The question often comes up: how are taxonomies and ontologies different? While there are some short simple answers (such as: taxonomies are hierarchies, and ontologies are semantic networks), it is understandable that the distinction is not that clear. There is considerable overlap. Ontologies may contain taxonomies, and taxonomies can be…
Tag: Taxonomy standards
Named Entities in Taxonomies
I have long felt that there is some uncertainty as to where named entities (names of specific people, places, organizations, products, etc.) fit into taxonomies. Standards suggest one way, and practice tends to follow different way in dealing with these proper nouns. As taxonomy trends evolve so does the position…
Taxonomy Trends
Last fall I gave an 8-minute video presentation as part of the SEMANTiCS Video Forum 2020 on the subject of taxonomy trends, but the short talk allowed time to discuss only two of the past year’s trends. More recently, I reflected on longer-term trends in taxonomies when the chair, Jane…
Standards for Taxonomies
Since “taxonomies” are rather loosely defined, standards specifically for taxonomies do not exist, but there are standards that are relevant to taxonomies. A taxonomy is a kind of controlled vocabulary, and there are standards for controlled vocabularies. There are also standards specifically for thesauri, a kind of controlled vocabulary with…