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Home / Sessions / Topic Taxonomies Are the Worst

Topic Taxonomies Are the Worst

IAC23

Time(s)

April 1, 2023
1:00 PM CT

Location

Room B

Description

One primary tension in taxonomy construction is between best practices (as defined by various taxonomy standards) and practical (business) requirements.

That is: the tension is between categorization according to *what things are* versus *where people will look for them*.

How can we balance or reconcile these priorities? Can we model our way out of them? And what are the options?

This issue is paramount in Topic taxonomies; Topic or Subject taxonomies are very common and present specific modeling challenges.

People are used to navigating topic-oriented structures. It is common sense to put things where people will find them; however, that does not mean that it’s also Good Taxonomy Practice.

In this talk, I’ll address the difference between Concepts and Topics, outline some of the challenges in building these types of taxonomies, and offer a number of practical solutions for addressing them.

About the speakers

Bob Kasenchak
Bob Kasenchak

Bob is an information architect at Factor. As taxonomist and ontologist with an interest in knowledge graphs and Linked Data, he has worked for over a decade building and implementing taxonomy projects for publishing, enterprise, technology, and e-commerce clients. He brings experience with information modeling and semantic software to client-focused metadata and vocabulary projects.

A frequent writer and presenter on semantic topics in conferences and journals, Bob’s current research interests include ontologies, knowledge graphs, and text classification. Still active teaching and playing music, Bob has been a member of the local ensemble Gamelan Encantada for the past several years. He lives in Albuquerque with his wife.

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