The structure of taxonomies: Facets and hierarchy Dagobert Soergel College of Information Studies University of Maryland

The structure of taxonomies:

Facets and hierarchy

Dagobert Soergel

College of Information Studies

University of Maryland

Objectives

• Understand the full range of functions served by taxonomies.

• Understand the principles of meaningful conceptual structure.

• Be able to apply these principles to develop a meaningful structure of a domain.

Method

• Present many examples from which attendees can construct their own understanding.

• Example slides are meant to be read by the audience.

• Ask questions.

Outline

Functions of taxonomies in business

Facets: Aspects of meaning

Hierarchy: Packaging & interlinking of meaning

Definitions: Clarification of meaning

Concept analysis and synthesis exercise and examples

Conclusion

Functions of taxonomies in business

Design for multiple functions

to maximize return on investment

Functions of taxonomies in business 1

Support intellectual work in the organization

• Support learning in training applications

• Help decision makers to sort out the dimensions of a problem

• Support shared conceptual models in collaborative work

• Help authors to write well-structured documents

Functions of taxonomies in business 2

Support information organization and search

• Organize intranets for query-based retrieval and browsing

• Support user-centered indexing

• Support query formulation, elicit user needs(applies equally to controlled-vocabulary and free-test search)

• Support organized display of retrieval results

• Support search for external information

• Organize data dictionaries

User-centered indexing 1

Also called request- or problem-oriented indexing

Principles• Construct a taxonomy based on user queries and interests.

• Thus provide a conceptual framework that organizes user interests and communicates them to indexers.

• Index materials from users' perspective: Add need-based retrieval clues beyond those available in the document.

• Increase probability that needed retrieval clues are available.

• Indexing = judging relevance against user concepts. Relevance rather than aboutness

Request-oriented index terms

Competitors’ technologies

Technological developments that might put us out of business

Ideas for improving our products

New uses for our products

Request-oriented index terms

Sample user concepts for indexing images

Good scientific illustration

Useful for advertising brochure

Useful for newspaper ad

Useful for banner ad

Cover page quality

User-centered indexing 2

Implementation

• Index language as checklist

• Knowledgeable indexers

• Expert system using syntactic and semantic analysis and inference

• Statistically-based classifiers trained on examples

Taxonomies for meaning

Taxonomies must convey meaning

• to help learners assimilate information

• to help decision makers to see all dimensions of a problem

• to help indexers consider all important aspects

• to help users analyze the query topic

• to help users process search results

Facets:Aspects of meaning

Facets for definingnon-profit service options

1 Population served/affected

2 Location

3 Type of need addressed / area or type of service

4 How we address the need

5 Funding model

6 Other service characteristics

These facets can be applied to any type of product marketing

Facets for definingservice options

1 Population served/affected

1.1 By economic status

1.2 By ethnicity

1.3 By age

1.4 . . .

Facets for service options3 Type of need addressed / area or type of service3.1 Pre-natal care3.2 Comprehensive services for 0 - 33.3 Preschool3.3.1 Preschool for 3s3.3.2 Preschool for 4-53.4 Follow-up assistance with school3.5 Adult education3.5.1 Parenting education, general life skills3.5.2 ESL3.5.3 GED3.6 Social services3.7 Job services3.7.1 Job training – what careers?3.7.2 Job placement3.8 Health services3.9 Parent association, community empowerment

Facets for service options

The scheme presented can be used for

• systematic analysis of a service or marketing problem

• problem-centered organization and retrieval of information

Dimensions for business processes

• What?

• How?

• Who?

Facets to describe businesses

application contexts of business knowledge

. branches of industry and trade

. . primary industries (agriculture, mining, chemical, etc.)

. . secondary industries (banking, insurance, wholesale, etc.)

. type of business or organization (a group of facets)

. . public versus private corporation

. . publicly versus privately held corporation

. . profit vs. not-for-profit corporation

. . large versus small corporation

. . corporation by geographical scope

. traditional versus electronic business activityCopyright © 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College

Facets to describe businesses

application contexts of business knowledge

. traditional versus electronic business activity

. . traditional business activityST physical business activity

. . electronic combined with traditional business activityST click-and-mortar business

. . electronic business activityST virtual businessST ebusiness

. . . ecommerceST electronic commerce

Copyright © 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College

Semantic factoringThe elemental concepts listed in each facetcan be combined into compound concepts, such as

agriculture bank

e-bank

small private agriculture bank

agriculture insurance

chemical bank

etc.

Conversely, compound concepts can be semantic factored into their elemental constituents.

A small number of elemental concepts can be used as building blocks to build many compound concepts.

Facet principles

• A facet groups concepts that fall under the same aspect or feature in the definition of more complex concepts; it groups all concepts that can be answers to a given question. : Each facet is a slot in a frame, e.g., a type of business frame; a facet groups all concepts that can serve as fillers in one slot.

• Using elemental concepts as building blocks for constructing compound concepts drastically reduces the number of concepts in the taxonomy and thus leads to conceptual economy. It also facilitates the search for general concepts, such as searching for the concept small business, which occurs in many combinations.

