[Sigia-l] An introduction & question

[Alexander Johannesen]

Hi and welcome,

Fortune Elkins <fortune_elkins at summithq.com> wrote:
> Obviously the famed "polar bear" book isn't going to do it for me
> anymore. What's currently the best book on developing a serious taxonomy
> for what is going to be a very large site?

Ooo, a question about taxonomies, how can I not answer?

As always on this list (well, mostly), it depends on what you're
after; how will it be maintained, what's its purpose, your own
experience, your thoughts on applicability, what sort of taxonomy,
etc, and so forth.

I can't right now point to any specific book on taxonomies and say
"here, use this" because taxonomies and the way we apply them have
changed quite dramatically with new technology (unless you're setting
out to do another Dewey Decimal Catalogue). I think my best advice is
to simply catch up on the latest thoughts in semantic mapping (RDF,
Topic Maps, FRBR, XFML, etc) on technology (which I have several books
I can point you to) and strict/loose taxonomies (folksonomies,
tagsonomies, faceted versions thereof, etc) in thinking. (And if
anyone have pointers to one book that covers these things, let me know
too!)

If you want a book that gives you a receipt for creating a strict
taxonomies for any given purpose, you might as well just focus on
card-sorting or similar; strict taxonomies will get you so far but
never all the way.

But I'm quite sure thought, that with a name like yours, things will
work out. :)


Regards,

Alexander
-- 
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
                                                         - Frank Herbert
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