Taxonomists do not simply suggest term forms and put them in a list; they research and consider each concept, carefully map out its relationships to other ideas, and consider how new additions and changes impact the semantic model. The nature of taxonomy work is often misunderstood or trivialized as work that anyone in the organization might perform. Several expert taxonomists discussed this topic as a pain point in communicating the value of taxonomy at the Henry Stewart Semantic Data 2024 Conference in New York this week.
Hidden Work
Taxonomies and ontologies must be clear, transparent, wholly visible, and available. Serving different use cases drives user experience decisions, which lean toward simplifying the display of complex semantic models so users can more easily understand and use them.
While hiding complexity is a service for end users, it can communicate the result of taxonomy work as simplified dropdown lists, shallow hierarchical structures, or simple concept values without additional properties and relationships. The complexity of semantic models, including the taxonomist’s work in building them, can be hidden and thus misunderstood.
Click here to read the original article published by Medium.
Please give your feedback on this article or share a similar story for publishing by clicking here.
