I’ve given a rule-of-thumb of 3-8 facets to create in a faceted taxonomy, but it’s not that simple, and there are various factors to consider. Creating facets is an assignment in the online taxonomy course I teach, and a student recently submitted good set of facets with sample terms, but…
Author: Heathers Admin
When a Taxonomy Should not be Hierarchical
The traditional taxonomy is hierarchical. Thus, after it is determined a taxonomy is needed, often it is thought that it should be designed as a hierarchy. However, in practical terms, a hierarchical taxonomy might not be the kind that is appropriate. A taxonomy provides value (1) as a controlled vocabulary…
Navigation Schemes vs. Taxonomies
The feature of being hierarchical does not make something a taxonomy.
Remote Taxonomy Work
Taxonomy design and development work can be done remotely. In fact, I’ve been doing taxonomy work remotely for the majority of my 24 years in the field, both as an employee and an independent consultant/contractor/freelancer. Now that information, knowledge, and content professionals are currently all working from home, this would…
Taxonomies and the Digital Employee Experience (DEX)
Helping employees find information within their organizations is one the uses of taxonomies. Implemented in an ECM, SharePoint, or other Intranet platform, taxonomy terms can link users to desired content more precisely and comprehensively than by search alone. I wrote intranet taxonomies in a recent blog post “Intranet and ECM…
Classification Systems vs. Taxonomies
The design of modern taxonomies tends to involve more lumping, whereas the design of classification systems has involved more splitting
Intranet and ECM Taxonomies
In designing a taxonomy for tagging and retrieving content in intranets or in an enterprise content management (ECM) system, there is a fundamental question of whether to strive for creating a single comprehensive taxonomy to be applied throughout the enterprise or to have multiple specific taxonomies for different sets of…
Taxonomy Licensing Interest
Just over a year ago I had blogged on the topic of Taxonomy Licensing. I explained that usually a customized taxonomy is best, but occasionally licensing a taxonomy is a option worth considering in certain circumstances: as a starting point to then modify, to serve as a single facet in…
Taxonomy Boot Camp Conferences 2019
Taxonomies may seem like a very niche specialization, but interest keeps growing, as indicated by participation in the conferences dedicated to taxonomies, Taxonomy Boot Camp in Washington, DC (TBC) and Taxonomy Boot Camp London (TBCL). TBC, now in its 14th year, was held November 4 and 5, and TBCL, now…
Managing Tagging with a Taxonomy
A lot of work can be put into designing and creating a taxonomy, but if it’s not implemented or used properly for tagging or indexing, then that work can be wasted. As the volume of content has grown, many organizations have invested in auto-tagging/auto-categorization solutions utilizing text analytics technologies. However,…