[Sigia-l] The A>B, B>A problem

[Marcos Rogério]

Hi!

I think Theodor Nelson in his "Literary Machines" (there's an updated
version, but I can't remember the name now... but you may find a
chapter in "Multimedia. From Wagner to Virtual Reality") says
something about it. But he gave no names to this problem. Just said,
as you did, there's no solution. All taxonomies are by definition
arbitrary.

Hope it helps...
Marcos



> Is there a name for the problem when, if you are stuck with designing a
> simple hierarchy for the web, you have to choose between "Wine > France
> > ..." or "France > Wine > ..." and there is no best choice because
> users have differing needs? I know this problem has come back in almost
> every taxonomy (that is a simple hierarchy) that I have ever done. So I
> was wondering if there exists a name for it? Library scientists?
> 
> If not, we should probably coin one...
> 
> Cheers,
> Peter