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

[Brett-Luxaco]

I think there is an understanding that controlled vocabulary means that the
content contributor does not have an open field to put anything they want;
they usually are presented with a list of some sort to choose from.

It seems to me that you are talking about setting up the vocabulary, and
this should have an established practice of how terms get added or changed.
I would think a system that allowed anyone to add a term wouldn't be an
efficient way and you are right that is would become unusable after a while.
I would think that is you are setting up a cms that there would be a level
of login status that allowed people to add terms and some would have that
capabilities.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "gunnar" <gunnar at langemark.com>
To: "Christina Wodtke" <cwodtke at eleganthack.com>; <sigia-l at asis.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 8:31 PM
Subject: [Sigia-l] Taxonomy open to all - was: Difference between
Taxonomiesand Classification / Classification Schemes


> 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
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