As outlined in [1] [2], currently it is necessary to create Push topics programatically, then they can be used by application.
I would like to make accessing topics for user as simple as possible, thus I suggest to create topics on demand - where topic is being accessed, it will be created automatically.
Another solution may be using configuration file / context-param with list of topics for creating at application startup.
I would appreciate feedback on proposed solutions.
[1] https://issues.jboss.org/browse/RF-11483
[2] http://relation.to/Bloggers/GettingStartedWithRichFaces40Push#H-TopicsContextInitialization
Just to close this loop, this was discussed at the team meeting today, and the transcript can be found here http://transcripts.jboss.org/meeting/irc.freenode.org/richfaces/2011/richfaces.2011-10-11-14.02.html
-Jay