Although taxonomies have become increasingly common within enterprises and on websites, they are not always well understood. Taxonomies are sometimes confused with other knowledge organizations systems, such as classification systems, website navigation schemes, business glossaries, or ontologies A taxonomy is a controlled, structurally organized set of unambiguous concepts, which may…
Category: Taxonomy definitions
Taxonomy Definition
I usually explain that a taxonomy is a structured kind of controlled vocabulary, which is list of terms (or concepts) usually used to tag content to aid in its retrieval. The structure can be hierarchical, faceted, or a combination. Other people have defined taxonomies for a general audience in more…
One or More Taxonomies
In the various definitions of taxonomy, one aspect of the definition that is often missing is what constitutes a single taxonomy (or thesaurus) versus multiple related taxonomies (or thesauri). If you hire a taxonomy consultant, they won’t tell you because they will defer to their client’s terminology. If you are…
Indexing vs. Thesaurus Creation
The activities of back-of-the-book indexing, document/digital asset indexing, and thesaurus/taxonomy creation all require similar skills, but each has its own unique requirements. Indeed a typical career path toward an accidental taxonomist is to first work as an indexer. You might think that the two kinds of indexing are similar to…
Taxonomies vs. Thesauri
Two taxonomy consulting projects I worked on last year seemed to lend themselves more to the development of a thesaurus than a set of hierarchical taxonomies. But clients usually ask for a taxonomy and not a thesaurus. Perhaps we need to ask what is in mind with the notion of…
Business Taxonomies
It’s difficult enough for professionals to come to a consensus on the definition of “taxonomy.” As for “business taxonomy,” it’s even worse. There are varying ideas of taxonomy, varying ideas of “business,” and varying ideas on what the connection should be, in addition to the scope and purpose. Is it…