[Sigia-l] Taxonomy open to all - was: Difference between Taxonomies and Classification / Classification Schemes

[gunnar]

Taxonomies are controlled vocabularies.
I agree (could you not agree?)

But I have seen - in a community working on an open source content
management/community system  (www.drupal.org) - the use of the term taxonomy
attached to a vocabulary (taxonomy) system - accessible by all users so that
any person could add terms. I realize that this use of the term was perhaps
due to a lack of understanding of it, but it seems that there's a trend toward
distributed, shared and user controlled systems.

How controlled is that?

My question is: "What makes a vocabulary controlled?"

My first reaction was: "Now if the controlled vocabulary is controlled by
everybody it will run amok - and cease to be controlled and therefore become
useless little by little ..."

As I have a soft spot for anarchy and bottom up, I'm in a bit of a pain here.
I would like a scheme which would allow for such an approach to taxonomy
building, but I'm hard pressed to defend the feasibility of it. My best guess
is still, that it will not work.

Is a controlled vocabulary - controlled by anyone who chooses to - still a
controlled vocabulary? Can it be usefull?


> -...... All of the terms mentioned above are 
> controlled vocabularies. That means that they are organized lists of 
> words and phrases, or notation systems, that are used to initially 
> tag content, and then to find it through navigation or search."
> 

Best
Gunnar Langemark
gunnar at langemark.com