Christine Connors, principal of TriviumRLG consulting firm, traced the evolution of controlled vocabularies in a challenging presentation at San Jose State University on November 18.
She began by polling the audience to find who were currently engaged in vocabulary work (a few) and who were interested in new career opportunities (quite a few). The current activities involved in building increasingly complex and powerful data architectures, she maintained, present exciting opportunities for those with an interest in organizing knowledge. All levels of vocabulary-based tools for improving content are available on the Semantic Web.
She took us through the continuum of ways of controlling vocabulary from the loosest to the most powerful and complex. Tag clouds or folksonomies where textual keywords are identified represent the lowest level of control and precision. Lists introduce control by featuring a single term for a concept. A synonym ring, which may be explicit or behind the scenes, improves recall by allowing synonyms to enhance the search. In a taxonomy the concepts are related in broader term/narrower term hierarchies. A thesaurus incorporates scope notes, see also or associative relationships, synonym control, as well as hierarchies. Finally, the most complex of all controlled architectures, the ontology introduces an array of custom relationships and a richness of links, data, and networks.
While the number of datasets and ontologies available on the Open Web is vast, Christine introduced a few of the many comprehensive resources available today: OpenCyc, a very large ontology based on the Cyc Knowledge Base; DBPedia, a set based on data within Wikipedia, useful but with the usual cautions; and UMBEL, a self-described lightweight ontology that relates Web content to a standard set of subject concepts. A diagram where circles represented Open Web ontologies that have been shared in recent years effectively demonstrated the explosion of what is out on the Semantic Web.
As the evolution of ontological systems continues, Christine made the point that those interested in better content are making contributions from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds -- from linguists, to cognitive scientists, to developers, to legal specialists.
Certainly the competencies of librarians in their abilities to organize, analyze, synthesize, and advocate for information sharing are playing a key role as the technology develops. She encouraged librarians interested in these growth areas to be flexible in their job search since the opportunities are found under a range of labels: data architect, information scientist, taxonomist, front-end engineer, knowledge manager, and others. Librarian/ontologists can help shape the new direction of Web search and improved knowledge sharing for all.
-- Margot Diltz
margot DOT diltz AT cengage DOT com
Over 40 people attended this Chapter dinner program on November 18. If you'd like to comment on this event or Chapter programs generally, you'll find an evaluation form here.
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