a survey: taxonomy building tools
DESCRIPTION
"A Survey: Taxonomy Building Tools" Presentation by Rachel Lovinger on May 21, 2008 at Semantic Technology Conference.TRANSCRIPT
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A Survey: Taxonomy Building Tools
Semantic Technology Conference - May 21, 2008
Rachel Lovinger
© 2008 Avenue A | Razorfish, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2
Content Strategy Consultant
Introduction
Photo by Kyknoord
Copy Writing
Information Architecture
Library Science
Design
Business Needs
User Needs
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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.
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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
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Not evaluating
• Tool integration
• Data mapping, migration or conversion
• Data formats or standards
About This Survey
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Agenda
•A DIY tale•The problem 1999•The problem 2008
•Survey: Tools available now•What if…?
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A DIY tale
Photo by Lenore M. Edman, www.evilmadscientist.com
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The problem 1999:
We need metadata!
Photo by Kyle Flood
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History: EW.com[1999] The Scenario
•Multiple articles on the same movie
•Predictable related data, such as: lead performers, release date, director, etc.
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[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
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[2000] Our Solution: Category Tool
•Relational Database
•Controlled Vocabulary
•Hierarchical
History: EW.com
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[2000] Our Solution: Category Tool
•Structured category paths:•Movie > Product > Men in Black•Person > Individual > Will Smith
•Relationship types:•Performance, lead•Director•Release Date
History: EW.com
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[2000] Our Solution: Category Tool
•Relationships between categories:• {Tom DiCillo} Director of {Double Whammy}
History: EW.com
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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
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[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
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[2004] Our Solution
•Opted for RDF & OWL
•No commercial tools suited us
•Wrote specs and built the tool ourselves
History: TOPICS
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[2005] Our Solution – Live!
•Pilot system rolled out in early 2005
•Three new sites launched in 6 weeks
Success?
•Sort of…
History: TOPICS
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[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
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[2005] Further problems: Usability
•Search
•Browse
•Preview
•QA
History: TOPICS
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The problem 2008:
Make sense of this metadata!
Photo by Kyle Flood
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Current needs[2007] New projects, familiar problems:
•Taxonomy, metadata, controlled vocabulary, and relationships
•Envision how this data will translate into a website
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[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
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[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
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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!
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The solutions have evolved,and so have our problems.
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Survey: Tools available now
Photo by Craig Munro
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Looking for tools that are
• readily available
• easy to start using
• useful for the design process
Selection method
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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
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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
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Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Viewed as a alphabetical list, except when looking at an individual term
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Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Provides many ways to perform each task
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Thesaurus Tool: MultiTes• Create relationships to existing terms by typing– faster but potentially less accurate
• Probably the easiest of these tools to use
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• Originally designed as a thesaurus tool, added capability to manage classes and relationships
Semaphore Ontology Manager
• Awkward UI requires more steps for simple tasks
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• In default mode, terms are displayed in both flat and tree mode
A. C. S. Term Tree
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• Easier to use than some, though it looks more obscure
• Easy to change levels
WebChoir TCS-10
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• 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
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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
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Brainstorming Tool: MindManager
• Visual expression of hierarchy• Collapse branches for greater clarity
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Brainstorming Tool: MindManager
• Visual cues guide user as they work with the terms
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Brainstorming Tool: MindManager
• Other relationships become messy
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Bubbl.us
• Online• Free• Sharable
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Freemind
• Free• Easy• Less stylish
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• Not great for expressing non-hierarchical relationships
• Becomes difficult to read when there are a large number of nodes
Drawbacks of Brainstorming Tools
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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
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Ontology Tool: SWOOP
• Load or create data• Browse classes with properties & instances
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Ontology Tool: SWOOP
• Browse instances & assertions
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Ontology Tool: SWOOP
• “Flying the mother ship” view
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Altova Semantic Works
• Cumbersome labels & UI• No built in support for visualization
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Protégé
• Very easy to use for OWL editing• Visualization requires GraphViz
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TopQuadrant Top Braid
• Very robust tool
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TopQuadrant Top Braid
• Built in visualizations: Class Diagram
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TopQuadrant Top Braid
• Built in visualizations: Graph
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• 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
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Used primarily for viewing and exploring data and relationships, not for creating or editing.
RDF Gravity
IBM ManyEyes
OwlSight
Wordmap
Visualization Tools
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Visualization Tool: RDF Gravity
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Visualization Tool: RDF Gravity
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ManyEyes: Treemap
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ManyEyes: Bubble Chart
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OwlSight
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Wordmap
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• 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
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What if…?
Photo by Kyle Flood
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What would you look for in an ideal tool?
Discussion
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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
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Questions?
Photo by Kyle Flood
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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!