Nicholas
I had a look at your overview at
http://www.hastingsresearch.com/net/02-dkr-ir-intro.shtml
I've some comments about what concerns directories, hierachies, etc.
As a matter of fact, I've drifted during last year from activist Open
Directory editor to Topic Map true believer :))
with a due passage through a non-hierachical crisis last summer. See
www.universimmedia.com/enohi.htm
Now I've come to a more balanced viewpoint, see
www.universimmedia.com/methodotopic.htm
I quote from your page :
"Hierarchies, to my mind, are not entirely dead.
I'm of the opinion that new forms of hierarchical search will make a return
in the not too far future, displayed as topographies"
"OHS information retrieval needs to be two-footed for the immediate
future -- the best IR systems will be an amalgam of good algorithms and
good data structures. I call the latter "intelligent databases" -- in the
dual sense that they are designed intelligently, and the data can be
augmented (tweaked or enhanced) by human intelligence"
That maybe has something to do with what I call in the above paper,
following an expression stolen to Jack, himself being unable to trace its
very origin, the notion of "entangled hierarchies". BTW if somebody knows
the author of this expression, I'd would gladly meet him/her and aknowledge
whatever is due to this autorship.
In fact, we have to come back to a more accurate and refined use of
hierarchies, that is meaningful hierachies based on class/subclass,
set/subset etc ... whatever strictly taxonomic like in Botanics. But
aknowledge it's a very powerful tool when it sticks to that limits, and a
disaster when it's taken as an universal tool, as we see in Open Directory,
where every type of meaningful relationship is forced into either a
hierarchical one, or a loose "see also" or "related to".
If we consider that :
1. Most topics are multidimensional and are in fact the intersection of
several hierarchical threads.
2. The hierarchical relationships - or associations, to use the Topic Map
terminology - are but one type of associations any Topic may be involved
him.
We have a strong basis to consider Topological Directories, with no "top
level", but a "semantic core" of highly connected topics, where browsing
would use both accurate hierarchical links, and all sort of directions
transversal to this hierarchy.
It looks like the general structure of such a "topological directory" will
be, if not a formal Topic Map, at least something very Topic Map like.
My hunch is the next generation web directories will be built on such a
structure. I agree that the management and updating of such directories
will need a wise blend of google-like algorithmic and ODP-like distributed
human expertise. There is a great waste of human energy in ODP now due to
the very incapacity of the mono-hierarchical structure to manage
complexity, both at content and social model levels, leading to permanent
power games and ontological unstability. Collaborative Topological
Directories could avoid this trap is they care to be as intelligent in
their social model as in their data base structure, and in fact if the data
base structure is thought in synergy with the social construction. In
short, if the Directory is built like a living system or company, where
products, processes, and people are not considered separately.
My vision of that a few months ago I called cooReso project. It did not get
much feedback so far, but reconsidering it, it is quite close to DKR
spirit. See www.universimmedia.com/planet/cooreso_eng.htm
Cheers
Bernard
---------------------------------------
Bernard Vatant
bernard@universimmedia.com
www.universimmedia.com
"Building Knowledge"
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