Cloudy with a chance of crab cakes

(Note: Back in November of 2013, TaxoDiary published the post “A Cloud Drifting Toward a Classification“, about the cloud formation tentatively labeled as Asperatus undulatus and the quest to achieve an official classification for it. The article below, which first appeared in the Apalachicola Times on April 8, 2015, focuses on matters of terminology concerning…

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To Cap or Not to Cap?

Every once in a while, the issue of capitalization in taxonomies and thesauri pops up. Some of us in taxonomy land believe that it does make a difference what capitalization (versus lower case) style you use. We just don’t necessarily agree what that style should be.

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Access Innovations, Inc. Releases Data Harmony® Version 3.10

The Data Harmony Suite provides content management solutions to improve information organization by systematically applying a taxonomy or thesaurus in total integration, with patented content extraction methods. MAIstro™, the award-winning flagship software module of the Data Harmony product line, combines Thesaurus Master® (for taxonomy creation and maintenance) with M.A.I.™ (Machine Aided Indexer) for interactive text analysis and better subject tagging. XIS® (XML Intranet System) offers powerful content management and metadata creation tools and completes the Data Harmony Suite.

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Taxonomy Blogs – The Big Picture

We who blog on TaxoDiary know that it’s not the only blog that has to do with taxonomies and such. There are a few others out in cyberspace, and each has its own character. Let’s take a look at some of them, starting with what we know best.

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Click Three Times?

Every now and then, we hear or read the advice that taxonomies should be no more than three levels deep. The reason given is what’s commonly known in the web design world as the three-click rule. Supposedly, users do not have the patience to find information on a website using any more than three clicks of a mouse. Ergo, navigation hierarchies and similar structures are expected to honor this limitation by keeping the entire pool at kiddie depth.

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A Short Roundup of Recent Taxonomy Books

Over the past couple of decades, the field of knowledge organization systems (such as taxonomies and thesauri) has matured. This maturation has led KOS experts to write books that consolidate and share the theories, insights, and techniques that have emerged. Below is a roundup of some of the more recent books in the area of taxonomies and related knowledge organization systems.

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Using Taxonomy to Save a Butterfly

The monarch butterfly is a beautiful sight, whether it’s fluttering through a garden or resting on a flower. Understandably admired, it’s the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas. It’s also the state butterfly of Vermont and West Virginia.

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