Defining taxonomies

You create a taxonomy in the Content Manager by defining Categories and Keywords:

  • A Category is a general classification defining the root of a taxonomy. A taxonomy consists of a nested hierarchy of Keywords defined in a tree structure (your "knowledge map").
  • A Keyword defines a value within the taxonomy hierarchy. You use Keywords to classify content and apply metadata. Tagging your content with Keywords applies the knowledge map to your content to define how content is related.

A taxonomy for knowledge management has the following characteristics:

  • A taxonomy is a form of classification scheme—classification schemes are designed to group related things together, so that if you find one thing within a category, it is easy to find other related things in that category.
  • Taxonomies are semantic—taxonomies in knowledge management are primarily semantic. They provide a fixed vocabulary to describe their knowledge and information assets, and this vocabulary needs to be meaningful and transparent to ordinary users. A taxonomy also therefore provides a controlled vocabulary in the sense that the meaning of each label is carefully considered, precise and unambiguous.
  • A taxonomy is a kind of knowledge map—a good taxonomy enables users to immediately grasp the overall structure of the knowledge domain covered by the taxonomy, and be able to accurately anticipate what resources she might find where. A taxonomy should therefore be comprehensive, predictable and easy to navigate. A taxonomy helps you find things based on relationships, using vocabulary that expresses concepts and relationships meaningfully to users.

This section describes the following topics:

  • Creating a Category
  • Adding Keywords
  • Restructuring Keywords