[Sigia-l] The planetary classification conundrum... mental modelsoutside of the Web

[Fred Beecher]

On 8/16/06, Eric Reiss <elr at e-reiss.com> wrote:
>
> Is a faceted classification scheme needed...?

In a hypothetical catalog of astronomical bodies, then probably... but
we'd get into situations where something might be 68% planet, 24%
pluton, and 8% asteroid, and while that may be useful for scientists,
what about non-scientists? Who is the user? : )

This leads to an interesting hypothesis... is it true that for a
specialized audience with high domain knowledge, fuzzy categories are
generally more appropriate, and that for a wide audience with general
knowledge, more rigid categories are generally more appropriate? Has
anyone done any research on this sort of thing?

- Fred