(highlight:: Taxonomy: A definition for the layperson
Key takeaways:
• A taxonomy is a set of terms, words, or phrases used to describe concepts and tag or index documents or content.
• Taxonomies are organized in a hierarchical structure, but they can also be grouped by different aspects called facets or combinations.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
How do you describe what a taxonomy is to someone who might not be familiar with it?
Speaker 1
Yeah as I said it's a set of terms words or phrases that describe concepts that are used to tag or index documents or content but they are organized in some kind of structure too that traditionally Is hierarchical but it could be grouped by different aspects that we call facets or some combination.)
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(highlight:: Well-Known Standards for Taxonomies and Ontologies
Transcript:
Speaker 1
And there are standards for the SORI, published standards from the American National Standards Institute and from ISO, the International Organization for Standard and Exation. And so taxonomies can borrow from those standards as they like and maybe some people have heard of ontologies which are also related to taxonomies in a slightly different way. I mean ontologies are a way of modeling and describing a domain of knowledge with not just concepts but more broadly different classes and relations between them and certain types Of attributes and their standards for ontologies as well from a different organization from the worldwide web consortium that's something called the web ontology language used With the acronym OWL, the letters are not quite spelled right, they're different and another standard RDF which is the resource description framework. So I said they're standards and then there's a standard for vocabularies, our knowledge organization systems also from the worldwide web consortium called Simple Knowledge Organization System, SKOS, SCOS, SCOS, I've heard it both ways and this is a little different because it just has to do with the exchange of interoperability, it doesn't provide guidelines for making A good taxonomy. But I'm seeing increasingly more taxonomies follow the SCOS model so they can be shared and exchanged.)
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(highlight:: 3 Basic Steps for Making a Taxonomy
Key takeaways:
• The heart of being a taxonomist involves dealing with concepts.
• Part of being a taxonomist is figuring out the best words to describe concepts.
• Another aspect is arranging concepts for easy information retrieval.
• The skills of a taxonomist have wide applicability in various situations.
• Connecting people with the right information is seen as a superpower.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
In the book, you talk about the heart of being a taxonomist and you say that there are three things. So the first is dealing with concepts. The second is figuring out what the best words are to describe those concepts. And then the third is determining how to arrange the concepts so people can find the information they're looking for. And that strikes me as a skill that has wide applicability in all sorts of situations. You've been describing search results, but connecting people with the right information seems like a superpower somehow.)
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(highlight:: The Difference Between a Concept and its Labels
Key takeaways:
• The difference between a concept and its labels is that a concept is an idea that needs to be agreed upon, while labels are the names given to the concept.
• When determining the labels for a concept, it is important to consider variations and different options. This is especially relevant for terms that can be rearranged or have multiple forms.
• Methods for deciding how a concept should be labeled include analyzing usage counts, seeking input from users or stakeholders, and examining the content that will be tagged or indexed.
• Consistency and style with the rest of the taxonomy are important factors to consider when choosing the wording for a concept.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
I used to think that, well, the name is what it is, right? But that's not necessarily the case. I'm wondering if you can speak more to that, the difference between a concept and its labels. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Well, the concept is an idea and you first have to agree what, you know, and you can give it a temporary name and decide, yeah, we need this in the taxonomy. There's content about it and people want to look it up. And then once you've done that, you go a little further and you suddenly realize, oh, there are two different names or, you know, we could call it this or we could call that. Well, especially since we're talking about terms that usually not one word is a noun and an adjective or maybe too adjective. I mean, there's more that can be rearranged. And, you know, there sometimes you can take a little bit of time to look into that. I've even just gone searching on the web and seen by usage counts, which is more common. And then, of course, talking, if you have access to the users or stakeholders, those involved seeing what they think or looking up in the content itself, the content that will be tagged Or indexed, what's more prevalent. Let's say those are the kind of three methods that I most often use to try to decide how something's going to be worded. And then what makes sense to be kind of consistent and style with the rest of the taxonomy.)
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