Organizations often use multiple taxonomies to improve the service findability for their target audience. Sometimes, they would also like to combine these taxonomies for facilitating search using a keyword for instant retrieval of information and for augmenting sparse or missing data from one organization to another. Maryamm, a project manager at Appnovation, provides an overview of the approaches to combine taxonomies.
There are two approaches to combine taxonomies: mapping or merging. The mapping approach to combine taxonomies begins with the selection of a comprehensive taxonomy as the target reference. Subsequently, the vocabulary of a custom taxonomy will be mapped with the vocabulary of the target taxonomy. The mapping approach has its own set of challenges like choosing the target reference taxonomy, resolving mapping issues, and the futility of unmapped terms.
Merging multiple taxonomies is another approach to combine taxonomies. Merging combines two or more redundant vocabularies available in the same area into one, thus eliminating duplicate terms. In addition, the master taxonomy will be augmented with new terms for every newly on boarded organization. The result is a new and improved taxonomy, having the best of the legacy taxonomies. However, when merging taxonomies, the challenges resulting from oversized vocabulary need careful handling, which include identifying and removing duplicates.
Click here to read the considerations to decide on the best approach for combining taxonomies.
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