A posting from Carol Geyer announces the decision of the TopicMaps.Org consortium to continue development of XML Topics Maps (XTM) specifications within the OASIS Technical Process. Eric Freese, Chair of TopicMaps.Org, previously announced a decision by the group to become an OASIS Member section. Topic maps (ISO/IEC 13250:2000) are designed to "provide a knowledge layer -- independent of the information resources themselves -- to capture and manage corporate memory, improve indexing, and enable the integration of information that spans multiple, disparate repositories. Applications include the semantic web, distributed ontologies, business processes, workflow, search and retrieval tools, knowledge management, diplomatic communication, cultural dialogue and various other disciplines and functions." One OASIS XTM technical comittee has already been formed (Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee) and others are in the process of formation. According to Steven R. Newcomb, one of the three co-editors of the ISO Topic Maps: "Topic Maps offers a simple and extraordinarily scalable way to control 'infoglut' and amalgamate sets of knowledge-bearing assertions from disparate sources."