[Sigia-l] Fwd: Defining "classification", "metadata", IA, ...

[Richard Wiggins]

Here's a paragraph from a recent article on site design:

"First, a little background. Classification (taxonomy) is a type of
metadata. The purpose of metadata is to provide essential information about
a document. Metadata and classification are part of the discipline of
information architecture, whose focus is to organize and lay out
content."

After reading that over a few times, I still can't make sense of it.  Here's
my question:  How would you rewrite the paragraph to make sense to a
potential client or to your management?   Can classification, taxonomy,
metadata, and IA all be described in, say, 200 words?

By the way, the rest of the article is at:

http://www.clickz.com/design/site_design/article.php/1460611 

There are some other claimes that folks may take issue with -- e.g.
"Design
classification like it will be written in stone. You don't want to be
changing your classification every six months. Changes means a lot of work
and will create confusion." and "Avoid duplication. Creating two
classifications that are essentially the same leads to confusion."

(My favorite polar bear is at the office so it's not handy as a reference. 
I did locate the ACIA glossary and a glossary in the IA Wiki but didn't find
satisfaction for this set of terms.)

Thanks,

/rich

____________________________________________________
Richard Wiggins
Writing, Speaking, and Consulting on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com       www.richardwiggins.com