Playing with Taxonomies

EContent

By Robert J. Boeri - December 2004 Issue, Posted Nov 29, 2004
http://www.econtentmag.com/?ArticleID=7357
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Unless you're a biologist or librarian, "taxonomy" is a term so esoteric that it makes your eyes roll. Yet redesign your intranet or discuss using keywords to tag content for easier searching, and suddenly the concept, if not the term, raises everybody's blood pressure. Like the old joke, there are as many opinions about the meaning of taxonomy as there are information stakeholders. Let me start by giving you my definition: Taxonomy is a logical organization of information categories. By "logical" I mean high-level, not the opposite of "illogical." Keywords and navigation schemes are some of the physical manifestations of taxonomies. The logical/physical distinction is somewhat like a prototype versus retail products or XML schemas versus instances.

Certain professional groups and verticals have developed standard taxonomies for specific subject areas. MeSH, for example, categorizes medical subject . . .