[Sigia-l] Taxonomy + Folksonomy ?

[Christopher Fahey]

Howdy all,

I'm imagining a system (for a project) where a fixed taxonomy exists,
but where each node in the taxonomy is also associatated (editorially,
by humans) with a series of folksonomy tags.

So, for example, the system's fixed taxonomy might have:

Animals-->Carnivores-->Felines-->DomesticCats

Each node of this taxonomy might then be associated with various free
folksonomic tags, so the taxonomic "Animals" might also include any data
object tagged with the folksonomy tag "critters". Objects tagged "meat
eaters" or "predators" would fall under "Carnivores"

As users create arbitrary new folksonomy tags (for example someone
spontaneously tags an article about housecats with "kitties"), an editor
will catch the new tag and then find a close analogue among the fixed
taxonomy (in this case, "kitties would map to "DomesticCats"). 

This system implies that much of the content will not marked by the
taxonomy, either because it is being imported from elsewhere or because
we don't want to show a complex taxonomy UI to a user, instead just
letting them tag freely. 

Has anyone seen a system like this in place somewhere?

Is this simply a synonym system, or is it something more?

Any thoughts on such a system?

Thanks,
-Cf

Christopher Fahey
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