When working with content and trying to insure its
usefulness and discoverability, we often apply taxonomies.
A funny thing happened today.
I was reading the 15 March 2007 issue of Nature which focused on Carl Linnaeus,
the father of taxonomy.
According to one article, Linnaeus
in the information age, “It was Carl Linnaeus who realized that, to
understand anything in science, things have to have a name that is recognized
and is universal…”
It suddenly hit me that this term I use almost
daily (taxonomy) was born to classify something far different than content
creation and delivery.
I knew that.
I remember seventh grade science.
It was just so far back I had forgotten.
What’s interesting is that many of the same
debates scientists have about defining species, sub-species, and distinct
populations also occur when implementation teams define content data types and relationships!
What is the point of differentiation between a species
and a subspecies? How much
differentiation is enough? Is it
observable differentiation, genetic differentiation, or both? Is it related to form or function?
In medical taxonomy, when is a disease a disease
and not a symptom? Can something be both
a disease and a symptom?
Do I classify terms based on what they mean or how
I use them?
And there’s one more similarity:
Whether taxonomy is being used to classify
content or species, the rules only take you so far. At the edges it’s more of an art than a
science.
Hardening of the categories-
Priceless!!!
Thanks, Mike!
I like how Roy builds on your post by saying, “I should not allow an established taxonomy blind me to other ways of categorizing”
I think we all suffer from “hardening of the categories” at times.
Thanks for stirring our thinking up!
Keep creating,
Mike
Roy –
Thank you so much! That was a great post and an invaluable insight. Things do take on new dimensions and characteristics when they are organized differently.
Ann
(PS – I loved your bio. I edit menus too – and signs and direct mail that comes to my house, and … I just can’t help it – it’s a disease!)
The thing I need to keep reminding myself about this is that I should not allow an established taxonomy blind me to other ways of categorizing and looking at information.
According to Richard Saul Wurman, there are basically 5 types of ways to structure information: Location, Alphabetic, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. You can sometimes gain new insights by putting things into different structures–look at the same information in a new way. I actually blogged about that a few months ago.