Taxonomy or Taxonomies

A taxonomy, or taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ...") of topics arranged in a hierarchical structure.   The topics are defined with an agreed label or Preferred Term.  Information science protocol determines that the terms are ordered hierarchically using a parent-child relationship type referred to as "Broader Than/Narrower Than (BT/NT)".

“Taxonomy (from Greek taxis meaning arrangement or division and nomos meaning law) is the science of classification according to a pre-determined system, with the resulting catalog used to provide a conceptual framework for discussion, analysis, or information retrieval.

Taxonomies in theory and in practice

In theory, the development of a good taxonomy takes into account the importance of separating elements of a group (taxon) into subgroups (taxa) that are mutually exclusive, unambiguous, and taken together, include all possibilities. In practice, a good taxonomy should be simple, easy to remember, and easy to use.

One of the best known taxonomies is the one devised by the Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus, whose classification for biology is still widely used (with modifications). In web portal design, taxonomies are often created to describe categories and subcategories of topics found on the Web site. The categorization of words on whatis.com is similar to any Web portal taxonomy.” – whatis.com

Smartlogic's taxonomy management

Smartlogic build and manage taxonomies in our Ontology Manager tool and use them for classification and navigation.  The taxonomies we typically use are business and industry related, for example the Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary – a taxonomy used by UK Government to classify all content shared with the public and between departments.