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Introduction
Words words words. We all use them, but what do they really mean? In daily life, a good dictionary is enough to get people through a conversation, but in a database - you need structure. You need to be certain that two words mean the same thing so we can sort, organize, count, and do other computery things. That is where a standardized, controlled vocabulary of terms is useful. That is why we talk about, design, and building taxonomies.
But, before you go off and start building your own taxonomy, it is worth while to do a little research to see if an industry standard already exists. Leveraging an existing standard can save you time and make your project more inoperable with other systems.
This page is a growing list of taxonomies we have used on various projects.
What is a taxonomy?
Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek τάξις (taxis) which means 'order' or 'arrangement', plus νόμος (nomos) meaning 'law' or 'science' - thus taxonomy is the science of arrangement. Normally we arrange things into a tree type structure where the "child" branches inherit meaning and properties from the parent branch. From school you remember: Life > Animals > Mammals > Dogs. By defining each term within a meaningful framework, our description of dogs can be more precise without having to repeat everything that defines all living creatures again and again.
Each industry has it's own Taxonomy, and there are usually several competing standards. Inclusion on this list is not an endorsement for any one standard over another (we are web designers not experts in every industry and discipline known to man - though we do try).
For information about creating taxonomies in IBM WCM see:http://infolib.lotus.com/resources/portal/7.0.0/doc/en_us/pt700abd004/html-wrapper-wcm.html#wcm_dev_profiling_taxonomy_creating
About this list
This list of taxonomies is not comprehensive, it is just the taxonomies that base22 has used, implemented or developed within various content management systems.
Aerospace: NASA
The NASA taxonomy provides first steps towards the unification of the NASA information space by documenting a high level set of terms that can be used for mapping together varying data structures. Reconciliation of terms and topics is essential to understanding NASA discoveries in a larger context.
http://nasataxonomy.jpl.nasa.gov/
Construction: OmniClass
The OmniClass Construction Classification System (known as OmniClass™ or OCCS) is a classification system for the construction industry. OmniClass is useful for many applications, from organizing library materials, product literature, and project information, to providing a classification structure for electronic databases. It incorporates other extant systems currently in use as the basis of many of its Tables – MasterFormat™ for work results, UniFormat for elements, and EPIC (Electronic Product Information Cooperation) for structuring products.
http://www.omniclass.org/
Available in Microsoft Excel format (which is nice)
Omniclass seems to be endorsed by CSI among others: http://www.csinet.org/Functional-Menu-Category/FAQs/FAQs-About-GreenFormat/What-is-OmniClass.aspx
OmniClass builds on top of other standards:
- Learn about CSI/CSC MasterFormat
- Learn about CSI/CSC UniFormat
- Learn about Omniclass and the IFD Library in this presentation (PDF)Issues: The taxonomy is still being developed. Not all the tables are available in Excel format.
Construction: MasterFormat
MasterFormat is the master list of titles and numbers used to organize specifications and other project information for most commercial building design and construction projects in North America. It lists titles and section numbers for organizing data about construction requirements, products, and activities. By standardizing such information, MasterFormat facilitates communication among architects, specifiers, contractors and suppliers, which helps them meet building owners’ requirements, timelines and budgets.
MasterFormat, a publication of CSI and CSC.
Phrama Research: NCBI Taxonomy
Contains the names and phylogenetic lineages of more than 160,000 organisms that have molecular data in the NCBI databases. New taxa are added to the Taxonomy database as data are deposited for them. This site contains the full taxonomy database along with files associating nucleotide and protein sequence records with their taxonomy IDs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/guide/taxonomy/
Biology:
The ITIS provides the taxonomic backbone to the much more accessible and user friendly - Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) Project which collect man kinds knowledge of the many life-forms on Earth - of animals, plants, fungi, protists and bacteria - is scattered around the world in books, journals, databases, websites, specimen collections, and in the minds of people everywhere. Imagine what it would mean if this information could be gathered together and made available to everyone – anywhere – at a moment’s notice.