September 16, 2010 – Clean technology sectors have changed and evolved, and some are saying that the taxonomies have not kept pace. Why is this topic so important? Considering the answer is simple, many are wondering as to why this has slipped behind. As a list of nested categories, well-constructed taxonomies show where everything fits. Vendors understand their competitive sets and the span of the sector and its sub-categories. It also helps research and data organizations report consistently.
Now back to the why. If this is so important, why haven’t clean technology taxonomies kept up with the sector’s evolution? The answer may surprise you. This is hard work. Any edit proposed could mean having to re-tag years of data in sometimes difficult to change back-end systems. Clean technology companies are usually looking for more immediately profitable things to do than organize data. According to the article, “A New Cleantech Taxonomy“, one company, Kachan, is all set to take this sector on and do the dirty work.
Glenn Black
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
