RE: [unrev-II] faceted classification

From: Alex Shapiro (alex@touchgraph.com)
Date: Fri Sep 28 2001 - 12:27:39 PDT

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    At 12:11 PM 9/28/01 -0400, you wrote:

    At 04:36 PM 9/28/01 +0100, you wrote:
    Faceted classification sounds a lot like the sort of feature definition that
    gets done when defining cases in case-based reasoning, and even like plain
    old fashioned relational databases. (Or did I miss the point?) If so
    experience in these fields might give pointers on how to do it well.

    Dr Victoria Uren
    KMi, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
    Tel: +44 (0) 1908 858516
    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/victoria/
    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto/


    And saying that something can be placed into a database does miss the point (I think).  Lots of data structures could be placed into a database.  The interesting thing is how the structure maps to the data, not how the structure could be represented in a database.

    --Alex

    Then again, there are similarities between the structure of a relational database, and the structure represented by faceted classification.  Here is a quote I found from the same source as the last link:
    http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr517/winter2000/Group7/database.htm
    "If one considers the development of models of database designs and the development of classification schemes, one may notice a parallel between the two, moving from a more hierarchial structure to a faceted one. Relational databases have replaced the older hierarchial databases, and are found to be more effective in organizing data. "
     
    Also, I checked out the ScholOnto project and I am very impressed.  I especially like the goals outlined in section 4.2 of this paper: "ScholOnto: An Ontology-Based Digital Library Server for Research Documents and Discourse" http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto/docs/ScholOnto-IJoDL-2000.pdf

    I think that the approach taken for creating a semantic network from existing publications is right on target. 

    What seems a little strange to me, is ScholOnto's goal of facilitating discussions about the scholarly works, while at the same time diagramming the works being discussed.  It seems that creating semantic maps out of existing documents, and facilitating graphical discussions are distinct enough tasks to deserve separate applications.  For instance, I could imagine an independent forum where scholarly papers are discussed, and where one could post links to existing papers.  Such a forum would certainly benefit from a back end where the scientific papers are also diagrammed, but it would not require it.

    Regardless though, I am very impressed with the project, and look forward to reading the rest of your publications.

    --Alex
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