Facets to describe change

by direction of change

no change

change up

change down

change up then down

change down then up

by magnitude of change

small change

medium change

large changeCopyright © 2002 President and

Fellows of Harvard College

by rate of change

slow change

moderate speed change

fast change

sudden change

by promulgated vs organic change

promulgated change

organic change

Hierarchy:

Packaging & interlinking meaning

Ordered arrangementto convey meaning

Examples

E business functionsE2 . business finance, accounting, and controlE4 . human resourcesE6 . internal relationsE8 . Operations (see next slide)E10 . marketing (expanded)E10.2 . . market research and product planningE10.4 . . pricingE10.6 . . promotion, advertisingE10.6.2 . . . sales and sellingE10.8 . . customer relationship managementE12 . external relations (expanded)E12.2 . . public relationsE12.4 . . government relationsE12.6 . . relations with other organizations


E business functions. . .

E8 . Operations

E8.2 . . internal infrastructure

E8.4 . . research and development

E8.6 . . supply chain

E8.8 . . production

E8.10 . . distribution

E8.12 . . Inventory


Polyhierarchy

business functions(internal)

Economics(external)

labor and work

human resources

part-time employees

part-time work labor economics

part-time labor market

themes cutting across


E business functions (internal)E4 . human resources

BT G4 labor and work

E4.2 . . part-time employeesBT G4.2 part-time work

F economics (external)F4 . labor economics

BT G4 labor and work

F4.2 . . part-time labor marketBT G4.2 part-time work

G themes cutting acrossG4 . labor and work

NT E4 human resources F4 labor economics

G4.2 . . part-time workNT E4.2 part-time employees F4.2 part-time labor market


Polyhierarchy exampleE business functionsE8 . Operations

E8.6 . . supply chainNT E8.12.2 pre-production inventory

E8.8 . . production

E8.10 . . distributionNT E8.12.4 post-production inventory

E8.12 . . inventory

E8.12.2 . . . pre-production inventoryBT E8.6 supply chain

E8.12.4 . . . post-production inventoryBT E8.10 distribution


Functions of hierarchy

• Provide an overview of an area, a framework

• Facilitate request-oriented indexing

• Assist in query formulation hierarchy for browsing

• Allow for inclusive (hierarchically expanded searching

• Collocate related objects

Definitions: Clarification of meaning

JC basic prevention categories

JC2 . prevention by timing of the intervention

JC2.2 . . primary prevention

JC2.4 . . secondary prevention

JC2.6 . . tertiary prevention

JC4 . prevention by scope of recipient group

JC4.2 . . universal prevention

JC4.4 . . targeted prevention

JC4.4.2 . . . selective prevention

JC4.4.4 . . . indicated prevention

JC4 Prevention by scope of recipient group

SN This scheme is based on the intended recipients and the cost-benefit analysis of preventive interventions as it relates to universal or limited recipient groups. An intervention that has a low per-capita cost can be applied to a large recipient group which statistically has a small percentage of members who are at risk and still have a good ROI. Contrariwise, an intervention that has a high per-capita cost is worthwhile only if it is targeted at a smaller group which has a high percentage who are at risk.

Note: For prevention you can read advertising and marketing

JC4.2 universal prevention

SN Directed at the general public or a population group that has not been identified on the basis of individual risk. The intervention is desirable for everyone in that group and has a low per-capita cost.

JC4.4 targeted prevention

SN Targeted at subgroups of the population or at individuals who are at high or very high risk. There are two subordinate categories which are distinguished by the specificity of targeting (the precision of selection into the recipient group), the degree of risk, and the warranted cost per recipient.

JC4.4.2 selective prevention

SN A measure that is desirable only when the individual is a member of a subgroup of the population whose risk of developing the disorder is above average. The subgroups may be distinguished by age, gender, occupation, family history, place of residence or travel, or other evident characteristics (as opposed to characteristics whose determination requires individual examination).

JC4.4.4 indicated prevention

SN Targeted to high-risk individuals who are identified, through individual examination, as (1) having biological markers indicating predisposition for a disorder or (2) having minimal but detectable signs or symptoms foreshadowing a disorder whose symptoms are still early and are not sufficiently severe to merit a diagnosis of the disorder.

Concept analysis and synthesis

Exercise and examples

securities market

securities trading

aggressive portfolio

online securities trading

stock redemption

futures market

insured bonds

high-risk derivatives

stock issuance

stock options pricing

regional stocks

futures trading

Concept analysis andconcept discovery

Consider the following list of terms

parking garage

bus station

train station

harbor

airport

What is the common semantic factor (a more abstract concept in common to all of them)?

Concept analysis 2

Consider

wage

price/cost

interest

rent

fees

(insurance) premium

Common concept

payment in exchange for some consideration

(the “consideration” is different in each case)

Concept analysis 3

Consider

transactional analysis, dream analysis, insight therapy, Gestalt therapy, reality therapy, cognitive therapy

Umbrella concept for structuring the hierarchy and for retrieval: analytic psychotherapy

(methods that seek to assist patients in a personality reconstruction through insight into their inner selves)

Conclusion

Systematic discovery and structuring of meaning through facet analysis and hierarchy buildingempowers users to

• orient themselves and move in a concept space

• analyze the dimensions of a problem and determine what information is needed;

• formulate a query that will find that information or browse productively – move at ease in an information space

For an example see the Alcohol and Other Drug Thesaurus(search Google for AOD Thesaurus)

Documents

The structure of taxonomies: Facets and hierarchy Dagobert Soergel College of Information Studies University of Maryland