Upcoming Speaking Events
“From Taxonomy to Ontology”
Description: Taxonomies and ontologies each have their own uses and benefits, but these uses often overlap, especially when the goal is enterprise information and data findability, analysis, and linking. Fortunately, most taxonomies and ontologies are now built on the same basic data model standard of RDF (Resource Description Framework). So, even if they follow their own other standards, with standards based on RDF that can extend each other, taxonomies and ontologies can now easily be connected in the same project or implementation. So, while the technology is not a challenge, what is still needed is the understanding of stakeholders and subject matter experts on how to conceptually connect taxonomies and ontologies or how to extend a taxonomy to have ontology features, which this presentation also addresses.
Date/Time: Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 3:00 – 4:00 pm IST (new, rescheduled time)
Organizer: Documentation Research And Training Centre (DRTC) of the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore and ISKO India
Location: PJ Auditorium, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore Centre, 8th Mile Mysore Road, R.V. College Post, Bengaluru, India
Registration: Free. Event registration form
“Indexes, Search, and Taxonomies: Paths to Findability”
Description: How do users find the information they need within a large set of documentation? Indexes, search, and taxonomies are different tools to enable findability of information, and they can be implemented in combination. Different media and platforms and evolving technologies have resulted in changes to the methods of findability. This presentation explains the similarities and differences of different means to enable users to find desired information within documentation, including AI methods, and how these methods have been adapted.
Event Date/Time: Thursday, 16 January 2025, 2:00 – 6:00 pm IST
Presentation Time: 5:00 – 6:00 pm IST
Organizer: Society for Technical Communication (STC) India
Location: Microsoft office, KP towers, 2, Sector 15A, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Registration: Free. Event details and with registration form
“Semantic Standards and Methods for Information Linking”
Part of the full-day International Workshop on Open-Access Publishing International Workshop on Open-Access Publishing
Description: Open access means publishing on the web. Publishing to the Web, however, requires that articles and information are not just freely available, but also findable and discoverable. Supporting search & discovery through suitable keywords and other metadata is important, but another method of discovery is by linking. That’s a major objective of the Semantic Web. This presentation will introduce Semantic Web principles and standards (RDF, RDFS, SKOS, OWL) and knowledge organization systems, including taxonomies and ontologies, that are increasingly based on Semantic Web standards. Entities in taxonomies and ontologies link not only to each other but also can link to equivalent entities in external taxonomies and ontologies that are published on the web. These, in turn, can link to other documents, but also to data.
Event Date/Time: Thursday, 16 January 2025, 9:00 – 5:00 pm IST
Organizer/Location: Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
Registration: By invitation only
“Connecting Users to Content with Taxonomies: An Introduction to Taxonomy Design and Creation” Full-day workshop
Description: This workshop teaches taxonomy creation principles with a focus on serving users. It presents best practices in designing taxonomies, including the principles of wording of terms, sources for terms, incorporating synonyms, creating relationships between terms, and designing hierarchies and facets. Other topics include taxonomy project planning, sources for terms, and taxonomy testing. Exercises and software demos will also be included.
Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EDT
Organizer: The Information Architecture Conference
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Registration: Registration link. $650, separate from the conference, for which additional registration is not required
Course description page (on this site)
Conference site description page
Book Sale and Signing Events
Heather Hedden signs copies of The Accidental Taxonomist, offered for sale at a conference discount at many of the conferences at which she speaks. Some conferences, such as KMWorld, have a book sale table. At other conferences listed above, Heather Hedden will have a few books along to sell and sign when meeting informally at the conference.
Heather Hedden will have on hand a few copies for sale at the Information Architecture Conference in Philadelphia, April 29 – May 2, 2025.