As taxonomy consultants at Factor, we are frequently engaged to help our clients clean up and improve existing taxonomies; these have often developed ad hoc and, often, have not been constructed or managed by taxonomists. This is fine! Having controlled lists of tags is better than not…having controlled lists of tags, and it’s a great …
On Term Formation: Consistency, Standards, and Exceptions Read More »
I recently re-read a pre-LLM blog post about our work creating ontologies to support an AI-powered chatbot. My sense going into it was that our argument about the need for strong information foundations was still relevant. After re-reading it was clear that taxonomies play a crucial role in any AI application, and that role is …
There’s no shortage of stories about “AI gone wrong” in the news, on social media, and here on LinkedIn. For example, the AI Incident Database, in what is almost certainly an incomplete collection, lists nearly 4000 of them. Regardless of the metric used, these incidents damage businesses and do real harm to people. In this …
How Can Information Architecture Help Address AI Risk? Read More »
Lately I’ve been mulling over the misleading nature of the term “artificial intelligence.” Taken without context, it connotes, unintentionally, the idea of an intelligence equal to human intelligence, only artificial. It is not. It is absolutely not. But I believe that much of the recent generative AI hype is stirred by companies taking advantage of …
Technostress, Misalignment, and “Artificial Intelligence” Read More »
A recent post I wrote on LinkedIn hit a nerve. Talking about information/semantic rich projects failing due to the lack of organizational commitment is not new, for me or others in the field. Unfortunately, the reasons for these failures are often hidden to the organizations and are often pinned on bad technology, complexity, or a …
My colleague Connor Cantrell recently wrote a piece on taxonomy governance, placing it in the context of collection lifecycle management in libraries. One of the primary reasons for governance, whether of taxonomies, metadata, content, data, records, books, academic journals, or any other digital or physical information asset, is to ensure that it’s managed in a …
Don’t Skip Steps, but Don’t Boil the Ocean: Practical Advice on Taxonomy Documentation Read More »
Taxonomy management is crucial for large organizations with diverse content, yet many systems struggle with modern taxonomy structures. Common issues include: Manual Updates, Limited Functionality, Flattened Taxonomies, Inadequate Support. These limitations hinder productivity and the effective use of taxonomies. I’m interested in learning about other challenges and effective platforms for managing taxonomies.
At Factor, our recent discussion on information modeling led us to explore personal organization. We asked team members to share their own organizing strategies. These insights reveal how personal experiences shape our organizing principles, balancing practical needs with personal preferences.
At IAC24, Joan Hua gave a very good presentation on how to get yourself oriented in a new domain quickly. As taxonomists and information architects, getting into a domain is so important to the process – it allows us to communicate effectively with SMEs and other stakeholders, and it helps us in making sense of …
Getting Oriented to Your Client Quickly – Part 1 Read More »
My kids aren’t old enough to have jobs yet, but somehow that hasn’t prevented them from collecting a lot of stuff. As they get older and celebrate more birthdays and Christmases, the amount of stuff they have gets larger and larger. My coworker Connor Cantrell recently wrote an article about the concept of “weeding” in …
