOT store any data, they store 'pointers, associations, occurrences' TO the data which may be contained in an SQL database or flat-file database. The Topic Mapping engine can work in concert with the ACL engine (also utilizing XML, and also reified within a site wide Topic Map), a local site search engine, and relational-attribute search/display engines.

We are using the XTM (XmlTopicMap) 2.0 specification, which is an ISO standard.