a survey: taxonomy building tools

© 2008 Avenue A | Razorfish, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Survey: Taxonomy Building Tools

Semantic Technology Conference - May 21, 2008

Rachel Lovinger


Content Strategy Consultant

Introduction

Photo by Kyknoord

Copy Writing

Information Architecture

Library Science

Design

Business Needs

User Needs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyknoord/


This evaluation is about finding useful, usable tools that will help unlock the story that data has to tell.

About This Survey

The solutions have evolved,and so have our problems.


Looking for tools to

• Develop taxonomy, controlled vocabulary, and metadata relationships

• Prototype data so that designers can create meaningful interactive experiences

• Provide non-technical business users with a way to visualize and verify data

About This Survey


Not evaluating

• Tool integration

• Data mapping, migration or conversion

• Data formats or standards

About This Survey


Agenda

•A DIY tale•The problem 1999•The problem 2008

•Survey: Tools available now•What if…?


A DIY tale

Photo by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/


The problem 1999:

We need metadata!

Photo by Kyle Flood

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yogi/


History: EW.com[1999] The Scenario

•Multiple articles on the same movie

•Predictable related data, such as: lead performers, release date, director, etc.


[1999] Our Needs

•Standardize keywords

•Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace•Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace•Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

•Apply related data with a single selection

•Update once, publish to many pages

•Expose rich data relationships

History: EW.com


[2000] Our Solution: Category Tool

•Relational Database

•Controlled Vocabulary

•Hierarchical

History: EW.com



•Structured category paths:•Movie > Product > Men in Black•Person > Individual > Will Smith

•Relationship types:•Performance, lead•Director•Release Date

History: EW.com



•Relationships between categories:• {Tom DiCillo} Director of {Double Whammy}

History: EW.com


History: EW.com[2000] Our Solution: Category Tool

•Differentiation:• Movie > The Green Mile• Book > The Green Mile

• Movie > Cats & Dogs• Movie > The Truth About Cats & Dogs


[2003] The Next Generation Requirements

•Scalable

•Based on industry standard formats

•Support all existing data needs

•Support data needs that the old system couldn’t handle

•Reliable

History: TOPICS


[2004] Our Solution

•Opted for RDF & OWL

•No commercial tools suited us

•Wrote specs and built the tool ourselves

History: TOPICS


[2005] Our Solution – Live!

•Pilot system rolled out in early 2005

•Three new sites launched in 6 weeks

Success?

•Sort of…

History: TOPICS


[2005] Further problems

•Awkward integration with an older CMS

•New data not published in real time

•We had to provide all the tool support

•The editors found it complicated to use

History: TOPICS


[2005] Further problems: Usability

•Search

•Browse

•Preview

•QA

History: TOPICS


The problem 2008:

Make sense of this metadata!

Photo by Kyle Flood



Current needs[2007] New projects, familiar problems:

•Taxonomy, metadata, controlled vocabulary, and relationships

•Envision how this data will translate into a website


[2008] A colleague posed this problem:

•Articles related to ideas, people, organizations

•Each concept is related to other articles

•Design should demonstrate relationships

•We need to expose the relationships so we can solve the design problems

A recent problem set


[2008] Key Question

How do we…

•explore the nature and scope of these relationships…

•and design a meaningful visualization of the data landscape…

•before we’ve chosen and implemented a data management solution?

A recent problem set


Recap• 1999 – Need Metadata!

• 2000 – Relational Database Categories

• 2003 – Pushed to its limits

• 2004 – RDF/OWL homegrown tool

• 2005 – Launched several new sites but… the UI dooms it to failure

• 2008 – Need to Expose, Understand, Prototype & Share Metadata!


The solutions have evolved,and so have our problems.


Survey: Tools available now

Photo by Craig Munro

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rorymunro/


Looking for tools that are

• readily available

• easy to start using

• useful for the design process

Selection method


Types of Confections

Candy

Hard candy

Soft candy

Mints

Gummi

Gum

Chewing Gum

Bubble Gum

Chocolate

Chocolate Bars

Truffles

Dark Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

White Chocolate

Fudge

Chocolate Covered

Ice Cream

Pastries

Brands

Ferrero

Hershey’s

Perugina

Ritter Sport

Sabrina Evans Chocolatier

Test dataDietary ConsiderationsLow CarbLow FatSugar-FreeNut-FreeKosherVegan

IngredientsButterscotchCaramelChocolateFruitMilkMintNougatNutsPeanut ButterSoyYogurt

Candy ProductsReese’s Inside Out Peanut Butter CupsKinder SurpriseMarzipan Dark Chocolate BarWhite Chocolate Pistachio TruffleWhite Chocolate Mint Bar with SprinklesMilk Chocolate with Raspberry Filling

PropertieshasCandyType - Candy Product > TypehasBrand - Candy Product > BrandhasDietaryConsideration - Candy Product >

Dietary ConsiderationhasIngredient - Candy Product > Ingredient


Used to construct lists of hierarchical sets of data, employing a construction based on Broader Terms and Narrower Terms.

