In a recent conversation based on a LinkedIn post, someone asked “Why choose a taxonomy over an ontology?” This is a good question, since there has been a growing understanding that ontologies build upon taxonomies by adding more semantics, which enable additional benefits. I have presented at conferences on the…
Tag: SKOS
Schema Vocabularies and Value Vocabularies
Taxonomies and thesauri can be considered value vocabularies, in contrast to metadata schema and standards, which are considered schema vocabularies.
Narrower Terms vs. Alternative Terms
A narrower concept could be either a variant term or a hierarchically narrower term.
SKOS-XL for Taxonomies
I recently posted about SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System). If you have read anything about SKOS, then you might have come across SKOS-XL (SKOS Extension for Labels) and wondered what that is. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released its recommendations for SKOS and SKOS-XL at the same time in 2009…
SKOS Taxonomies
Over the 26 years that I have been involved in controlled vocabularies, thesauri, and taxonomies, the biggest change I have seen in the field is the adoption of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) as a schema model and standard. If you are creating taxonomies exclusively within a single system (such…
Named Entities in Taxonomies
I have long felt that there is some uncertainty as to where named entities (names of specific people, places, organizations, products, etc.) fit into taxonomies. Standards suggest one way, and practice tends to follow different way in dealing with these proper nouns. As taxonomy trends evolve so does the position…
“The Accidental Taxonomist,” 2nd edition
Recently I was asked what I added to the newly published 2nd edition of my book, The Accidental Taxonomist. The additions and changes are summarized in the book’s preface, so I have decided to post the entire preface here, which follows: When I published the first edition of The Accidental…