Last Post

This blog was a companion piece to The Taxonomy Guide, and e-publication of the iSchool Institute at the University of Toronto. That resource has been withdrawn and there is no further reason to keep up this blog.  As well, my involvement with taxonomies has weakened. There are much better people blogging, writing and presenting on this topic.

Three that come immediatlely to mind are:

• Earley & Associates
• Heather Hedden and her book, The Accidental Taxonomist
• SLA Taxonomy Division

I'll completely remove this blog in another two or three months.

Best, Gwen

Seth Earley has been speaking and writing about Taxonomies for several years. On this occasion he gives readers a view of change over the past six years. The 5 major changes he has identified are:

1. Taxonomies have been demystified 
2. Technology has caught up (to some degree) 
3. Taxonomy has left the library 
4. Enterprises have integrated taxonomy 
5. Mobile and social have taken off 

Taxonomy Boot Camp - A Maturing of the Industry (Aug 20)

What can go wrong with a taxnomy

Seth Earley lays out the 10 Common Mistakes When Developing a Taxonomy (July 23) There is a very important distinction between navigation and taxonomy. They aren't the same although a meaningful taxonomy can assist in navigating through content.

Taxonomy Governance

Three part series on taxonomy governance by Mike Doane at CMSWire. Covers development, maintenance, and growth. Has good checklists.

Taxonomies and TOCs

Tom Johnson boiled down 200+ slides from a Seth Earley workshop on taxonomies to one very readable summary.

"Seth outlined a three-prong approach to information management:

• Develop a taxonomy.

• Apply the taxonomy to your content.

• Leverage the taxonomy to view your content in different ways."

The workshop fitted in all the parts: taxonomy, folksonomy, inforamtion architecture, metadata, facets. A writer, Johnson noted  the likeness of taxonomy to table of contents:

"That said, although organizing a TOC and building out a taxonomy seem similar, wouldn’t it be much easier to build out the TOC if you already had a taxonomy to refer to? The taxonomy should provide the heavy critical thought already, making the TOC somewhat of a derivative exercise." 

Comments to the post lead to more observations and resources.

Taxonomy, Metadata, and Search: Notes from Seth Earley’s Confab Workshop by Tom Johnson, idratherbewriting.com (June 25)

Business Value of a Taxonomy

Early and Associates is running a free webinar on What is the Business Value of Taxonomy? (Aug 2012)

 "How can taxonomy impact the bottom line of your organization? What are the advantages of taxonomy vs. technology solutions for improving knowledge flow? Join us for a sixty-minute rundown of the theory, practice and business benefits of taxonomy. "

Introduction to Semantic Web

Giving meaning to the Semantic Web by Dan Misener, Globe and Mail (May 31) Wonderfully succinct statement about the semantic web: "The bottom line: The Semantic Web means many things to many people, and therein lies the irony. It's an online movement focused on adding meaning, but its own meaning is far from clear." This is a good introduction to "semantic web" of structure and connections. We may never see it in full force as a personal information agent, but the technology supports some services on the web today. "For example, Google recently announced Knowledge Graph, an effort to improve search results by applying semantics. Mr. Giasson points to both Wolfram Alpha and Apple's Siri as well-known services that use semantic approaches."

If you're working in taxonomies you'll want to join SLA and its Taxonomy Division. It has a new website at http://taxonomy.sla.org with blog and resources - faq, standards, events, presentations. Some materials are open for viewing, and others are for members. Heather Hedden, a leading author about taxonomies, contributes to this site and the SLA community.

An Introduction to the concepts

An Intro to Metadata and Taxonomies by Christine Benson, Brain Traffic (March 29)

Clear, simple definitions of metadata and taxonomy and how the two relate to each other. Good list of references.

Excellent primer on organizing information

Organizing digital information for others from Maisch Nichani at Pebble Road (Feb 23)

This looks interesting - an e-book on organizing information - download or read online. It's somewhat addressed to a web or intranet team, but anyone organizing information for others will get value.

"In this short book, we explore how lists, categories, trees and facets can be better used to organize information for others. We also learn how metadata and taxonomies can connect different collections and increase the findability of information across the website or intranet."

It starts off very well with a concept map of the concepts covered in the book. It explains the concepts simply and gives practical advice and illustrations.

For example, "the first principle of making lists is - all terms used in the list should pass the common knowledge test". It's fun to read, and recommends many excellent resources. Length - 54 pages and closes with a check list.

Very much ecommended. Enjoy.