There are taxonomies everywhere. Walk into Home Depot or your nearest grocery store and look up. The aisle markers tell you where to find what you are looking for — in broad terms and hopefully, related terms.
In the wrap-up session of the final day of the 9th Annual Data Harmony Users Group meeting, Jay Ven Eman, CEO of Access Innovations, led an entertaining and informative discussion on views from on high, taxonomy-wise. Included in the discussion of semantics and rule building, other topics such as users’ behavior were addressed. Van Eman advised those in attendance to ask their clients, whether in formal or impromptu surveys, why they do what they do.
What with most sessions coming at the end of two full days of sitting and listening (make that three days for some who came early for workshops), it can be difficult to keep your audience’s attention. However, the witty and genuinely knowledgeable Ven Eman pulled it off without a hitch. It has been an enjoyable time learning from clients of Data Harmony how they are using the product to build their taxonomies, as well as the challenges they faced along the way, and to witness the collaboration between clients as they work together to solve problems that have served as hurdles or walls along the way.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
