Transcript TaxonomiesandClassificationforOrganizingContent.ppt

Taxonomies and Classification
for Organizing Content
Elizabeth Wong
INF 385E
February 16, 2012
Presentation Outline
What are classification and taxonomy?
 How classification and taxonomy are
relevant and useful to IA
 Keep in mind
 Questions

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Definitions by Distinction
“Taxonomies? That’s classified
information.”
-Jordan Cassel from The Accidental Taxonomist
Classification vs. Classification Scheme

IA Glossary Definition of Classification:
The sorting of things into pre-defined
categories.
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Classification vs. Classification Scheme

Classification Scheme: “A tool for
systematic organization of information
resources.”
- GG Chowdury
Organizing Information from the Shelf to the Web
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Types of Classification
Alphabetic
 Numeric
 Alphanumeric
 Taxonomies
 Facets
 Etc.

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Many meanings of taxonomy


Original Greek: taxis=arrangement and
nomos=law or science (study of classification)
Information- in general – 1990s
Two common usages
1) Narrow: A hierarchical classification or categorization
system
2) Broad: Any means of organizing concepts of
knowledge

- Heather Hedden The Accidental Taxonomist
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Why organize?
To make sense of information
 To understand and promote relationships
 To understand the world better

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Taxonomies are . . .
Any set of terms that share some
organizing principle. – MSWeb team
 Constructs that help people search,
browse, and manage (intranet) content
more effectively

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Seth Earley on Taxonomies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BWoL
ObDvcY
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Taxonomies include
Controlled vocabularies
 Hierarchies
 Information thesauri
 Ontologies

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Controlled Vocabularies

“A restricted list of words or terms for
some specialized purpose, usually for
indexing, labeling, or categorizing.”
-
Heather Hedden The Accidental Taxonomist
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Hierarchical Taxonomies
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Thesauri

Show three types of
relationships:



Hierarchical (BT/NT)
Associative (RT)
Equivalence (Use/UF)
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Ontologies
Thesauri + more complex relationships
 Aims to describe a domain of knowledge


Supports inferencing
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Applications and Purposes of
Taxonomies
Indexing support
 Retrieval support
 Organization and navigation support

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Ch. 20 in Information Architecture for the
World Wide Web
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Meeting your taxonomy needs
Buy one
 Adapt one
 Build one

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Keep in mind
Content
 Users
 Context
 Be flexible and multidisciplinary!
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References

Chowdhury, GG, and Sudatta Chowdhury. Organizing Information
from the Shelf to the Web. London: Facet, 2007. Print.

Doyle, Bob. "Glossary - Information Architecture Institute." The
Information Architecture Institute. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.iainstitute.org/en/learn/resources/glossary.php>.

Hedden, Heather. The Accidental Taxonomist. Medford, NJ:
Information Today, 2010. Print.

Morville, Peter, and Louis Rosenfeld. Information Architecture and
the World Wide Web. 3rd ed. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2007. Print.

Taylor, Arlene G. The Organization of Information. 2nd ed. Westport,
CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004. Print.
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Questions?