The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems Renato Rocha Souza Douglas Tudhope Maurício Barcellos Almeida 11 th ISKO International

The KOS spectra:a tentative typology of Knowledge

Organization Systems

Renato Rocha SouzaDouglas TudhopeMaurício Barcellos Almeida

11th ISKO International ConferenceRome, 2010

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems11th ISKO International Conference

• Knowledge Representation: in the core of many scientific fields, but paramount in LIS

• Representational “artifacts”: known generically as Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS)– Vary enormously in structure and display, but share

some general (broad) characteristics;– Used for:• Knowledge representation, organization and management;• Information retrieval; • Vocabulary control; • Communication of concepts and ontological agreements;• etc.


• How to define a KOS?• “...encompass all types of schemes for organizing information

and promoting knowledge management. (...) include classification and categorization schemes that organize materials at a general level, subject headings that provide more detailed access, and authority files that control variant versions of key information such as geographic names and personal names. (...) also include highly structured vocabularies, such as thesauri, and less traditional schemes, such as semantic networks and ontologies”

Hodge (2000)• Very arbitrary concept.• Our basic assumption:

– Knowledge Representation structures used for KO, IR, and/or KM;• Our main principle for classification

– Structure as the main dimension to form hierarchies.



• How to classify KOS? And why should we?• What dimensions can we use to evaluate them?• Previous work:– Tend to focus on small subsets of KOS;– Only using one or two dimensions to compare them;– Great ambiguity on the dimensions meaning;– Treat KOS and representational languages alike;– Very machine-oriented, when it comes to ”semantics”.


KOS Spectrum by Obrst (2004)


KOS Spectrum by Daconta et al (2005)


KOS Spectrum by Bergman (2007)


KOS Spectrum by Lassila e McGuiness (2001)


KOS Spectrum by Guarino (2006)


KOS Spectrum by Smith e Welty (2001)


KOS Spectrum by Zeng & Salaba (2005)


Hodge (2000) Structure and complexity, Relationship between terms, Historical function

Soergel (2001a and 2001b)

Purpose, Coverage of concepts and terms, Sources, Quality of usage analysis, Conceptual analysis and conceptual structure, Terminological analysis, Use of precombination in the index language, Access and display, Format of presentation of the vocabulary, Updating

Tudhope (2004) Entities (types, coordination, size, depth), Relationships (types, expressiveness, formality), Typical application to objects in domain of interest (purpose), Relationship applying concepts to objects in domain

Wright (2006 and 2008) Communities of Practice, Systematic resources, Non-systematic resources, Technology orientation, Degrees of indeterminacy, Language & knowledge-oriented standards, Standards bodies

Almeida & Souza (2009) Representational power, Semantic Expressiveness, Intelligibility (for Humans), Formalization (machine oriented)

Zeng & Salaba (2005) Language Control, Structural strength

Bergman (2007) Semantic Strength, Time/Money

Lassila & McGuiness (2001)

Ontology Level

Guarino (2006) Ontological PrecisionSmith & Welty (2001) Complexity

Obrst (2004); Daconta et al (2005)

Semantic Strength



• Key contributions:– Multidimensionality;– Integrated and coherent set of dimensions;– Intrinsic / extrinsic characteristics (KOS and Context);– Essential / accidental (KOS types/ KOS Instances).

• Previous (ambiguously used) dimensions (i.e. complexity, semantic, formality) are, in fact, emergent properties of the basic ones (i.e. entities, relationships, language)

• Collateral work: taxonomy of KOS and its dimensions.


• Future (ongoing) work– Appreciation, feedback and enhancing the model;– Faceted (?) approach;– Represent as a Domain Ontology of KOS (populated

with instances) • An effort to take in account the richness of dimensions

and its cross relationships;• Also, a knowledge base that can be used for pedagogical

and other practical purposes;• Freely available online resource.

Thank you!Renato Rocha Souza Federal University of Minas Gerais, BrazilVisiting Fellow at the University of Glamorgan, UK

[email protected]

Douglas Tudhope University of Glamorgan, UK

[email protected]

Maurício Barcellos AlmeidaFederal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Documents

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems Renato Rocha Souza Douglas Tudhope Maurício Barcellos Almeida 11 th ISKO International