RE: Ontology vs. taxonomy

Hi Phil, it's good to hear from you again.


""" Claudio's succinct description of "taxonony" -- "taxonomies only include
hierarchical relations (A is a kind of B)" -- might be sufficient. But
shouldn't we also include whole-part relationships as another very
fundamental application of taxonomies?
"""

Right, as it is Eric's information about the three kinds on BT/NT. 
Whole-part relationship is considered as a kind of hierarchical 
relationship, in the KO theory by the Classification Research Group. Derek 
Austin also introduced for PRECIS a _quasi-generic relationship_, an 
example of it being potatoes as part of a meal: they can occasionally be 
such, but their basic definition is not this, rather they essentially are a 
kind of plant.


""" Claudio's definition of taxonomy, I think, implies the absence of 
polyhierarchical relationships among concepts
"""

Yes.


""" and therefore excludes most Yahoo-like directories. """

Well, I saw cross-references in Yahoo marked with the "@" symbol as 
marginal, like the "see also" cross-references in library subject, the 
basic structure still being monohierarchical. But I agree that this could 
be discussed, e.g. in Open directory they are not even marked as 
cross-references by a special symbol, but appear as common classes, 
although the status menus at the top of each page (those of the kind 
"Computer > Internet > Semantic Web > ...") is still hierarchical.


""" The motivation for this usage is clearly, "My buzzword is slicker than 
your buzzword." """

Yeah... I even wonder how essentially is _knowledge management_ different 
from the _information science_, including _grey literature_, of the 1960s...


""" BTW, has anyone noticed the IA is AI backwards? And is that a good thing or
a bad thing? """

For Italians (and French, etc.) it is a bad thing for sure, as our language 
would give exactly the reversed acronyms -- but the English ones are 
usually used %-/

Artificial Intelligence = Intelligenza Artificiale
Information Architecture = Architettura dell'Informazione



----------
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