At Last, Someone Created a Wixonomy!
Want to see a cool combination of web technology and Librarianship? Shimon Rura has created a new website at Wixonomy.org. Add one part taxonomy, and one part wiki and you get a wixonomy. Get it?
Ok, here's the scoop. You all know that a Taxonomy is a collection of controlled vocabulary terms, arranged in a hierarchical structure of concepts. Building a good taxonomy is a typical first step prior to developing a more sophisticated retrieval language like a Thesaurus.
As an aside, it's always interesting to listen to the KM and Tech folks talk about Taxonomies as though they've discovered something new (next time I might pass them a copy of the good book [aka. Aitchison, Gilchrist and Bawden]).
A Wiki, on the other hand, is a free for all to edit webpage. A kind of scratch pad where multiple people can brain storm an idea - and a constant work in progress. So, if you add a Wiki to a Taxonomy, what you get is a great place to collaborate on the development of a shared interest controlled vocabulary.
I'm not sure if in it's present form that this combination is going to work, but it is inspiring. Can you imagine a law firm taxonomy developed via a wiki? You could even create a 'members only' community to limit the participants. .... oh, the ideas!
To me, the development of these kind of underlying knowledge structures (and the supporting technologies) are fundamental to Librarianship as a profession. Not just for Law Librarians, but all Librarians.
Good work Shimon! I really like it.
Ok, here's the scoop. You all know that a Taxonomy is a collection of controlled vocabulary terms, arranged in a hierarchical structure of concepts. Building a good taxonomy is a typical first step prior to developing a more sophisticated retrieval language like a Thesaurus.
As an aside, it's always interesting to listen to the KM and Tech folks talk about Taxonomies as though they've discovered something new (next time I might pass them a copy of the good book [aka. Aitchison, Gilchrist and Bawden]).
A Wiki, on the other hand, is a free for all to edit webpage. A kind of scratch pad where multiple people can brain storm an idea - and a constant work in progress. So, if you add a Wiki to a Taxonomy, what you get is a great place to collaborate on the development of a shared interest controlled vocabulary.
I'm not sure if in it's present form that this combination is going to work, but it is inspiring. Can you imagine a law firm taxonomy developed via a wiki? You could even create a 'members only' community to limit the participants. .... oh, the ideas!
To me, the development of these kind of underlying knowledge structures (and the supporting technologies) are fundamental to Librarianship as a profession. Not just for Law Librarians, but all Librarians.
Good work Shimon! I really like it.
posted by Steve Matthews at 12/21/2004
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