Services
Purchase the archived recording: October 2007 Taxonomies and the Semantic Web
Cost: $50
Description:
Taxonomy and Taxidermy: Keeping the Two Distinct (G.Campbell)
Taxonomy is the art of adding value to information by placing it in a useful order that supports both direct searching and serendipitous browsing. Taxidermy is the art of stuffing and arranging the skins of dead animals to create lifelike effects. Taxonomies are a fundamental part of the Semantic Web: machine-readable hierarchies that enable intelligent agents to make logical inferences, thereby making information retrieval an entirely new, more sophisticated experience. However, recent books such as Dave Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous and Eric Abrahamson's A Perfect Mess suggest that taxonomy and taxidermy are closer than we care to acknowledge.
Does the coherence of a Web taxonomy reflect the organization in its living, evolving state? Or does the life and evolution take place outside the taxonomy, using its carefully crafted design merely to store its used-up data in a lifelike pose? We'll discuss ways in which the Semantic Web can be used, selectively and appropriately, in conjunction with other tools, to ensure that our Websites preserve rigorous order without becoming lifeless artifacts.
Case Studies (B.Allen)
Wonder about the practical application of semantic web in industry and government? Bradley Allen will demonstrate how Oracle, NASA, and State of Utah utilize unique taxonomies to improve access to information and enable discovery of previously unseen relationships using "relational navigation" to move beyond the limitations of traditional search.
About your presenters:
Seth Earley: is founder and senior consultant for Earley & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in knowledge, content and document management systems with a focus on taxonomy development and workflow design. With 20 plus years in the technology field, he has been involved in knowledge and content management processes for the past 12 years.
Grant Campbell: D. Grant Campbell serves as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. He teaches classes in information retrieval, information organization, and classification, and his research includes bibliographic description, classification, electronic text design and the Semantic Web.
Bradley P. Allen: is founder and CTO of Siderean Software. Mr. Allen began his career as a member of the research staff at Carnegie-Mellon's Robotics Institute. In 1984, he joined Inference Corporation where he created Inference CBR, one of the first CRM problem resolution products. He left Inference in 1995 to co-found Limbex Corporation where he created WebCompass, an Internet search tool. In 1997, Mr. Allen co-founded TriVida Corporation and served as CTO until TriVida's acquisition by Be Free, Inc. in March 2000. Mr. Allen earned a BS in applied mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1982, and has been awarded four U.S. patents.