The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems Renato Rocha Souza Douglas Tudhope Maurício Barcellos Almeida 11 th ISKO International Conference Rome, 2010

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference Knowledge Representation: in the core of many scientific fields, but paramount in LIS Representational artifacts: known generically as Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) – Vary enormously in structure and display, but share some general (broad) characteristics; – Used for: Knowledge representation, organization and management; Information retrieval; Vocabulary control; Communication of concepts and ontological agreements; etc.

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference How to define a KOS?...encompass all types of schemes for organizing information and promoting knowledge management. (...) include classification and categorization schemes that organize materials at a general level, subject headings that provide more detailed access, and authority files that control variant versions of key information such as geographic names and personal names. (...) also include highly structured vocabularies, such as thesauri, and less traditional schemes, such as semantic networks and ontologies Hodge (2000) Very arbitrary concept. Our basic assumption: – Knowledge Representation structures used for KO, IR, and/or KM; Our main principle for classification – Structure as the main dimension to form hierarchies.

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference How to classify KOS? And why should we? What dimensions can we use to evaluate them? Previous work: – Tend to focus on small subsets of KOS; – Only using one or two dimensions to compare them; – Great ambiguity on the dimensions meaning; – Treat KOS and representational languages alike; – Very machine-oriented, when it comes to semantics.

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Obrst (2004)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Daconta et al (2005)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Bergman (2007)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Lassila e McGuiness (2001)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Guarino (2006)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Smith e Welty (2001)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference KOS Spectrum by Zeng & Salaba (2005)

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference Hodge (2000) Structure and complexity, Relationship between terms, Historical function Soergel (2001a and 2001b) Purpose, Coverage of concepts and terms, Sources, Quality of usage analysis, Conceptual analysis and conceptual structure, Terminological analysis, Use of precombination in the index language, Access and display, Format of presentation of the vocabulary, Updating Tudhope (2004) Entities (types, coordination, size, depth), Relationships (types, expressiveness, formality), Typical application to objects in domain of interest (purpose), Relationship applying concepts to objects in domain Wright (2006 and 2008) Communities of Practice, Systematic resources, Non-systematic resources, Technology orientation, Degrees of indeterminacy, Language & knowledge-oriented standards, Standards bodies Almeida & Souza (2009) Representational power, Semantic Expressiveness, Intelligibility (for Humans), Formalization (machine oriented) Zeng & Salaba (2005) Language Control, Structural strength Bergman (2007) Semantic Strength, Time/Money Lassila & McGuiness (2001) Ontology Level Guarino (2006) Ontological Precision Smith & Welty (2001) Complexity Obrst (2004); Daconta et al (2005) Semantic Strength

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference Key contributions: – Multidimensionality; – Integrated and coherent set of dimensions; – Intrinsic / extrinsic characteristics (KOS and Context); – Essential / accidental (KOS types/ KOS Instances). Previous (ambiguously used) dimensions (i.e. complexity, semantic, formality) are, in fact, emergent properties of the basic ones (i.e. entities, relationships, language) Collateral work: taxonomy of KOS and its dimensions.

The KOS spectra: a tentative typology of Knowledge Organization Systems 11 th ISKO International Conference Future (ongoing) work – Appreciation, feedback and enhancing the model; – Faceted (?) approach; – Represent as a Domain Ontology of KOS (populated with instances) An effort to take in account the richness of dimensions and its cross relationships; Also, a knowledge base that can be used for pedagogical and other practical purposes; Freely available online resource.

Thank you! Renato Rocha Souza Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil Visiting Fellow at the University of Glamorgan, UK Douglas Tudhope University of Glamorgan, UK Maurício Barcellos Almeida Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil