Taxonomy with Angela Pitts

In the world of Knowledge Management, Taxonomy is a discipline focused on the building of classically structured hierarchies of terms that are used to represent defined concepts. Typically, the hierarchy which is leveraged within a system is also called a taxonomy. The system employs the taxonomy to classify documents, digital assets and other information. In addition to categorizing content to improve findability (navigation and search), a taxonomy also allows content to be discovered. In these fast-paced times, taxonomies are expanding beyond the classic hierarchy to include semantic networks (often referred to as ontologies), thesauri and established lexicons (controlled vocabularies). Leveraging new tools, taxonomy development and maintenance can ideally fit into any Continuous Improvement plan. The use of new strategies and tools also promotes interoperability and improves the flow of information through enterprise systems. As a result, organizational barriers continue to be broken down so information can be more effectively used and reused.