As taxonomists, we have a responsibility to discern those future concepts, although they may still be invisible to most. We can save the various expressions of those concepts in search logs from being rejected from consideration for a vocabulary simply on account of their as yet infrequent appearance. In a taxonomy or thesaurus, we can provide labels that will consolidate the indexing for a concept whose researchers have not yet settled on a name. In some cases, especially with widely used vocabularies, we can perhaps determine the name by which a concept will be known on a standard basis.
Wouldn’t it be splendid if, in the ‘spirit’ of Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Present, we could use taxonomies to accomplish lofty goals such as cure and eradicate sickness; promote international understanding; promote justice and social harmony; and lessen and eradicate poverty?
Before you sign off for the holidays, consider starting your new year out with some educational learning. Our own Margie Hlava will be the instructor for a workshop titled, Taxonomy Essentials. This will be held on January 21, 2014 in Denver, Colorado.
Bob Kasenchak, formerly a Project Manager at Access Innovations, Inc., has recently been promoted to Production Coordinator within the company. Bob is a great representation of the fresh talent at Access Innovations. His extraordinary people skills, organizational skills, and leadership qualities make him an excellent fit to oversee editorial endeavors.
There are a good many professional organizations that take their knowledge organization and dissemination responsibilities seriously. One good example, appropriately enough, is the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO), which maintains a free online bibliographic service covering knowledge organization literature.
Public Library of Science (PLOS) is celebrating the publication of its 100,000th article, an achievement that represents the efforts of authors, editors, reviewers and staff from more than 200 countries. This exciting news was found on the PLOS site in their post titled, "PLOS Celebrates Milestone."
Last week, my co-workers and I were discussing points of knowledge. The phrase “a thousand terms of knowledge” popped up. It was apparently an off-the-cuff mingling of “a thousand points of light” with “points of knowledge” and with one of the topics of the moment, thesaurus terms. I couldn’t resist following up on the mixture, which has a precedent of sorts in an earlier TaxoDiary blog posting by Marjorie Hlava.
Albuquerque-based Access Innovations, a leader in semantic enrichment, celebrates its 35th anniversary this month. Officially incorporated on November 8, 1978, Access Innovations began like many other entrepreneurial enterprises — with a great idea, a few energetic people, and a little bit of capital. The company’s first headquarters was the kitchen of president and co-founder Marjorie M.K. Hlava’s home.
Several of the Access Innovations' staff are still out and about as they wind up 2013. Check out these learning opportunities that just might be in your own neighborhood.