From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!news.teledanmark.no!newsfeed1.ulv.nextra.no!nextra.com!uio.no!nntp.uio.no!ifi.uio.no!not-for-mail From: Erik Naggum Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Knowledge classification systems Date: 17 Sep 2002 21:56:30 +0000 Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 40 Message-ID: <3241288590332494@naggum.no> References: <3241151348919996@naggum.no> <3241162747773498@naggum.no> <7Byh9.1652$M91.112606@news.uswest.net> <3241258769257668@naggum.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: maud.ifi.uio.no 1032299791 12372 129.240.64.16 (17 Sep 2002 21:56:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@ifi.uio.no NNTP-Posting-Date: 17 Sep 2002 21:56:31 GMT Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:41122 * Don Geddis | Does this mean that a given Dewey classification encodes multiple attributes? Yes. Geography and audience are particularly well-utilized examples. E.g., a book about Indiana high-school women's basketball would be classified under sports, basketball, pre-college, in Indiana, for women. A book about cats for children would be classified under cats, intended for children. | Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that the Dewey system (and the | others you've mentioned) are designed for physical objects like books, where | each item belongs in exactly one place. Yes, the books would be in one place, but you would obviously have multiple index cards for them if they were cross-classified. It is useful to find related items grouped in the bookshelves, but this is a consequence of the nature of bookshelves, not of the classification. | With online systems, it would seem much better to label each data item with | a whole set of applicable features, and then basically navigate through the | hierarchy by doing searches and building virtual indexes. In such a scheme, | a given object might appear at numerous "leafs" in the classification tree, | rather than only one. This is already the case. I have several books that are cross-classified. | Do Dewey systems already allow for this somehow? Or do you think the idea | that an item might not have a unique classification is misguided? I think you have assumed that a classified item has only one classification. This is false. It must have one, and the better it is, the more useful that one is, but if a book covers some more than subject, there is nothing to stop it from getting several classifications. (Unless, of course, it is a "general collection", where the classifiers basically give up on it with the assumption that people would not look for it under any specific area. -- Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.