Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!

Good overview for relatively technical audience. The primary problem i’ve had with describing these sorts of systems is that the diagrams are only understandable to someone who’s willing to go through the mental hoops to implement it.

Once a prototype gets implemented, then it’s easier to see what the application looks like. However, because it masks the complexity and richness of the underlying system, it’s crucial to include some real value propositions in terms of added features. Otherwise, the hierarchical guys will come in and offer to simply extend schemas to include the couple of extra fields to emulate the facets.

It’s kind of funny how there’s an opposition of thought between the network-map way of thought and the hierarchical way of thought.