Thanks Alex - We haven't had such a cool name for it, but have been using faceted classification in the Compendium approach (http://www.compendiuminstitute.org) to facilitate groups working on complex (often system design) problems for several years. Compendium uses a graphical hypertext system (such as QuestMap ... http://www.gdss.com/omq/aboutQM.htm or Mifflin ... http://cognexus.org/Conklin-HT01.pdf) with a group (usually face-to-face with a computer display projector) to collaboratively weave a hyperlinked model of the issues and information on a design problem. From one of the creators of Compendium, Al Selvin: "Compendium enables both "top-down" and "bottom-up" (faceted) classification (as well as the "side-to-side" type of "classification" that the transclusive stuff gets you), and the interweaving of both has been a hallmark of the approach from the beginning. Also, Compendium is about being able to interweave different classification schemes in the same database." Technically, it is not at all complex. For a simple example, if during a session there is something actionable in a node (e.g. "Frank will call Alice about this requirement"), the technographer (e.g. scribe) adds a metatag like "$Actionitem" to the node, and later searches all the nodes with that metatag into an "Action Items" summary view. It's a very flexible approach to organizing ill-structured information on the fly, and, as you say, it's "one of the most powerful, yet least understood, methods of organizing information." It's wonderful to have a name for it ... to make "faceted classification" a distinction. Jeff At 01:29 AM 9/26/2001 -0400, you wrote: >>>> Read more at <http://peterme.com/archives/00000063.html --Alex ... faceted classification, one of the most powerful, yet least understood, methods of organizing information. Most folks, when thinking about organizing objects or information, immediately think of a hierarchical, or taxonomic, organization; a top-down structure, where you start with a number of broad categories that get ever more detailed, until you arrive at the object. In such structures, each object has a single home, and typically, one path to get there--this is how things are organized in "the real world", where each item can only be in one place. Oftentimes, when thinking of organizing information, a hierarchy is where people begin (think Yahoo!). Faceted classification, on the other hand, is a bottom-up scheme. Here, each object is tagged with a certain set of attributes and values (these are the facets), and the organization of these objects emerges from this classification, and how a user chooses to access them. Toys, for example, lend themselves to a faceted classification, with the facets being things like, "Suitable Age," "Price," "Subject Type," "Brand," and even "Character" (like Barbie or Elmo). Someone might be price conscious, and want to start there; another knows that the child in question loves science toys, and wants to begin with that. Faceted classification allows for exploration directed by the user, where a large dataset is progressively filtered through the user's various choices, until arriving at a manageable set that meet the users' basic criteria. Instead of sifting through a pre-determined hierarchy, the items are organized on-the-fly, based on their inherent qualities. -- Dr. Jeff Conklin < CogNexus Institute ... Collaborative Display, Collective Intelligence http://cognexus.org Phone/Fax: 410-798-4495 304 Arbutus Dr., Edgewater, MD 21037 USA