MultiTes

A.K.A.

Semaphore Ontology Manger

A.C.S TermTree

WebChoir TCS-10

Thesaurus Tools

http://www.multites.com/

http://a-k-a.com.au/

http://www.smartlogic.com/index.php/solutions/ontology

http://www.termtree.com.au/html/termtree.html

http://www.webchoir.com/products/tcs10.html


Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Viewed as a alphabetical list, except when looking at an individual term


Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Provides many ways to perform each task


Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Create relationships to existing terms by typing– faster but potentially less accurate

• Probably the easiest of these tools to use


• Originally designed as a thesaurus tool, added capability to manage classes and relationships

Semaphore Ontology Manager

• Awkward UI requires more steps for simple tasks


• In default mode, terms are displayed in both flat and tree mode

A. C. S. Term Tree


• Easier to use than some, though it looks more obscure

• Easy to change levels

WebChoir TCS-10


• Require an abstract understanding of thesaurus type relationships that doesn’t really contribute to the design process

• Limited support for other relationships

• Moving terms from one level to another tends to be difficult

• Lack robust visualization options

Drawbacks of Thesaurus Tools


Used to quickly map concepts and terms. More visual and easier to add, remove and rearrange things rapidly, while working.

Mindjet MindManager

Bubbl.us

FreeMind

Brainstorming Tools

http://www.mindjet.com/us/

http://www.bubbl.us/

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Brainstorming Tool: MindManager

• Visual expression of hierarchy• Collapse branches for greater clarity



• Visual cues guide user as they work with the terms



• Other relationships become messy


Bubbl.us

• Online• Free• Sharable


Freemind

• Free• Easy• Less stylish


• Not great for expressing non-hierarchical relationships

• Becomes difficult to read when there are a large number of nodes

Drawbacks of Brainstorming Tools


Used to capture metadata using semantic standards. More flexible and powerful in the types of relationships they can capture.

SWOOP

Altova SemanticWorks

Protégé

TopQuadrant TopBraid Composer

Ontology Tools

http://www.mindswap.org/2004/SWOOP/

http://www.altova.com/products/semanticworks/semantic_web_rdf_owl_editor.html

http://protege.stanford.edu/

http://www.topquadrant.com/topbraid/composer/index.html


Ontology Tool: SWOOP

• Load or create data• Browse classes with properties & instances



• Browse instances & assertions



• “Flying the mother ship” view


Altova Semantic Works

• Cumbersome labels & UI• No built in support for visualization


Protégé

• Very easy to use for OWL editing• Visualization requires GraphViz


TopQuadrant Top Braid

• Very robust tool



• Built in visualizations: Class Diagram



• Built in visualizations: Graph


• Required knowledge of the workings of RDF and OWL could be a barrier

• Not enough of them have good, flexible visualization options

Drawbacks of Ontology Tools


Used primarily for viewing and exploring data and relationships, not for creating or editing.

RDF Gravity

IBM ManyEyes

OwlSight

Wordmap

Visualization Tools

http://semweb.salzburgresearch.at/apps/rdf-gravity/index.html

http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/app

http://pellet.owldl.com/ontology-browser/

http://www.wordmap.com/


• Data has to be created elsewhere and imported

• Most are not quite flexible enough to show a wide range of data relationships

Drawbacks of Visualization Tools


What if…?

Photo by Kyle Flood



What would you look for in an ideal tool?

Discussion


To colleagues who shared examples, insights and feedback. And to flickr.comusers who made their images available through Creative Commons:

by Kyknoord Some rights reserved.

by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com Some rights reserved.

by Kyle Flood Some rights reserved.

by Craig Munro Some rights reserved.

Thanks

http://www.flickr.com/

http://creativecommons.org/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyknoord/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en


http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rorymunro/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yogi/163795741/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyknoord/454967072/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/2381381837/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rorymunro/349526887/



Questions?

Photo by Kyle Flood



Complete presentation is available at:http://blog.rachellovinger.com/stc08

More details on each tool discussed will be published in upcoming weeks at:http://blog.rachellovinger.com/metadata-tools/

Rachel [email protected]

Thank You!

http://blog.rachellovinger.com/stc08

http://blog.rachellovinger.com/metadata-tools/

mailto:[email protected]

a survey: taxonomy building tools

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