[topicmaps-comment] classification is fun : dmoz search for topic mapsuniverse

[Bernard Vatant <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>]

That is a sort of coda to previous messages about identities and naming ...
Open Directory http://dmoz.org/ is the largest Web Directory, used by Netscape, AOL, Google,  Lycos and many more ... Given its huge and various task force, it's a kind of web "vox populi",  and it's certainly the largest living on-line classification system and collaborative project ...
Statistics today : 2,922,360 sites - 41,237 editors - 416,290 categories (!!!)
Better have a look at how they deal with our community ressources, and under which categories  they are found ... I made a few searches today and the results are quite instructive ...
>> TopicMaps.org
Computers: Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation
>> OASIS
Computers: Internet: Organizations: Standards  
>> ISO
Business: International Business and Trade: ISO
Go figure how the three above guys can be related. No wonder they have hard time working  together :))
And now for some companies and consultants
>> empolis (this one is really weird)
Computers: Data Formats: Markup Languages: SGML: Companies
>> Mondeca (classified twice, against all dmoz general guidelines - I plead not guilty, I'm no  more an editor)
Reference: Knowledge Management: Knowledge Discovery: Information Visualization
Computers: Software: Internet: Site Management: Content Management  
>> Ontopia (classified once only, but OTOH closer to the top level)
Reference: Knowledge Management: Software and Tools 
>> Cogitech (Nikita seems to be an instance of data formats by itself)
Computers: Data Formats: Markup Languages: XML: Consultants
>> Infoloom and Coolheads
"No sites matching" ... Michel, Steve, you should do something about it, but maybe you are  unclassifiable after all :))
Now a side look to semantic web ...
>> semanticweb.org (at least, consistent with TopicMaps.Org - big deal !)
Computers: Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation
>> Semantic Web Working Symposium 2001 (Stanford July 2001)
Computers: Artificial Intelligence: Conferences and Events: Past Conferences and Events
>> Semantic Web Workshop (Hong-Kong May 2001)
Computers: Computer Science: Conferences: 2001
Go figure why what is Artificial Intelligence in Stanford is Computer Science in Hong-Kong ... 
{HYPERLINK "http://dmoz.org/Computers/Computer_Science/Conferences/2001/"}... and last but not least  ...
>> RDF (needs two lines, but is a category by itself, with subcategories, even way down in the  7th circle of Inferno)
Reference: Libraries: Library and Information Science: Technical Services: Cataloguing:  Metadata: Resource Description Framework - RDF
What can we learn from that? What we feel from inside like a deeply connected universe is seen  from different outsiders viewpoints like scattered in various categories, mostly not aware of each  other (different editor teams, no cross-linking etc) ... out of the (lack of) conversation and  agreement process going outthere in dmoz "community" ... Down in every local context (the  terminal categories) terminology and classification make sense; extended to wider and wider  scopes, they look silly.
Bernard




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Bernard Vatant - Consultant
bernard.vatant@mondeca.com
Mondeca - "Making Sense of Content"
www.mondeca.com
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