Synaptica talks with renowned taxonomist, blogger, author of The Accidental Taxonomist and a senior vocabulary editor with Gale / Cengage Learning, Heather Hedden. As a taxonomy consultant, she has designed and developed taxonomies and metadata strategies for web and internal content management. The interview covers Heather’s view on designing a new taxonomy, collaborating, and the major changes and the current challenges in the sector.
Before designing a new taxonomy, find out where the content is located, and what will be included in it. It is also important to talk to the stakeholders to find out who the users are and how they will use the content. Often in an enterprise, some work would already have been initiated -- for instance the beginning of a taxonomy, term lists or existing metadata. Consequently, it is important to investigate, observe and find a starting point before embarking on designing a taxonomy.
While designing a taxonomy, it is important to collaborate with other taxonomists and stakeholders. It is good to be able to collaborate with other taxonomists when questions of taxonomy best practices come up. Similarly, collaborating with the taxonomy owner or the client is vital because it will prevent the taxonomists from making assumptions. Equally, it is critical to collaborate with stakeholders such as project manager, user interface designers, and those involved with technical systems implementation to create the desired and most suitable taxonomy.
One of the most significant changes in the field of taxonomy is its wider adoption. Originally, its use was limited to publishing, content and digital asset management, but now its use is prevalent across many sectors. Another change is the increasing influence of artificial intelligence and machine learning on indexing and tagging. However, there are limits to their influence. Automation may suggest terms, but humans are still needed to polish and edit the taxonomies. The other area where change is evident is in sharing and linking information. There are ways on the Semantic Web to exchange information with linked open data. However, it is vital to achieve the right balance to maintain proprietary content.
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