Access Insights
How Useful Are Taxonomies in Search?
Recall, precision and relevance are factors that figure heavily in search, yet they are often missing from taxonomies. In the second of a four-part webinar series co-hosted by Access Innovations and the American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Margie Hlava will explore how search can potentially be improved by applying subject metadata and how taxonomies can be used on the front-end or attached to records at the time they are created and loaded.
Read MoreUsing Subject Matter Experts
There are many approaches to the building of a thesaurus and taxonomy. No absolutely right or absolutely wrong methods exist but there are some that are not as efficient as others. Some which lead to bias in the resulting work. Some which will not work with the data the client actually wants to surface on a website or data mine or tag. There are some very expensive approaches and some very practical approaches to doing the work.
Read MoreTaxonomy Webinar Series
ASIS&T and Access Innovations are hosting a webinar series comprised of four sessions, spaced a week apart – beginning Thursday, January 27, 2011. They will examine ways that taxonomies are used to enhance search, involve users, and increase the value of information assets Semantic integration. The sessions are free to ASIS&T Members and for non-members, the cost will be $49 per session. Sign up for all 4 and receive a 20% discount, or become a member today and register at no cost.
Read MoreAre we ready for semantic integration?
As a user, wouldn’t it be fabulous to start typing in a search box and have the topic you’re looking for appear in a list of suggestions? Actually, we’ve already seen that enhancement and it’s pretty great – well at least when what you’re looking for is there. Avoids the dreaded typo or misspelling. What if those suggestions not only returned a comprehensive and relevant set of articles, but also offered other tools to assist in your research?
Read MoreUsing Taxonomies to Create Business Opportunities
The economics of the Web have reversed the original business model for online information upon which businesses like LexisNexis and Dialog were built. Through those services, users paid up to $4 for individual articles from daily newspapers that originally cost 25 cents on the newsstand. That model is obviously dead today, where the cost of an individual article – even articles from leading trade magazines and scholarly journals – is effectively zero. Does that mean that publishers, aggregators, and other content owners should police the Web to insure their content is not freely distributed? Not at all – one needs only look at the recent case of Wikileaks to see that it will be impossible to keep any content from showing up freely on the Web. As they say, the Genie is already out of the bottle, so the only logical step is figuring out how to make money in the current environment. This is where taxonomies can add value – by enabling the creation of new information products that connect disparate pieces of content with high-value applications and new markets.
Read MoreA Well-Constructed Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a special type of controlled vocabulary, which is itself a list of specifically selected terms to represent a set of concepts – concepts described in an electronic collection of documents, podcasts, captioned photos, emails, or other types of content.
Read More10 Reasons To Resolve To Create A Taxonomy For Your Business In 2011
Just in time for New Year’s, we have compiled a list of 10 reasons for companies to resolve to create a taxonomy for their business in 2011. Because many businesses are unsure about how a taxonomy could benefit them, we believe offering some actual examples will be useful.
Read MoreTaxonomy’s Third Wave
I’ve heard it mentioned several times recently that “Taxonomies are hot again,” which leads to a couple of questions, namely, What is causing this renewed popularity? and, Why did they ever stop being “hot?”
Read MoreDo our customers make buying decisions or purchasing decisions?
One of the problems of information management, as represented by both Master Data Management and Metadata Registry efforts, is a confusion of terms. Have we always referred to “purchasing decisions” or has there been a shift in terms with the merger or the change in management or simply a cultural evolution so that now we’re talking about “buying decisions”.
Read MoreMaster Data Management
There’s a lot of discussion lately about Master Data Management; what it is and isn’t. Why is this of interest to the taxonomy practitioner? To a large extent a controlled vocabulary is trying to accomplish the same thing at the conceptual level as MDM is at the data level. MDM removes ambiguity at the data level through a variety of means as described in the item referenced in the above link. The how and why of MDM can provide valuable insight into the data workings of an organization. This can lead to a much more powerful enterprise taxonomy – one that can truly span the vast store of enterprise content. An MDM initiative is an ideal place to insert a taxonomic strategy and implementation. Making the business case for a taxonomy initiative, getting it funded, approved, and implemented will be easier if you can align yourself with an MDM initiative. An MDM deployment to succeed must analyze and potentially process all of an organizations data stores. Resolving data and structural ambiguities is also a great time to resolve conceptual ambiguities.
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