I am a foodie and I write for a taxonomy blog. Of course I am going to share the latest taxonomy, “A Field Guide to the American Sandwich,” found in The New York Times.
In an effort to celebrate and bring some definition to the sandwich’s diversity in the United States, before you can begin to build a taxonomy, you must answer this question first – What is a sandwich?
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a definition – “Product must contain at least 35 percent cooked meat and no more than 50 percent bread.” But wait, a sandwich doesn’t require meat. What about a grilled cheese?
Merriam-Webster is slightly more helpful: “two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between.”
Take a moment to read more about this particular endeavor. It will be worth your time if only to remind you that there is value in classification. True taxonomies can help manage big data by providing a solid standards-based taxonomy to index against. The results are comprehensive and consistent search results. Access Innovations is one of a very small number of companies able to help its clients generate ANSI/ISO/W3C-compliant taxonomies because of consistency.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
