I’ve a huge collection of bookmarks collected over the past 3 years that I’m putting on a webpage. What are some of the flexible, yet complete categorizing systems?
Part of the problem is ambiguity where the link fulfills two roles, like “history of computer technology”, is that history or computers? Or when a link doesn’t exactly fit in the existing categories, prompting for a new one.
The nice thing about cataloging links/web sites is that unlike when you catalog books, that link can be put in a variety of categories. It’s not a physical object that can only be in one place at a time.
So “history of computer technology” can be put into both places. Put the link into history and into computers. That way, if someone else is looking at your web site, they will find the link under the category that makes the most sense to them. Me, I’d look under Computers, history of. Of course, if you are the only one who will look at the site, then put it where you will find it.
Now, for those items that don’t really fall into any specific category, you can decide what they are mostly about or what their primary function is. Or you can put it into a “Misc.” category, but that could include so many things. Or, heck, go ahead and make a new category for it. You may find more, and web sites are easily updated.
Ah, you’ve hit on the greatest question to KManagers. Probably the only man standing from the torrid excess of the dot com crash, KM has been the next big thing for the past five or so years…
Of course, it all boils down to "how does one create a taxonomy for the end user that is compelx enough to cover all possible combinations of data while still being transparent enough for the average user to navigate.
I don’t know of any third party software for your particular problem, but you should be able to do just fine with IE (or whatever). If you’re only going to be using the Favorites, your best bet is subfolders…
In your example, you could have: Computers \history and echnology. You can save the same address multiple times as long as it’s in different folders.
This is the simplest solution, but you have to decide on your taxonomy first. Remember, comprehensiveness is the key to landing the job, but flexibility is what keeps you signed on as a consultant.
You could always go with the Library of Congress classification system. They should cover just about everything (and have a place for books about the history of computer technology).
Or you could use the SDMB classification system, which similarly covers just about everything. History of computer technology would probably go in GQ.
Well, shit. Both simulposted and I didn’t read the question in it’s entirety. My apologies. At least the stuff about bullshit KM is still valid.
Related question, is there any kind of database or something where you can have a whole bunch of files that can be accessed through multiple paths?
For instance, say you have a link to computer history of 1980 to 1990, can you just save this file in a huge thing as like #000001234, and then have it set as having a bunch of categories linking to it? Like…
Computers > History > file
History > Computers > file
History > 1980’s - 1990’s > file
History > Computers > 1980’s > file
Instead of making 4 seperate copies all in the same place, you have shortcuts from there to the actual file.
True, but I don’t want to duplicate links when I already have 800+ links to classify.
I take it that you have no experience with libraries and catalogues, so here we go:
Cataloguing a book means simply that you describe the physical object and it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with its contents which you deal with when you classify it and you can put it (the description of the contents, that is) under as many categories you need.
Actually, I do. But in the torture that is prepping for my comprehensive exam (I am in my last semester of library school), I mixed up my terms.
I would have realized it eventually (especially when I get to the review for that class), but thanks for the correction.
If you’re looking for a taxonomy, you might check out Yahoo’s web directory. In the early days, they had a number of specialists working very hard to develop their categories.
If you’re looking for software to implement something similar, you could roll your own if you have any familiarity with databases, or you could check out the variety of shareware apps such as the list of bookmark managers at Tucows.