Confidential

Machine Processing of Taxonomies

John Ferrara

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Introduction

• Taxonomy as metadata (not necessarily as navigation)

• Machine processing of information

• All about the meanings of word forms

• Smart systems– Today, that usually means search– Tomorrow, it’ll mean intelligent agents

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A Riddle

• 2 Vanguard systems– Same search engine– Similar content– Both use metadata in similar ways– Same queries

• One system returns higher quality search results much more reliably than the other. What makes the difference?

A Thesaurus!

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Controlled Vocabularies & Thesauri

• Equivalence: These things are the same– IRA = individual retirement account– redemption = sale– 401(k) = 401k = 401 k– AKA a “synonym ring”

• Preference: This is the standard term, these are variants– ETF over VIPER– Electronic Bank Transfer over wire– Beneficiary over Beneficary– AKA an “authority file”

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Controlled Vocabularies & Thesauri

• Classification: This is the parent (or child) of that– investment > mutual fund > stock fund > S&P 500 Index – “broader terms” and “narrower terms”– Similar to (but not the same as) a navigational taxonomy

• Related: This is associated with that– distributions & capital gains– download & Quicken & tax forms– May be used as a “See also” or “Best Bets” function

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Ontologies

• “A specification of a conceptualization”

• It explains the relationships between concepts

• Languages include RDF, DAML+OIL, and OWL

Subject ObjectPredicate

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Example of an Ontology

Planet

Star

Goes around

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Is a

Satellite Artificial

Natural

Type of

Goes around

Hubble

The moon

Is a

Is a

Goes around

The sunIs a

Atmosphere

Crust

Mantle

Core

Part of