[Sigia-l] biased taxonomies

[Samantha Helfert]

Hi 
I am new to this listserv and the field; so this may be a naive question, but aren't all taxonomies biased?

What are examples of unbiased taxonomies? 

It would seem that many sites have a particular view of the world and their taxonomies would support this perspective. This could be by the words used or by the emphasis given to particular topics. 

Samantha
> 
> From: "Sarah A. Rice" <rice at seneb.com>
> Date: 2005/03/20 Sun PM 06:20:58 CST
> To: sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] biased taxonomies
> 
> I believe he means the latter.
> 
> For example, on Harpers.org, a sample of the taxonomy:
> 
> Human Beings
>    Political Leaders
>      Jesus Christ
>        (supervises)
>          Bush, George W.
>          Ashcroft, Joh,
>          Pope John Paul II
>          Robertson, Pat
> Supernatural Beings
>    Gnomes
>    Gods
>    Monsters
> 
> 
> At 11:59 AM 3/20/2005, Karl Fast wrote:
> > > harpers.org has a wonderfully biased taxonomy. Any other examples?
> >
> >Do you mean "inherently biased," where the bias is not deliberate
> >but is present and, to a degree, unavoidable. The larger and broader
> >the taxonomy the more likely it will be inherently biased. Dewey and
> >Library of Congress schemes are well known to be biased along all
> >sorts of dimensions.
> >
> >Or do you mean "deliberately biased," where the designers were
> >explicitly interested in creating a taxonomy invested with a
> >particular view, perspective, ideology, etc?
> >
> >I suspect you mean more the latter.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >--karl
> >http://www.livingskies.com/
> >
> >------------
> >When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> >*Plain text, please; NO Attachments
> >
> >Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> >________________________________________
> >Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> >Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
> 
> Information Architect  .  408 315 8961  .  rice at seneb.com  .  www.seneb.com 
> 
> 
> ------------
> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
> 
> Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> ________________________________________
> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
>